Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-11-22
ELECTRICAL.
What is the Force that Shivers a Tree
when Struck by Lightning?


when Struck by Lightning?
To the-Union and American:
WooDvILLE, Haywood County, Nov.
1S.-This is a question unsolved by any
system Of philosophy, or any lecture on
electricity, so far as [ know. Yet l
think it can be solved. 1t is no answer
to the question to say that it is cleo
tricity. If it came in the form of can
non balls or aerolite stones, it might
damage the tree, but not in the manner
In which we see it is done. On exam
nation of trees stricken by lightning,
we find some shivered into a thousand
splinters, and others grooved out on
one side of the tree from top TO root to
the depth of from one to four inches.
This groove is always uniform In depth
the whole height of the tree, and al
ways running with the grain or pores
of the wood. If it be a twisting
tree, the groove always follows
the twist, and never goes across the
grain. What electricity is, has never
yet been fully explained, but some of
its properties and attributes are well
understood. 1t is known that it has
greater affinity for some things than
others, and that in its movements it is
always accompanied with heat, more or
less intense. For iron it has great
affinity, and hence this metal is used
for lightning rods and telegraph wires,
upon which it passes without leaving a
trace behind, except In rare cases, VI hen
fusion takes place. If the lightning
rod, or the telegraph wire were a tube
filed with water, the electricity, with
its intense heat, passing along the tube,
would convert that water into steam,
and explode the tube into a thousand
fragments. Now it is known that the
wood of tree is full of pores or tubes,
extending from the root to the
top, for the circulation of the sap
necessary to the life and growth of the
tree. These tubes run parallel with
one another, but never cross, or run in
to each other. All the moisture or sap
of the tree is contained in these tubes
or cells. When the electricity enters
one or more of these contiguous tubes,
it keeps on through the whole length
of the tree, following the same tube, or
pore of the wood, in all it's spiral course
or twist around the tree, and in itspas-
sage, converts the moisture or sap, con-
tanned in these cells, into steam, which
shivers the tree. If the tube, which the
electricity entered, is one, two or three
inches deep, the tree is groOved out to
that depth, from top to root. For the
steam pressing equally on all sides,
forces out the weakest part, and thus
forms the groove. But if the electrici-
ty enters apore or tube running down
nearly in the centre of the tree, it will
be shivered to atoms, and not grooved,
as in the other case. Water
being a better conductor than
wood or fibrous substance, the electric
ity holds on to the same tube it first
entered, and never leaves the tube full
of sap or moisture to cross the wood.
And if the sap contained in one Of
these tubes, into which the point Of a
needle can scarcely be inserted, be in
stantly converted into steam, it would
produce al the wreck and ruin 50 often
witnessed IN the giant oaks of the
forest. Were it not for the moisture
and sap contained in the timber, cleo
tricity would be conducted as innocent
ly through the tree, as the lightning
rod.
IL she above ia not the proper solu-
ten of the question, | would ike to see
a better one. would like the expert
ment tried on a green stick, by some
powerful battery such as may be found
at the Smithsonian Institute and other
places, G,
The hypothesis Of our correspondent
is both novel and ingenious. It's abso-
lutte correctness could probably be
proven by a series of observations, not
ing the time of year when each tree is
struck. Thepores of trees contain one
season more sap or other moisture than
at another Are dead trees ever riven,
and under what circumstances? Again,
we believe well seasoned timber, in the |
form of frame buildings, is sometimes
shattered. The effects ON live wood |
and dead wood could readily be COM
pared and contrasted. The difficult |
element in the problem is the practical |
of measuring the electric
force" or heating capacity in each |
instance.-ED.
If is now understood that all demands |