Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-06-10
Curiosities Of Thunder Storms.

! The peculiarities of that terrible but myste-
rious agent lightning, are made the subject of
an interesting article in u recent number of the
British Quarterly Reuie,0, from which we con-
dense some Of the most prominent facts Two
clouds are not necessary for the production ofI
lightning, which is frequently discharged from
solitary clump of vapor, when a connection
can be established with the earth. French
Academcian, named Marcolle, describes case
where a mere cloudlet, about foot and half
in diameter, killed a POOR woman by dropping
| a thunderholt upon her head. y has been
shown by Faraday, that the electric fluid con-
tanned in single flash might, perhaps, be sup.
piled by the decomposition of one grain o.
water alone. M. Arago has divided the light
ming into three sorts The first includes those
where the discharge appears like long, lumin-
GUS lines, bent into angles and zigzags, and va
rying in complexion from white to blue, purple
or red. This kind is known as forked lightings
because it occasionally divides into two barnches.
Charpentier relates a case where flash severed
into three forks, each of which struck on points
several hundred feet apart. Still more nume-
rous furcatons have been reported, for it is said
that during 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 difused, and is designated as sheet light
ming. Sometimes it simply gilds the edges of
the cloud, whence it leaps; but at others it
floods with lurd radiance, or else suffuses its
surface with blushes of rosy Or violet hue.
The third class of lightnings are remarkable
for their eccentricties. and have been made the
subject of considerable contention among met
eorologists, many of whom have denied their
right to be treated as legitimate lightnings, they
differ SO widely from the ordinary sort Of flashes.
Th@ exhibit themselves as balls, or globular
Jumps of fre-not momentarJ apparitons, but
meteors which take their own time, and travel
at remarkably slow rate. 1t is this incolerity
which gives them their doubtful character, as
an electrical bolt is supposed to be one of the
leading emblems of velocity. Among other an
ecdotes related of this kind of lightning, is the
following incident, which occurred to tailor
in the Bue St. Jacques, Jal de Grace, about the
year lS43. M. Babinet was commissioned by
/ the Academy of Sciences to investigate the
facts, and reported substantially as follows
"After loud thunder clap, the tailor, boin
finishing his meal. saw the chmney-board fai
down, as if overset by a slight gust of wind
and globe of fire, the size of a child's head
come out quietly and move slowly about the
room at small height above the floor. Th,
tailor said it looked like good-sized kitten
rolled up into ball, and moving without show
ing its paws. 1t was bright and shining, but
he felt no sensation of heat. The globe cam
near his feet, like a young cat that wants to rul
itself against its masters legs; but by moving
them aside gently, he avoided tho contact
1t appears to have played for several second
about his feet, he bending his body over it, ant
examining it attentively. After trying som
excursions in different directions, it arose vorti
cally to tho height of his head, which he threy
, back to avoid its touching his face. The globe
,elongating little, then steered towards a hol
in the chimney above the mantle-pece, whic
hole received stovepipo in winter, but was noy
pasted over with paper. The thunder h
said, could not see the hole but, nevertheless
5 the ball went straight to the aperature, reno
f wing the paper without hurting it, and made it
e way into the chimney. Shortly afterwards an
D when he supposed it had time to reach the toI
A it made dreadful explosion, which destroye
+ the upper part of the chimney, and threw tn
[ fragments on the roofs of smaller building'
@ which they broke through, The tailor,s lode
n ing was on the third story the lower ones WEI
: not visited at all by the thunderbolt.
. Lightning, when it meets with an obstrut
ton in its course, frequently skaters the nor
y conducting object, dispensing and bursting sui
+ stances asunder in every direction, as if the
had been charged with gunpowder. The ston
n pinnacle of church in Cornwall, was struc
1t by lightning, and one fragment weighing thr(
/ hundred pounds, was hurled sixty yards to I'll
: southwark, another four hundred yards to I'll
q north, and a third to the southwest. In l83|
the topgallant mast of H. M. ship Rodney, WI
u literally cut up into chips by flash of ligh
If ming, the sea being strewn with the fragment
} as if carpenterers had been sweeping the
/, shavings overheard. Sometimes in strikir
1t tree or mast, the electric fluid will slice it in
es long shreds or filaments, so that it will appei
is like huge broom or a bundle of latbs. Ligh
l. ming bolts will occasionally dash through resis
IN ing objects by tearing great openings, as in
10 Cornish church, where aperatures were made
the solid wall of the belhy fourteen inch
square and six inches deep, and as truly reg
al lar as if cut out by art. In other instance
s- small holes are drilled, which are surprising t
r. their perfect circularity of form. Wndo
" panes have been frequently pierced in this fas
III ion, without affecting the rest of the glass
bo In forming these aperatures, a burr or proje
ton is lert upon the edges. Juvenile elect
or clans are in the habit of making holes in care
each puncturc marked by a single burr, one
the upper and the other on the under side
ck the card. In some instances the results q
,c- such as to suggest that flash may be split
no into several fiery flaments before it strikes
h. object. In l777, wcather-coek of tim
st copper was hurled by II thunderbolt from t
all top of a church in Cremons, and, upon insp'
ton, was found to be pierced with eighte
holes in nine of them the burr was conspiC