The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-06-28
To the Seicntfsic-A singular stroke
I,.. a. or I.ightninrr.
FROM tlc Lexington Gazcttn a4ih.

1 hio" YIN ''SNsbSspl SdEStkG. S1fh.
About O'Clock On the LIST Of June q
heavy cloud passed ever Lexington, from
which sudden and violent peal Of thun.
der startled the whole Misunderstanding the
flash of lightning SO quickly az to impress
every one with thebclief that the /" stroke -
! was near at hand. This was soon found to
be true; for the mysterious agcnt'' had
visited, in n very rnccremonious way, the
residence of Mr.. Francis Jinks, who lives
| on the northwest border Of the town.
First. 1t seems to have been what the
| electricians call anupward stroke that
is, according to DR.. franklins theory of
electricity, the cloud was in a negative con-
dition, and by its attractive force had accu-
mulated a heavy charge of the "electric
fluid " (if it be a irid) in that part of the
earth below. In its efforts to reach the
cloud the electricity would of course pass
off at tho point where il found the least re-
sistence to its upward flow, which in this
case seems to have been Mr.. Jinks's light
ning-rod. h
Second. A second popularity was the
effects upon the ground In the vicinity of
the house. The soil nedr the surface was
furrowcd in four zigzag lines nearly at right
angles to each other, and all convcrging to-
wards the lightning-rod which stands at
the western end Of the house. These fur
rows were upheaved very much, as if a
large mole had plowed his tortuous path
beneath the soil-coming near enough to
the surface In some parts to throw the clay
entirely out On both sides of Its open track.
Two of the burrows seem to have COM
menced at least twenty feet from the base
of the rod on Opposite sides and to have
run in lines nearly parallel with tho end of
the house, while third one met them, COM
ing distance of fifteen feet, and varying
little from a perpendicular to the general
line Of the first two. These three seem to
have taken their harmless fight through
the rod. The sourth, however, which had
it's origin on the opposite end of the house,
and more than thirty feet from the rod,
behaved In much moresingular manner
in fact it appears to have acted as q sort of
independent stroke. Instead of passing on
TO the rod it took shorter route into the at
mosphere Tor wherever it went) by Running
into heavy locust post on which q corner
of the back porch rested, and at the point
Of the building most remote from the light
ning-rod. This post was utterly demolished,
its fragments being thrown off in every di-
rection, some knocking the planks off the
yard-fence, and others flying away to the
distance of n hundred yards.
From the locust post the electricity passed
up wooden pillar which supported. the
porch roof, tearing it into thousand spin
tiers. When the charge reached the roof it
tore up few shingles near the corner, but
after that it seems to have lost it's power
for although the house is story higher
than the porch, and intervenes between the
stricken corner and the lightning rod, not a
trace of electric action could be found be-
yond the corner of the porch roof.
Mr.. and Mrs. Jinks, who were at the
time in their basement dining-room, were
both severely shocked, but received no per-
manent injury.
The place was carefully examined after
the storm was over by Professor Campbell,
of Washington College, who expresses the
opinion that the Gghtning-rod saved both
the house and its occupants. He thinks
that the violence of the discharge was due
in part to the insufficient size Of the rod lit
being a slender iron rod) and in part TO the
want Of perfect conducting communication
between the rod and the earth. These sug
gcst important points to be attended to III
the construction of lightning-lods. -....
I'VE give the above facts, but do by no
means endorse the infercnces drawn from
them. Electricity loses its power only as
water loses its power. Steel would be a
dangerous thing to have in the house if
small rod would draw great currents OF the
" electric fuid' to itself and clouds
would be much more dangerous than they
arc if by their /" attractive fore" they
could accumulate that fluid " III the
earth just under where they dre.l - ..: