The Hawaiian gazette., 1869-02-03

STRANGE FREAKS OF LIGHTSISG.-Light-
ming, like light, furnishes another wonderful
succession of marvels. How delicate, how
subtlel 1t performs its work sometimes
with scarcely touch Enumerating num-
Der of instances, the author calls upon us to
modify our vulgar notions of thunder and
lightning he says 1t is a most extravagant
idea to compare the causes of thunder and
the effects Of lightning to the noise and et-
fects of cannon and cannon balls. We are
face to face with an essentially superior
force. 1t may be said that it constitutes
transition between this world and better
one; in fact, 1t is really subject 10 trans
cerdental laws, which our weak intelligence
can not grasp. This little volume is are per-'
tory of facts, some of them of the most
amusing, and some Of them of an abundantly
terrible character. Illustrating this, he strik-
ingly entities one of his chapters, How did
the bird get out of the cage?' He derives
the expression from Plutarch. When We see
men or animals cease moving, thinking, or
living, suddenly, without any appreciable
change in their appearance or the mechanism
of their organization, it suggests the image
of a cage the door still closed, no damage
done to single wire, and yet the inhabitant
gone. How did it get out? The instances
are numerous. Bodies have been killed re-
peatedly by lightning, without giving the
slightest trace of any wound or scar, no
bll1ut rlOuCu Vi Ouiu VI u OOnluolOu, hO
hint of the way in which the bird sprung
from its confinement. Delicate and most
subtle we have said, has often been its work.
Think of it melting a bracelet from lady's
wrist, yet leaving the wrist untouched;
think of its melting instantly pair OF crys-
tai goblets without breaking them. Nay, as
| we said above, some of its achievements are
most humorous. Arago tells how the light
ming one day visited the shop of Suabian
| cobber, and did not touch the artisan, but
magnetized all his tools. One can well i'm
agine the immense dismay of the poor fel-
low: his hammer, pincers, and awl attracted
all the needles, pins, and tacks, and nails,
and caused them to adhere firmly 10 the tools.
| The amazed shoemaker thought that every
thing in the shop was suddenly bedeyied, or
else that he was dreaming. And there are
several well-authenticated cases like this,
showing that iron can be rendered magnetic
| by the electric current. We read of mer-
chant of Wakefield, who had placed in
corner of his room box of knives and forks,
and iron tools, destined to be sent to the
Colonies. In came the lightning, struck
open the box, spread all the articles on the
| floor, and it was found when they were
| picked up, that every one had acquired new
properties-they had all been affected by the
subtle touch of the current Some remained
intact, Others were melted, but they had all
been rendered more or less magnetic, so that
there was not single nail in the box that
might not have served the purpose Of a mar
iner's compass. Such anecdotes excite the
sense of the marvellous, and in popular sci
ence they become windows through which
the young inquirer is able to look abroad
into the astonishing fields of nature.
great deal Of scientific material has of course
been reduced to such matter of routine
that, although there is not much scientific
education, in any high sense of the word,
some OF the outer facts are known, and peo-
pie may be prevented from making very
grave Mistakes Congregational RevieU.