The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-07-16
LIGHrNIse AND TnpNDRRROLTs
Are Lightning Rods a Protection s-The
Result of Scientific Obs4,rvnfioRs,


city on Monday afternoon, the 25th of
May, WAS attended with more than the
usual amount of electrical discharges.
Immedlately over the city the heavens
were literally filed with flashes of light
and brilliant corruscations of lightning.
The cloud matter was so thoroughly
combined, and of such great thickness,
thes the usual echoes were not propaxa-
| ted, but, instead, We mad the hoarse.
rumbEng intonations of thunder, re-
sembling the sound If that produced by
! heaVS carriages funning over frozen
| ground. Inc CuunGeA BOLT discharges
sounded much like the Discharge Fcf
| heavy artillery, while in smaller storms
the sound resembles that produced by
/ small arms. While in all these storms
i there Is central vortex, those of great
| dimensions have within their areas a
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
worthless ara so much broken and shat
tered in passing over a city, by the
| solid obstructions they meet in their
| whirling action, that they become com
| paratively harmless whereas, in pass
| ing over an orchard or wood, the um-
| 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 vapor
| stratum overhead was for half an hour
embellished with brilliant scintillations
of electrical fire, resembling the burst
| ing of rockets filed with white stars.
This display of electrical pyrotechnics
was truly sublime. Many persons
we're reported to have suffered from
these electrical discharges, but these
suffeTings 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 mstrue-
tive thunderbOlt brought to my notice
was that which struck the building of
Mr.. Recb, on the southeast corner of
Girard avenue and Eighth street. This
bailding was provided with an exten-
sive arrangement of lightning rods It
| is gravel rooted, and around the whole
circumference of the roof there runs
/
| tai iron bar there are perpendicular
| lightning rods at sixteen different equi-
distant places. It has, in fact, sixteen
| lightning rods pointing to the clouds.
| Upon the roof and centerirg the avenue
front, and about twenty feet from the
| front edge of the building, there stood
flagstaff. A branch of the circumfer-
ential conductor run across to this staff
and up it about twelve feet, where 1t
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
and kindling wood of thirty feet flag
staff.
While this is the third flagstaff shat
l. s~-L,A, Al,Sn hot
have examined within a few years, and
where the mechanical effects of The bolt
were little beyond that of rending a
pole, it Is the only one on building
where it was surrounded by a Gordon of
| lightning rods, or in proximity to a rod;
it is one of the most conclusive evil
dences of the inutility of lightning rods
that could possibly be presented. If
the rod would do what it is intended
for, to wit draw the surcharge of cleo
tricity from the storm cloud silently
disarm it of its force by drawing in q
silent stream to its point, as the charge
from the prime conductor of an electri-
cal machine is drawn by any kind of a
pointed material, glass as we'll as metal,
there should not be bolt ever descend
upon a building in Philadelphia, with
its thousands of lightning rods peering
| toward the ClOuu T6RlOus
The only protection from thunderbolt
that has yet been proved to be effica-
cious is the metal roof. The greatest
damage ever done to a building thus
protected is the perforation of the metal
3 the point where the bolt strikes, and
this is, in the heaviest discharges, not
over half an inch in diameter. Such has
been the result of my observations
through more than a quarter of cen
tury In all these observations
found the mechanical effects of tbt
thunderbolt about the same in buildings
that were struck, with rods upon them
and those without rods, with this diff
ference, that nearly all the cases of ig
milton were upon those with rods. Sucl
are the facts of the case, with all th'
theories to the contrary nOtwithstand
ing.
Metal has no more attraction for light
, ming than sponge has for water. u
/ either it may be viewed as an absorb
! ent. Neither has metal point and at
tractive power to draw electricity on 1t
Points act as recipients of conductiOn
or as entering wedges to the bolt as
: noint would act in perforating a soal
t bubble of hydro-oxygen gas or an.
other film or attenuated matter. TIL
} attraction of positive for negative, 8
laid down in electrical science, prove
nothing more than there is present 81
unbalanced condition of electrical mat
ter. and then necessarily a disposition
/ to electrical equilibrium, which alway
= follows, Just as two drops of water vii
4 coalesce when their atmospheres com
: in contact.
About Comets.