The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-07-08
8be FARM.
LIGHTNING.
People WHO Fear The Electric Cur
,rent-Guarding Against Light
ming Strokes.

members tnroipc with a smile to others who
shrank and cried at the peals Of a terrible
storm in a country house. The glare OF a
bolt coming down the center OF the room
caught the eye at that very instant the
next there was an explosion that shook
the house, and insensibllity followed.
Two men in the same room were burned oy
the bolt, though no lives were lost, but l
have never been able to smile at lightning
since. To give any idea OF the terror 1eit
on a nervous organization by the shock
would involve extravaganza of terms.
But, unfortunately, so far from being
an exception, there are too many who suffer
the ha~rrassment with ne. Nor are women
alone subject to this nervousness. l knew
a school superintendent and canal contrac-
tor, a man over fifty, with a large family,
who would hide in a closet in a storm, and
and had been known to rush from his bed
with fright from lightning. Many will re-
member the professor of Bowdoin college,
who always retreated to the ~cellari in q thun-
der-storm, although his hous was brlstilng
with lightning-rods. The strongest man l
ever knew, who could throw another man
across the street, and work q hand-press IN
q printing Office as it he were part OF the
machine, was discharged as a reporter be
cause his desk was vacant every time there
was . thunderstorm. The mother of Wash
ington wa afraid of lightning, and never
failed to retreat to her room at the first flash
of a storm, where she stayed till the last
flash died away. The physical effects OF
this fear are most depressing. One woman
knows when a storm is coming hour before
by a prostration of strength and spirits, &C
companied with symptoms like cholera. One
of the most dauntless young women l know
was sick in bed for hours after the great
storm at Springfield, Mass, last year. She
had received a shock of lightning years be-
fore, and never fails to be i'll in a thunder
storm ever since.
Reason and study of the laws of lightning
have done much to lessen the fears of it. 1t
is true we live between two magazines OF
electricity-one in the earth and the other
in the air-and d cloud charged with cleo
tricity passing over a point or body in a neg
ative condition will discharge It's surplus by
the very quickest and most c%ongenlal me-
dunn, which it finds In the human body, a
tree or a house irdiffereDtiy. But it It's a'so
true that, provide the iight.iag with a con-
~venient and easy conductor, IN the shape of
a stout iron rod higher than any point ola
house and reach : wei luto NE ground,
where electricity may scatter harm
lessly into the damp earth. 1t will prefer
that conducting rod to anything In It's vicln-
ity, and people who stay indoor IN a Well
protected house are safer from lightning
Every accident from this cause | ever knew
of came from careless exposure in situations
known to be unsafe. The first l noticed
after nv own accident was that of d mis-
s%ionary's daughter, who was killed while
passing an open window, just as a woman
was on Long Island last summer while Sit
ting at her sewing machine. A young man
in Maiden. | think, was killed while sitting
on a porch with his chair tipped back and his
heae against the knob OF a door bell, max
ing an excellent connection With the bell
wire. Many men have been struck while
riding into a barn on a load OF nay. Many
will remember the frightful calamity ct
Scranton, Penn, where a party OF women,
ont picking berries on one of the high hills,
crowded into a deserted log hut In a sudden
storm, and seven were killed by one bolt.
Steep hills with mineral veins cropping out
are not places for persons to live on who
wish to escape lightning, and unprotected
houses there 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 the fluid obeys a sub
tile attraction which acts at great distances
and IN all directions. A woman told me OF
a bolt which came down her mOtner $ cnlU-
ney from a rising cloud when the sun was
shining overheard. n. P. Willis writes of
a young girl who was killed while passing
under a telegraph wire on the brow of a hill,
while she was hurrying home before a storm.
The sad accident a Morrisania, when two
children were killed, 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 fool
hardy about sitting on porches or by open
Windows, whether the storm is hard or not.
Mild showers often carry a single charge
which falls with deadly effect. 1t may or
may not be fatal to stay out it is safe to be
In the house windows and doors closed. The
dry air in the house is a reader conductor
than the damp air outside, and any draught
of air invites it. A hot fire in a chimney at
tracts it, so to speak, and it is prudent fol
those who would be sure of safety to US.
kerosene or gas stoves in summer, and ayoie
heating the chimneys Of the houses. PEG