The Kanzas news., 1857-08-01
Curiosities of Electricity.


The peculiarities of that terrible but mys-
terious agent. lightning, are made the sub
ject of an interesting paper in recent num-
Der of the British Quarterly ReuieaO. Two
clouds are not necessary for the production
of lightning, which is frequently discharg-
ed from solitary clunp of vapor, when a
connection can be established with the earth
A French academician, named Marcolle, de-
scribes case where a mere cloudlet about
foot and half In diameter killed poor
woman by dropping thunderbolt upon her
head. It has been shown by Faraday that
the electric fluid contained in a single flash
might, perhaps, be supplied by the decom-
position of one grain of water alone. III.
Arago has divided the lightning into three
sorts. The first includes that where the
discharge appears like long luminous lines,
bent into angles and zig -zags, and varying
in complexion from white to blue, purple,
or red. This kind is known as forked light
ming, because it occasionally divides into
two branches. Charpentier relates a case
where flash severed into three forks, each
of which struck ON points several hundred
feet apart. Still more numerous furcations
have been reported; for it is said that dur
ing a tempest at Landerneau and st. Pol de
Leon, twenty-four churches were struck,
though only three distinct claps were heard.
This was eight churches apiece for the three
explosions.
The second class of lightning differs from
the first In the range of surface over which
the flash is diffused, and is designated as
sheet lightning. Sometimes it simply gilds
the edges of the cloud whence it leaps; but
at others it foods with a lurid radiance, or
else suffuses its surface with bushes of a
rosy or violet hue.
The third class of lightnings are remark
able for their eccentricities, and have been
made the subject of considerable attention
among meteorologists, many of whom have
denied their right to be treated as legitimate
lightnings, they differ so widely from the
ordinary sort of flashes. They exhibit
themselves as balls or globular Jumps of
fre-not momentary apparitions, but me-
teors, which take their own time, and travel
at a remarkable rate. 1t is this incelerity
which gives them their doubtful character,
as an electrical bolt is supposed to be one
of the leading emblems of velocity. Among
other anecdotes related of this kind of light
ming, is the following incident which oc-
Cured to tailor in the Rue st Jacques,
Val de Grace, about the year 1743. NJ.
Babinet was commissioned by the Academy
of Sciences to investigate the facts, and re-
ported substantially as follows:
s'After a loud thunder-clap, the tailor be-
ing finishing his meal, saw the chimney
board fall down as if beset by a slight gust
of wind, and globe of fire, the size of a
child's head, come out quietly into the
room, at small height above the floor, the
tailor said it looked ike good-sized kitten,
rolled up into a ball, and moving without
showing Its paws. 1t was bright and shin
ing, but he felt no sensation of heat. The
globe came near his feet, like a young cat
that wants to rub itself against its masters
legs: but by moving them aside gently,
he avoided the contact. 1t appears to have
PLAYED for several seconds about his feet,
he bending his body over it and examining
ii attentively. After trying some excursions
in different directions, it rose vertically to
the height of his head, which be threw
back to avoid touching his face. The globe
elongating a little, then steered towards a
hole in the chimney above.the mantelpiece,
which hole received a stoye-pipe In winter,
but was now pasted over with paper. The
thunder he said, could not see the hole,,'
but, nevertheless, the ball went straight to
the aperture removing the paper without
hurting it. and made Its way into the CHM
ney. Shortly afterwards, and when he sup
posed it had time to reach the top, it made
dreadful explosion, which destroyed the
upper part of the chimney, and threw the
fragments on the roofs of smaller buildings,
which they broke through. The tailor s
lodging was on the third story: the lower
ones were not visited at all by the thunder
bolt y
Lightning, when it meets with an OBJ
struetion IN ifs course, frequently. skaters