Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-03-29
CHAsfBERs, THEORY

SoIhhoh Shhh thO OooAOA
eral belief that the old fashioned
lightning.rods, lying along the roofs
of houses, almost in contact with ! lh az
nails of the shingles, and held TO tn ths
sides or ends, of the houses by iroI
hooks, driven into the very walls
were notionly useless as . protection
but positively dangerous. soqob SEA
This complaint has been coming uT
from all directions and from all classes
not from what they have been taught
in the books, but because the time hat
come when each individual thinks
for himself, and has been look
ing into natures book, which always
speaks when men with their theories
undertake to have nature obey thell
peculiar notions and whims as to how
things should act, and why. -.
They ask the question of the scien-
tist how is it, If your theory of pro-
tecing our dwellings and our families
against etroke of BgEtaingis correct
that more buildings are struck, and
greater damage done to those having
rods on them, than to those that are
Without rods?. ~ .sv,s-ri,T 10 :
How is it, If your theory is correct
that we find the forest tree that con.
tains the most moisture, and as you
claim the best conductor, is always the
one that is first to be- struck and tori
into fragments, while q tree that is s
poor conductor, is seldom, if eve'
struck? Your theory, and what We
see of nature does not agree.
Well may they ask the question
and they are questions that demand ar
answer. Scientists in Europe, as wei
as in America, have for a num-
Der of years been aware
that the old theory upor
which lightning conductors have
been constructed, was erroneous. Blu
for the walt of know ledge as to how
protection could be obtained have sale
nothing, and it was not until 1876
that Professor J. Clerk Maxwell, o
London, who is acknowledged to b.
the leading electrician of all Europe
delivered his lecture before the British
Association. denouncing the old sys
tenn of rodding houses as positively
dangerous and worse than useless, anc
contrary to all principles of electric
few ctnt01 tn of duah
conductor, when placed upon oul
buildings, the upper end armed with
point, and the lower end placed in thu
earth, so as to form what our telegraph
ers call "good earth," serves to at
tract the negative electricity from thu
surrounding country and our neigh
bors' houses to the base of our build
ing, and the points serve to attract
stroke from the clouds to the top o
our building, relieving the clouds ant
protecting our ueighbors, and allowing
our own building to suffer the penalty
Professor Calladon, in his pape
| read before the Smithsonian Institnt
in 1877, speaking of thunderbolts, state
that in his examination of objects tina
had been struck by lightning, it wa
invariably the best conductor that re
ceived the stroke, and in a group o
poplar trees, that the one struck wa
invariably the one whose roots wer
nearest the water, that offered til
| of
Professors Tice, Mansell, Henry, ant
many others Of our best electricians
have said as much, but this does no
answer the question, and it was lief
for J. G. Chambers, of Newport, Ky
to discover the startling fact that posi-
tive electricity as held by the cloud
cannot and does not enter the earth
nor the negative electricity OF tn
earth enter the cloud, but that the tw
forces meet to be diffased in the lowe
atmosphere when descriptive dis
charge takes place.
| DIR. franklin, at Philadelphia, il
1852, raised into the atmosphere
kite, formed by stretching sill
handkerchief across two rods of ligh
wood, with steel point on the to-
connected with string or cord, an
with this, when the string had beel
| rendered sufficiently moist by tn
falling rain to conduct electricity, b
obtained copious succession Q
sparks from key fastened t
! the end of string with
out any ground connection he
being insulated from the key b.
means of silk cord, which he held il
his hand, to prevent the lightning
from striking him, showing that he re
ceived the lightning on one end and
dispersed at the other,s not into tn
earth, but into the atmosphere.
This experiment led DE-. franklin t
believe that he received the electricit,
from the clouds and conveyed it to tn
earth, hence he, as we'll as his fol
lowers, erected lightning rods on tina
principal, that is to convey the light
ming from the cloud to the earth, as h
believed there was but one kind, an,
that must pass into the earth to b
diffused. Had Franklin been con
versant with the law of induction, b
would not have fallen into this error
or could he have seen the top end G
his kite string, he would have found
stream of electricity flowing from tina