The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-09-08
FREAKS OF LIGHTNING.
SINGULAR FORMS 1T ASSUMES
IN THUNDERsTORMS.


able-What the Camera Disclosed in
tho Heart of Black Cloud and on
the Surface OF an Alaskan Glacier.
(Copyrightedl
New DIRK, Sept. 7.-Some OF the most
tremendous electrical storms ever known
in this country have occurred during the
last two summers. Many people have been
instantly killed by the mysterious agent,
which science now proposes to harness for
the execution of condemned murderers,
and the destruction tof property has been
something unprecedented. At the sane
time, the display in the heavens has been
of a character to awaken feelings of awe
and terror in the superstitious, and to
amaze even the scientific Investigator.
During some of the electrical storms of the
past few weeks there were times when the
whole sky, from zenith to nadir, seemed a
glittering mass of fire about to wreak de-
struction upon every animate thing below
Scientists have spent half their lives, and
Uncle Sam has expended goodly bit of
treasury surplus in the attempt to aScer-
tain the atmospheric conditions which pro-
duce the changes in the weather; but the
path of the lightning and the nature of the
most subtle agent in the universe still re-
main, to a very large extent, a sealed book
to the savantS. Clouds, wind air currents,
and centers of radiation are ali )re or
less familiar topics to the weather shar ps;
but the freaks of the potent illuminator of
the sky are beyond their ken.
| Recent experiments with the iustantaneous
| camera have done much toward bringing
| some Of tho eccentricities of lightning
| within our comprehensive; but the little
| they have disclosed only serves to augment
| curiosity. 1t IS strange commentary upon
the limits set to mans knowledge tnat he
should know less about the flambeaux of
! the clouds which flash about and over him
| than he does about the remote planet
| Mars.
| One of the most interesting and novel OK
| perlments in this direction was made a few
| days ago with the instantaneous camera
| while a severe thunderstorm was raging
| Inc storm center was over the lower bay
| and Immediately east of Sandy Hook.
! Intermittent Il shes lit up the Skv, followed
| at longer intervals by binding blazs OF
light, so dazzling that when it expiret the
whole atmosphere seemed filled with a
sulphurous blackness. The time was about
| z o'clock p. N.
| Focusing the camera on the group of
nimbus clouds that marked the storm CEN
| ter, the operator waited his opportunity.
| IL came In moment Banners Of Blush
white streamed out from a common branch
or center, extending all over The horizon
and glittering, family here and brightly
there for probably two seconds, when they
| expired The exposure showed a perfect
| picture of "trunculatedn lightning, every
branch of the tree being connected with the
| parent stem, although the connection had
not been visible to the naked eye. In TINS
case the sCreamers ran from the zenith
downward; Later, another exposure
brought the revere picture, the lines of
ghtterlng flame traversiEg the sky from
the horizon upward. The swiftness of the
passage of the fluid in the heavens may be
imagined from the fact that the exposure,
only occupying little over second, took
in the whole tree as a unit, on both occa-
sions
Another strange picture was that Of the
deadly "artlculatedn lightning which, be-
| ginning at pointin the southeast travelled
swiftly down ward. branching or at Intervals
and then disappearing with sharp west
ward curve, in the direction of the earth
This, and the ''Ag-zag" fas1, are the only
forms OF lightning regarded as fatal to
me or dangerous TO property, as they invar-
lably seek the earth. In. their descent
the stream broadens till it at aims the di-
menslons of wide belt of fire, travelling at
uncomfortable speed and leaving in its trail
distinct sulphurous odor. At a distance
IN the sky 1t seems like q slender bar of
blush or yellowish white
p AS caught by the camera. the "sbeetu or
heat lightning assumed a Conformation not
unlike that of the aurora boreaIis shoot
ing up from behind a bank of nimbne
clouds, and flaming ont at intervals II re-,
called forcibly the DictIresaue sirniIe of tho
| ancients. who DESIGNATED II the ~S,birnn,or
| of VuIcans forge-fires.n
If it ever becomes possihla to ,naae,ro
the velocity of n Iiohtning hoIt II viii ba',o
to be done with some instrnn,at NO. ,-a. ~
vented. A flash is m il nc q trottor - -. 80
racehorsa ~ :"
Another and mora familiar form, % 4bo
same. phenomenon iS The straigbt-I;,,o -
der bolt. which is NOT an infre9nent ocol',li-
raniro1,t - ~ on L. I0Io accom-
land and sea. Its velocity is equal to that
of the curving bolt of fre-balI. bnt Dro-
crossing in direct path apparently travels
much mere swiftly, and either ex
plodes in mid-air vanishing in impalnable
| fragments or strikes the earth or water
making deep furrow. but leaving no other
tangible trace Of it's existence.
| The camera possesses one oualitv that il
| sometimes very surprisiup To tbe o1arafor
| 1t is the power to bring ont in the I,ict,,ra.
] things totally hidden TO the eve or avan tho
telescope Such a freak of the lanses o.
Cured lately. when a pbotoprnnher undor-
| took to make n neoative Of an A1ael,a,
| glacier. On develo6iny the nlsta ~ No.,