The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-07-30

were 10 {; but have never been able to
smile at lightning again. To give any idea
OF the terror left on a nervous organization
by the shock would involve extravagance of
terms. .i-t
But unfortunately, so far from being an
exception, there are too many who suffer
the same harrassments with me. Nor are
women alone subject to this nervousness l
knew school superintendent and canal
contractor, man over so, with large fam
lily, who would hide In a closet In a storm,
and had been known to rush from his bed
with fright at lightning. Many will re-
member the professor at Bowdoin College,
who always retreated to the cellar in thun-
der storm, although his house was bristling
with lightning rods. The strongest man
ever knew, who could throw another man
across the street and work a hand press in
printing Office as if he were a part of the ma
chine, was discharged as q reporter because
his desk was vacant every time there was q
thunder storm. The mother of WASH
ington was afraid of lightning, and never
failed to retreat to her room at the first
flash of q storm, where she staid till the last
flash died away. The physical effects OF this
fear are most depressing. One woman
knows when a storm is coming hours before,
by prostratIon of strength and spirits,
accompanied with symptoms like cholera.
One of the most dauntless young women /
know was sick in her bed for hours after
the great storm at Springfield, Mass, last
mOQLQ. one Qau received u SHOCK Oh lSuS
ming years before, and never fails to be Ill in
q thunder storm since.
Reason and study of the laws of lightning
have done much TO lessen the fears OF 1t. 1t
is true we live between two magazines of
electricity-one in the earth and the other
in the air-snd cloud charged with cleo
tricity passing over point of body in mega
tive condition will discharge its surplus by
the very quickest ana most congenial me
dunn. which it finds in the human body,
tree, or house indifferently. But it is also
true that provide the lightning with a con-
venient and easy conductor, such as is now
made of steel wire and each covered with
fine copper and twisted into cable rod with
points higher than any point o. house and
reaching well into the ground, where cleo
tricity may scatter harmlessly in the damp
earth, it will prefer that conducting rod to
anything in its vicinity, and people who
stay indoors in the well protected house are
safer from lightning than any bomb-proof
from bursting shells. Every accident from
this cause l ever knew OF came from care
less exposure in situations known to be I'M
safe. The first noticed after my own acct
dent was that of mission
ary's daughter killed while passing an
open window, just as a woman was on Long
Island last summer, while sitting at her
sewing machine. A young man in Maiden,
/ think, was killed while sitting out on
porch with his chair tipped back and his
head against the knob of the door bell,
making an excellent connection with the
bell wire. Many men have been struck
while riding into barn on q load of hay.
Many will remember the frightful calamity
at Scranton, Pa, where a party of women.
out picking berries on one of the high hills,
crowded into deserted log hut in sudden
storm, and seven were killed by one bolt
| Steep hills, with mineral veins cropping
out are not places for any one to live on
who wishes to escape lightning, and unpro-
tected houses are doubly dangerous.
1t Is never too soon to go in the house
| when a storm is rising. When the clouds
are fully charged with electricity they are
most dangerous, and this fluid obeys a sub
tie attraction, which acts at great distances
and all directions. A woman told me OF q
bolt which came down her mothers chin
ney from rising cloud when the sun was
SHINING overhead. n. P. Willis writes of a
young gIrl killed while passing under a tele-
graph wire on the brow of hill while
| hurrying home before storm. Sundays sad
accident at Morrisiana should warn every
mother that it is not safe to let children stay
out of doors till the last minute before the
storm falls, People should not be foolhardy
about sitting on porches or by open win
dows whether the storm is hard or not
Mild showers often carry single charge,
which falls with deadly effect. 1t may or
may not be fatal to stay out; 1t is safe to
stay in the house with the windows and
| doors shut The dry air in house is a
4 IeaUleT condenser OF uSQtnlng IMAM t0o
damp air outside, and any draught OF air
invites it. A hot fire in chimney attracts
/ it, so to speak, and it is prudent for those
who would be sure of safety to use kero-
sene or gas stoves in summer, and avoid heat
Ing the chimneys of the house. People are
very ignorant or careless about lightning. /
have seen girl Of Is crying with fear OF
other moment to the window
to see If the storm was not abat
ing, unconscious that she was putting her
self in danger. If everyone would hurry to
shelter as soon as storm cloud was half
way up the sky, when certain that it was
coming nearer. il they would shut the doors
and windows, and keep away from them
atterward, and from bell-wires, stovepipes,
mantles, chimney breasts, heaters and mir
rors, with their silvered backs, which carry
electricity, and keep away from lightning
rods and their vicinity, and from metal
water spouts, with good rods on their houses,
they. might dismiss the fear of lightning
from their minds, so far as it is thing oil
reason and not of impression.
A good lightning-rod is one that is thick
enough TO carry q heavy charge Of electric
ity. not less than three fourths of an inch in
diameter. which has point above each
chimney or pinnacle of the roof joining the
main rod by curves, not by angles, and run
ming into the ground down to permanently
moist soil, 1t should be held by glass lnsula-
/ Any good mechanic can put up a rod which
will be a perfect protection. When &C
cidents happen to house with lightning
rods it is because the rod is too small, or not
rightly attached, or the ground connection is
not good. The ignorance and carelessness
habitusl to the American on all point not
connected with his amusement or money
making, are fatal to such conditions as in
sure safety from lightning. 1t was exem-
pli6ed in the case of friend who, afraid OF
lightning, slept half the summer In q newly
rented house with stout d, till one day
i happening to look at the ground connection
he found it rusted in two just above the sod
and hundred times more dangerous thar
no rod at ALL
So far from lightning being danger most
difficult to avoid, it has very simple laws
4 and may be almost entirely guarded agains
/ by proper conductors. Witness the British
navy, which met 500 disasters a year By
lightning, till the ships were provided witt