Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1874-07-11
LIGHTNING AND THUYDERBOLTS.
Are Lightning Rods a Protection 1.-The
Result of ScientIfic Observations.

Are Lightning Rods a Protection 1.-The
Result of Scientific observations.
Professor John Wise read a paper
before the Franklin institute, Philadel
phia, recently, upon the above subject,
in which he said
The thundergust that passed over this
city on Monday afternoon, the 25th Of
May, was attended with more than the
usual amount OF electrical discharges.
Immediately over the city the heavens
we're literally filed with flashes of light
and brilliant corruscations of lightning.
The cloud matter was 80 thoroughly
combined, and of such great thickness,
that the usual echoes were not propsga.
ted, bnt, instead, we had the hoarse,
rumbling intonations of thunder, re-
sembling the sound of that produced by
heavy carriages running over frozen
ground. The thunderbolt discharges
sounded much like the discharges of
heavy artillery, while in smaller storms
the sound resembles that produced by
small arms. While in all these storms
there is a central vortex, those of great
dimensions have within their areas q
number of vortices. In that Of Monday
last the evidence of this feature of storms
was discernable in the uprooted trees
in different sections OF the city. These
yortices are so much broken and shat
tered in passing over a city, by the
solid distractions they meet in their
whirling action, that they become com.
paratively harmless whereas, in pass
ing over an orchard or wood, the UNI
bragg of the trees presents favorable
condition to their impact, and many of
them are twisted and lifted out by the
roots.
In addition to the great number Of
thunderbolts that were discharged upon
the earth from the clouds, the vspor
stratum overhead was for half an hour
embellished with brilliant scintillations
of electrical fire, resembling the burst
ing Of rockets filled with white stars.
This display Of electrical pyrotechnics
was truly sublime. Many persons
were reported to have suffered from
these electrical discharges, but these
suffefings were in most cases Of the
imaginary kind, distressing enough to
be such, but not very dangerous in their
results. The pleasure afforded those
who view the phenomena in their beau
teous and exhilarating aspect forms
an equivalent to those who suffer from
them.
The most marked and Instruc-
tive thunderbolt brought to my notice
was that which struck the building of
Mr. Rech, on the southeast corner of
Girard avenue and Eighth street. This
! bailding was provided with an exten-
sive arrangement of lightning rods 1t
is gravel rooted, and around the whole
circumference of the roof there runs
an iron conductor. From this horizon
tai iron bar there are perpendicular
lightning rods at sixteen different equi-
distant places. 1t has, in fact, sixteen
lightning rods pointing to the clouds.
Upon the roof and centeriog the avenue
front, and about twenty feet from the
front edge of the building, there stood
a flagstaff. A branch of the circumfer-
ential conductor run across to this staff
and up it about twelve feet, where it
ended ana was fastened to an iron band
around the pole. The thunderbolt, in
disregard of the sixteen lightning rods,
struck the flagstaff, and completely
shivered it down to within four feet Of
the iron band, and where the branch
conductor ended. Why did this bolt
prefer the wooden pole to the lightning
rod? Simply because it was in the
path of the descending bolt. Now if,
as is claimed by eminent electricians,
the rod does its silent work Of discharg-
ing the cloud when it is yet afar of,
why did it not quietly and decently dis
arm this nimbus artillery in this case ?
Certainly the garrison was well fortified
with these barbed protectors, expressly
stationed there to prevent an explosion
of electricity, by drawing the surcharge
from the clouds, if not when afar of,
at all events when the bending cloud
passed over the protected building,
The lightning rod man claimed that the
branch conductor carried off harmlesSly
the remainder of the bolt. No doubt
it did, since that residue was of little
momentum and energy of what was left
of the bolt after having made sPlinters
aud kindling wood Of Thirty feet flag
staff.
While this is the third flagstaff shat
tered by lightning in this city that !
have examined within few years, and
where the mechanical effects of the bolt
we're little beyond that of rending q
pole, it is the only one on building
where it was surrounded by Gordon OF
lightning rods, or in proximity to a rod
it is one of the most conclusive evi
dences of the inutility Of lightning rods
that could possibly be presented. i
the rod would do what it is intended
for, to wit draw the surcharge Of elec
tricity from the storm cloud silently
disarm it of its force by drawing in
silent stream to its point, as the charg,
from the prime conductor OF an electri
cal machine is drawn by any kind OF
, pointed material, glass as we'll as metal
] there should not be bolt ever descend
, upon building in Philadelphia, will
its thousands Of lightning rods peerinI
toward the cloud region.
The only protection from thunderDol
that has yet been proved to be etfioa
cious is the metal roof. The creates
, damage ever done to a building thu
! protected is the perforstion of the meta
!. at the point where the bolt strikes, an,
. this is, in the heaviest discharges, nc
! over half an inch in diameter. Such ha
! been the result of my observation
through more than a quarter of a cer
, tury. In all these observations
9 found the mechanical effects of tn
: thunderbolt about the same in building
q . that we're struck, with rods upon then
! and those without rods, with this di
! ference, that nearly all the cases Of it
y nition were upon those with rods. Sue
are the facts of the case, with all til
theories to the contrary notwithstan(
|. ing. =. -,
= Metal has no more attraction for llgh