Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-01-04
ELECTRICITY.

There is no other physical agent so marvel
Gus in it's operations as electricity The ma
tions of antiquity believed their gods spoke in
the rattlng thunder, manifested their wrath
in the ruin wrought by the lightning stroke
and among the Hindoos, after Brahma, 1ndra,
the god of thunder, was the chief deity while
Jupiter is generally represented brandishlng
thunderbolts.
Of electrical phenomena, none is more terri
bly, grand than thunder shower. "Terrlbly
grand,n we say, from the admiring wonder
with which one watches the dazzling lightning
as it shoots from cloud to cloud, or from the
heavens above to the earth beneath, and listen
to the frequent ''reports," now booming like
cannon, anon cracking like muskctry, is never
entirely free from fear as regards personal
safety
This may we'll be the Case Apparently gov
erned by no known law, no sure means OF pro-
lection against the effects of lightning have
ever been devised. In a loose sort OF way,
if is supposed that certain substances attract,
that others repe, lightning but facts tend to
combat the theories based on such SUPPOSE
tion.
In ITO, in Birmingham, England, the ccv-
erlet was torn from Il bed, by lightning, with
out injury to it's occupants. Two years later,
at Halrogate, a gentleman was killed by light
ming while asleep OH a feather bed, though his
wife. sleeping beside him, was not awakened
In 1S44 a flash of lightning struck boat
near the Shetland Islands and completely de-
molished the mast A man sitting near the
mast was unharmed watch in his pocket
was melted.
In 1905, five children were sitting on a bench
in Swiss cottage that was "struck." The
first and last were killed :; the others were
slightly 'shocked.n A lady whose residence
wits at Il little distance from Madrid, Spain,
was swinging in her hammock one afternoon
IN July, 1916, when she was killed by light
ming. The sky was entirely cloudless, but
there was severe shower forty miles away.
Did you ever hear of ''lightning pictures ~
On the neck of a young man killed by light
ming in Cuba was found the image of an iron
horse that stood short distance from the
spot where he was stricken down.
A woman in Maine was standing at Win
dow when tree directly in front of her was
struck by lightning. She was stunned, and
on recovering her senses complained that her
hack seemed on fire. An examination dis
closed perfect likeness of the tree between
| her shoulders.
4 peasant woman of Seine-et-Marne, i'll the
northern part of France, in September, 1881,
was struck by lightning while watching. COW.
The animal was killed and its mistress lay mo-
| tiOnleSS. Prompt attention reSIoreu coh-
seriousness but on removing her garments, I'LL
image of cow was found OH her breast.
Tie physiological effects of lightning are
frequently very strange In 1885, at Vic-sur-
Aisne, three soldiers who had sought refuge
under a lime tree were killed by lightning.
But they remained erect, as if untouched by
the electric fluid, for several minutes thcll
they fell heap Of ashes.
Certain persons, from unknown causes, are
electrical toa wonderful degree Mademolselle
Angelique Coffin was weaving silk gloves in
the evening of January Is, 1916, when the
loom at which she was working began to sway
to and fro so violently that she fled from it i'll
alarm. When she was at Il distance from
the machine the movements ceased; they
were renewed as she approached it. Her
parents sent her to the priest, that the demon
with which they thought her possessed might
be exercised lie took her to physician, who
was unable to account for the mystery. Ere
long she found that whatever small articles
her dress touched started from her, and per-
sons near her received quite powerful electri,
cal ''shocks.n The case was carefully studied
by medical and scientific men, and the phe'
nomella attributed to her 'corpOral electrici'