The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-09
FREAKS OF LIGHTNING.
What Electricity from the Sky VIII Accom-
plish in Its Passage.
Washington Post.

pl1sh IN Its Passage.
Washington Post
es, lightning is strange power and it per-
forms many funny freaks SAID Professor Hal
lday, OF st Louis, who is temporarily sojourn
ing at the national capital, to a reporter last
evening. The Professor has carefully watched
ana noted phenomenal atmospheric events for
the past forty years. He is as full of rare and
interesting information as healthy lake is full
of water.
Out West he is known as the old professor of
hurricanes and chained lightning, significant
title which he richly deserves on account Of his
scientific efforts
Il have known a fash of lightning he con
tlnued, stroking his long white beard ito dart
through chimney into a room full of people
and go out through an open window after having
killed an innocent kitten that was lying asleep
under the sofa. The six human occupants es-
capped unframed. In Pennsylvania town, not
many years ago, bolt of lightning flashed
through an open window at which lady was
sitting engaged in sewing. The lady was
stunned, and upon being restored to con-
seriousness she made the remarkable discov-
cry that the lightning had split the point
OF her needle for about quarter of an
inch. Beyond this no damage was
done There is no human continuance that
could have split the needle so neatly without
breaking it. The electric blaze, with sufficient
power to knock down the largest house. had
Just neatly opened the needle point and formed
a prong. The specimen was afterward put on
exhibition at Philadelphia. About three weeks
ago the mysterious agency of the clouds tore
along the earth in my State, and upon reaching
a farmer who had taken shelter under large
tree, 1T tore both soles from his shoes,
leaving the uppers and the farmer I'M
harmed. A North Carolina lady had strange
experience last summer She was milking
COW under the cattle shed, while one of
those terrific Southern thunder storms was
passing over She was suddenly knocked
sprawling and almost deafened by very loud
report A stroke of lightning had struck in her
half filed milk pail and the electricity had gone
through the milk and the copper bottom of the
pan to the ground. The pan was uniujured,
but the milk was turned to dark blueish color
and tasted strongly of birthstone and sulphur"
The Professor stopped long enough to relight
his cigar and then continued: Il have record
which describes the killing of the largest num-
beo of human beings ever killed in one place and
by one stroke of lightning
1t occurred at a planning mill near Toronto,
Canada, in the fall of 1872 There was but one
thunderbolt. Itpreceded, by a few minutes. a.
heavy and long continued snow-storm Masses
of lowering gray clouds were agitating the sky
and the wind was blowing a perfect gale.
Eighteen men were at work in the mill AS the
wind lulled momentarily there a deafening
report, like the simultaneous discharge of full
battery of heavy guns, and a broad glare Of
fame The bolt had darted through the open
workshop, and the eighteen men lay scattered
about on the floor. Sixteen Of them were killed
outright and two We're only stunned by the
the most disastrous single discharge
to human life on record. The men who were
stunned stated upon their return to conscious
ness that they did not hear the report or see the
flash. In fact, they did not know what had
struck them.
This verfes the statement that person
does not see or hear the bolt that strikes, and
that after you see the fash all danger from the
stroke is past. Another strange freak of atmos-
pheric electricity occurred during the war. A
thunderbolt exploded over the heads of a com
pany of Confederate soldiers in Eastern
Tennessee. The bolt flashed among the
bayonets of the men, doubling up three of
them like pot-hooks. 1t then passed to
the EARTH doing no more damage, About one
year ago while school girl was going to her
home near Atlanta Ca fash of lightning en-
tered her school-bag, and burned all her books to
ashes.
The girl was badly frightened, but not at all
injured l have numerous records" said the
Professor, as he turned to enter the hotel "of
great balls of electricity-ball lightning, they
are called-entering the doors or windows of
houses and, after rolling about for few seconds,
like Illuminated ghosts, quietly floating out in
the storm just as they came in. The entrance
of one of these brilliant and unwelcome visitors
is enough to terrify the bravest household