The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1875-04-19

PROTECTION FROM LIGHTSISG.-Doesp pro.
lection protect? Is often asked by the Nan
With lightuing-rod on bis house as we'll as
BY the student Of political philosophy. The
county roads are drying, ard the lightning
rod mau will soon be along. We may as
well prepare ourselves for the discussion Of
bis questions.
That the electric fluid" can be carried
along wire even child In these days
knows, but however much more there may
be in electric science little bas found its way
TO the lightning rod man. Whether the rod
attracts beyond ten or twenty feet is still a
question, and what the rod is TO do with 1t
after it gets it is open to some doubt. ..
The writer of this had i rod put up on q
dwelling many years ago, and with full talth
in the protection, during storm had his
floor ripped up and himself and friends
ladies and gentlemen tossed about IN the
most inconsiderate manner by the electric
visitor. II came down the rod 10 about six
feet from the ground, when il concluded TO
leave the rod, bore q hole through twenty
inch stone wall. and pay its unwe'eome re-
Specs TO the party inside. The rod was not
put up by botch the employer and the
etDpoyed understood the business. Still We
were told the defect must be IN the rod or IN
tue .u;ONeT Oh lis lis 10 q
common way of accounting for things.
Some years ago there was discussion going
OH in The papers in which one side asserted
that no member of q certain religious denoml-
nation had ever been convicted Of crime.
Alas d. in the height of the controversy one
committed murder. But the side did not
lose heart, but conteDded that the person had
ceased 10 be member OF that body from the
nomeut ne hai thoughts of committing the
crime. And it i. just in this way the light
ning.rod men defeat W.. We must get rea
soDing of our own.
One fact is, we think, undoubted, that as
many buildings are Injured by lightning that
have rods rs have not. Certainly we have
! known barns with their valuable contents to
| be destroyed that were well protected by
| conductors. We are asked in these cases.
Did the conductors terminate in well or
| wet >oil:" /; is hard to find any conductor
in "wct soil" in The dry summer time,
and it is only then when lightning strikes
and as for wells, there is not one building IN
| q thousand that has one convenient 10 run
| lightning-rod into. II the lightning-rod Is
| TO be success it must furnish Us with some
| more available conditions than these.
We are inclined TO think that the best
protection TO buildings are some tall. grow
ing trecs--nOt too clOSe-at least twenty or
thirty feet away. Every leaf and the point
Of every twig is a conductor, and these huL-
dreds ut little :. platinum points, conduct
ing each It's little quantv-to the main stem,
m Ike total power equal TO the riitlng Of O
trunk of hundred years. There is no we'll
OF water under trees roots; indeed, the
earth under large tree is extremely dry.
Still the fluid passes from the trunk away in
safety. Immediately uuder a tree charged
with lightning stroke" is one of the most
dangerous places, but we doubt whether
over twenty feet away from trunk any one
was ever injured. The wri:er was once
within twenty-five feet Of the trunk Of .
spruce struck by lightning without expert
cncny the slightest shock. Philadelphia
Press. ..