Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-07-14
FEAR OF LIGHTNING.
SOME SEASoNABLE SUGGESTIONS.
Hints That May be of Advantage to Those
Whose Dread is Now Uncontroll-
able-The Safest Place
in a Storm.

II is never too soon 10 90 in the house
when storm is rising. When the clouds
are fully charged with electricity they
are most dangerous, and this fluid obeys
a subtle attraction which acts at great
distances and all directions. \ woman
told me of bolt which came down her
mothers chimney from rising cloud
when the sun was shining overhead.
n. Z. Willis writes of a young girl killed
while passing under telegraph wire on
the brow Of hill, while she was hurry
ing home before a 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 windows, whether
the storm is hard or not. Mild showers
often carry single charge which falls
with deadly effect. Ii may not be fatal
TO STAY out; it is safe to be in the house,
with the windows and door shut. The
dry air IN house is a reader conductor
of lightning than the damp air outside,
and any draught of air invites it. A hot
fire in the chimney attracts 1t, so to
speak, and il is prudent for those who
would be sure OF safety 10 use kerosene
or gas stoves in summer, and avoid
heating the cnimneys of the house.
People are very ignorant or reckless
about lightning. / have seen a girl OF
eighteen crying with fear OF lightning,
and running every other moment to the
window TO see il the storm was abating,
unconscious that she was putting her
SELF i'm danger Ii every one would
hurry to shelter as soon as storm
cloud was half way up the sky, when
certain it was coming nearer, II they
would shut the doors and windows and
keep away from them afterward, and
from bell wires, stOyepipes, mantels,
chimney breasts, heaters and mirrors,
with their silvered backs, which carry
electricity, and keep away from light
ming 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 a thing of reason and not OF I'M
preston.
A good lightning rod is one that is
thick enough TO carry heaVy charge
Of electricity, not less than three-iOurths
of an inch in diameter, which has a
point above each chimney or pinnacle
Of the roof, joining the main rod by
curves, not angles, and running into the
ground down To permanently moist soil.
Il should be held by glass insulators
fixed in blocks of wood, held to the
house by wooden pegs, not spiked to
the wall, 10 give possible connection
with the interior. Any blacksmith can
put up a rod which will be a perfect pro-
lection, and it should not cost over Sl2
for house forty feet square and two
stories high. When accidents happen
To a house with lightning rods, 1t is be-
cause the rod is too small or not rightly
attached, or the ground connection Is
not good. The ignorance and careless
ness habitual To the American, on all
points not immediately connected with
his amusement or money making, are
fatal 10 such exact conditions as insure
safety from lightning. Ii was eXempli-
fed i'm the case of friend, who, afraid
Of lightning. slept hall the summer in
newly rented house with stout rod;
till one day, happening to look at the
ground connection, Inc found it rusted
i'm two lust above the sod, and a hun
drrd times more dangerous than no rod
N ALL