The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1886-10-28
A FREAK or LIGHTNING,
A Girls Face Photographed on .
Japanese Tray During n Thun--
@ der-Storm.

A Girls Face Photographed on n
Japanese Tray During a Thun--
der-Storm-
A remarkable freak of lightning re-
Gently occurred at Plaintield, n. j.,
says The New York Iribwae. Cornelius
D. Paul lives on West Fourth street.
The shutters of the bay window in the
dining-room of this large frame house
were open, and in the center of the
window stood a small stand on which
rested a polished old gold japanese
tray Upon this tray the lightning i'm
printed the photograph of Miss Lillian
Paul, q young lady about IS years. of.
age: The incidents attending this
phenomenon are best described in, the
following statement which Mrs. Paul
has prepared:
Il have been requested. to give an
account of a singular phenomenon or,
freak of nature that occurred in, our
house during the recent thunderstorm,
on the evening of the 18th of July.
The family had all retired early, with
the exception of my daughter, who
was sitting up awaiting the arrival;of a
servant. who was expected home any
minute. The violence of the storm in
creased and the lightn ng was 50 vivid
and continuous that there appeared to-
be no cessation between the flashes.
My daughter, on stepping into the din
ing.room to close the windows. saw
that a small tray that lay upon Il table
in the bay-window was attracting the,
lightning in what appeared to be IA dan
gerous manner, being in the center Of:
an almost constant blaze of light. APP,
preaching for the purpose of removing
it. she was suddenly startled by a fear
full flash, and hastily turned away, butt
waiting for a few moments for an op-
portunity, she succeeded in drawing it
of and covering it with a rug. Moth
ing further was thought of: this until
next morning, when, on removing it,
VIC discovered a profile likeness of my
daughter, apparently burned into the
lacquer of the tray. We cannon &C
count for this, except upon the hypothe-
sis that the picture must have been
photographed by the electric light at
the time my daughter drew back so
suddenly. Some prominent electri-
clans are Investigating the case. and
we contribute these few facts in the in
terest of science.
FANNIE w. PAUL"
"Plainfield, N. j.. Aug. II, 1885,"
The well-known electrician, Leo
Daft, who lives in Plainfield. has taken
considerable interest in the matter. He
has examined the tray, and has pre-
pared the following as his opinion of
the cause of the phenomenon:
From a careful examination of the
circumstances attending the really phe-
nomenal case above referred to. I am
led to attribute the result to the second
airy rather than the primary effect of
electricity. inasmueh- as there were
none of the inevitable signs of a local
discharge visible, nor, as far as 1 can
learn, were the effects of shock ex-
perienced by the young lady, which
would certainly have been the case had
any considerable charge been received
by the metal tray, since it lay on a dry
mahogany table without any metallic
surroundings, and her body would thus
have formed the line of least resistance
to earth. In rejecting the theory of
direct electrical action that of the
change being due to heat must also be
regarded as untenable, not only from
its extreme improbability, but because
the opposite side of the thin metal tray
appears to be entirely unaffected; we
are therefore apparently compelled to
accept the only remaining hypothesis
namely, that the effects were due to
light and this theory does not present
the difficulty of ever apparent conflict
with natural law, since it is we'll
known that certain lacquers, especially
those containing coloring matter, are
more or less sensitive to light, and in
the absence of a proper analysis of this
particular lacquer I am led to suspect
that the substance known as. dragon
blood vas used. in which combination,
with certain germs commonly employed
by lacquer manufacturers exhibits
marked effects by long-continued action
of even a freely diffused light. It is
not therefore impossible that such an in
tensely actinic image as would be pro-
jected from a brilliant and near flash
of lightning reflected from the face to
the inside Of the opposite bay window
pane and from thence to.the tray ef-
fected . change in the fraction of a
second which would represent that due
to many days or even weeks of sub
dued diffused light, and thus produced
the image by reducing that particular
spot to the condition VIII Oh, time will
develop W the whole surface.
LEO DAFT"
Samuel Y. d. Burr, Of The Scienti-
fc american, who is also q resident
here says that the case is the only n
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