Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-06-18
LIGHTNING AND TMUNDERDOLTS,
Arc Light ming Rods u Protection e-Thc Re.
rult 0f Scientific Observations.

Arc Iiah!" ming ls"il. I, Protection e-Thc Re-
""lt Of Scientific Observations.
Professor John Wise read paper
before the Franklin Institute, Phiiadel-
phia, recently, upon tho above subject.
in which he suil:
The thundergust that passed over tho
city Oh Monday afternoon, tho 25th of
May, was attended with more than the
usual amount of electrical discharges.
Immediately over the city the heavens
were literally filed with flashes of light
and brilliaut corruscations of Lightning.
Tho cloud matter was so thoroughly
combined, and of such great thickness,
that the usual echoes were not propa-
gated, but, instead, we had the hoarse,
rumbling intonations of thunder, re-
sembling the sound of TINT produced by
heavy carriages running over frozen
ground. The thunderbolt discharges
sounded much like the discharges of
heavy artillery, while in smaller storms
tho sound resembles that produced by
small arms. While in all these storms
there IS central vortex, those Of grent
dimensions have within their areas u
number of worthless. Inthat of Monday
last the evidence of this feature of storms
was discernable in the nprootcd trees
iii different sections Of tho city. These
worthless arc SO much broken and shat
tered in passing over n city, by tho
solid distractions they meet in their
whirling action, that they become COM
parativcly harmless; whereas, in pass
ing over III orchard or woods, the UNI
bragg Of tho trees presents a 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
tho earth from the clouds, the vapor
stratum overhead was for half nm hour
ombelished with brilliant scintillations
! of electrical fire, resembling tho 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
! sufferings were in most cases of tho
imaginary kind, distressing enough to
be such. but not very dangerous in
their results. The pleasure afforded
those who view the phenomena in their
beauteous and exhilarating aspect
forms an equivalent to those who SUI
fer from them.
The most marked and instructive
thunderbolt brought to my notice was
that which struck the building of Mr..
Rech, on tho southeast corner of Gil
rard avenue and Eighth street. This
building was provided with an extensive
arrangement of lightning rods. It is
gravel rooted, and around tho whole cir
conference of this roof there runs an
iron conductor. From this horizontal
iron bar there are perpendicular light
ming rods at sixteen different equi-dis-
tant places. It has, in fact, sixteen
lightning rods pointing to the clouds.
| Upon the roof and centering the avenue
front, aud about twenty feet from the
front edge of the building, there stood
a hag-stsf. A branch of the circumfer-
entail conductor run across to this staff
and up it about twelve feet, where it
ended and 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 it's silent work of discharging the
cloudwhen it isyet afar of, why did it not
quietly and decently disarm this MIN
bus artillery in this case? Certainly the
garrison was we'll fortified with these
barbed protectors, expressly stationed
there to prevent an explosion of cleo
tricity, by drawing the surcharge from
the clouds, if not when yet afar off, al
allevents when'the pending cloud passed
over the protected building. The light
ming rod man claimed that the brancl
: conductor carried off harnlessly the re
!; mainder of the bolt. No doubt it did
since that residue was of little momen
tum and energy of what was left of thu
bolt after having made splinters ant
! kindling wood of q thirty feet flag -staff
While this is tho third flagstaff shat
/ tered by lightning in this city that
) have examined within few years, an,
where the mechanical effects of tn
{ bolt were little beyond that of rendinl
t q pole, it is the only one on building
A where it was surrounded by Gordon 0
4 lightning rods, or inproximity to u rod
r it is one of the most conclusive evi
= dcnces of the inutility of lightning
/ rods that could possibly be presented
y If the rod would do what it is intende'
n for, to wit draw the surcharge of cleo
o tricity from the storm cloud silently
= disarm it of it's force by drawing ina 81
e lent stream to it's point, as the charg
i from the prime conductor of an electric
al machine is drawn by any kind of
4 pointed material, glassa as we'll as metal
there should not be bolt ever descen
upon a building in Philadelphia, wit
= its thousandsof lightning rods peerin
= = toward the cloud region.
Theonly protection from thunderbol
that has yet been proved to be efffcaciou
;. is the metal roof. The greatest damag
. ever done to o building thus protecte
is the perforation of the metal ut til
= point where the bolt strikes, and thi
;. is, in the heaviest discharges, not owe
I half an inch in diameter. Such ha
!. been the result of my observation
). through more than quarter of Gel
y fury. In all these observations
found the mechanical effects of til
thunderbolt about the same in building
|, that were struck, with reds upon then
9 and those without rods, with this di
d ference, that nearly all the cases of j.
J. milton were upon those with rods. Sue
{; arc the facts Of the case, with all til
Il theories to the contrary notwithstan<
e ing.
Is Metal has no more attraction for ligh
II ming than sponge has for water. !
l. either it'may be viewed rs an Absorb
l. ent. Neither has metal point an a
n tractive power to draw electricity on i
X Points act as recidients of conductiol
&c or rs entering wedges to the bolt as
e point would act in perforating q soa
&c bubble Of hydro-oyxgen gas, or an
u other film or attenllated matter. I'll
% attraction Of positive for negative, .
l, laid down in electrical science, prove
Il nothing more than there is present a
unbalanced condition of electrical ma
ter, and then necessarily disposito
|. to electrical equilibrium, which alwa,
follows, just as two drops of water wi
): coalcscc when their atmosphercs CON
- in contact.
~ The Queen Of the Sandwich Inland
e The new queen of the Sandwic
"a Islands, says letter-writer, is a ve1
\. attractive one, I think. / can't 50
l, what kind of q sensation she woul
l. create in Boston literary society, but I
IT,, | Onn noon stcn,o1 IN Hn,yo;;o, foo%,~,