Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1893-10-06
FREAKS OF LIGHTNING.
Taking Photographs, MagnetizIng iron
and PlayIng Other Franks.


Taking Photographs, MagnetixIng iron
and Playing Other Franks.
The Etruscans of old believed in
three kindso of lightning -one incapable
Of doing any injury, another more mis-
chievous in its character, and conse-
quen'ly only to be issued with the con-
sent of a quorum of twelve gods, and
third carrying mischief in its train,
and for which regular decree was re-
CURED from the highest divinity in
the Estruscan skies Curiously enough,
modern scientists, following the lead
taken by Arago, have also decreed that
the varieties of lightning are threefold
The first comprehends that in which
the discharge appears like long lum-
nous line, bent into angles and zig
gags, and varying in complexion from
white to blue, purple or red,
This kind is known as forked
lightning, because it sometimes di-
vides into two or more branches
before reaching the earth, The
second differs from the first in
{ the range of surface over which the
flash is diffused. From this circum-
stance the discharge is designated sheet
lightning. The third class differ so
widely from the more ordinary mani
festations that many meteorologists
have denied their right to be treated as
legitimate lightnings. They neither
assume the form of long lines on the
one hand nor sheets of flame on the
other, but exhibit themselves as balls
or globular Jumps of fire.
A singular story is told concerning
the vagaries of one mass of globe light
ming. A tailor in the Rue st. Jacques,
in the neighborhood of the Val de
Grace, was getting his dinner one day
during thunder storm, when he heard
a loud clap, and soon the chimney
board fell down and globe of fire as
big as a child's head came out quietly
and moved slowly about the room at a
small height above the. floor. The
spectator, in conversation afterward
with NJ. Rabinet of the Academic DIES
Sciences, said it looked like a good
siz I'd kitten rolled up into ball and
moving without showing its paws II
was bright and shining, yet he felt nc
sensation of heat. The globe came
near his feet, but by moving them aside
he avoided the contact. After trying
several excursions in different direc
tions it rose vertically to the height OF
his head-which he drew back to pre-
vent it touching him-steered toward a
hole in the chimney above the mantel
piece. and made its way into the fiue
Shortly afterward-''when | supposed
it had had time to reach the top" the
tailor said-there was terrible explo
sion, which destroyed the upper part o.
the chimney and threw the fragment:
On to the roofs of some adjoining build
ngs, which they broke through. In
| the forest of Nemours a tree was one,
| struck. Two pieces were rent from it,
trunk. The smaller was tossed to {
distance of fifty feet, and the larger
which eighteen men could not move Il
distance of twenty feet or SO in an op
posite tack. In 1883 the topgallant
mast of II. NJ. S. Rodney was hit by {
fash and literally cut up into chips
the sea being strewn with the frag
ments as if the carpenters had beer
sweeping their shavings overheard
shortly before the topmasts of H. M
$. Hyacinthe had suffered in similar
manner, and when the Thetis under
went like visitation in Rio harbor
| Capt. Fitzroy described the foretop
mast, as "a mere collection of long
] splinters, almost like reeds"
| These are few of the examples o
the mechanical effects of lightning. |
works chemically as well. 1t has th
power of developing peculiar o9or
which has been variously compared l.
that of PHOSPHORUS, nitrous gas, AM
most frequently burning sulphur. Wafer
mentions n storm on the Isthmus o
Darien which diffused such sulphur
GUS stencil through the atmosphere
that he and his marauding companion
could scarcely breathe, particular,
when they plunged into the wood
The magnetic effects produced ar
often very curious. A chest con
tanning a large assortment of knives
forks, and other cutlery was, no
many years ago, struck in the hous
of Wakefield tradesman, and magnet
ism impaired to the whole of the art
cles. Arago, in his Meteorological
Essays" speaks of shoemaker il
Swadia whose tools were thus treated
to his indcscribable annoyance. al
had to be constantly freeing his ham
mer, pincers, and knife from his nails
needles, and avis, which were cor
stantly getting caught by them as the
lay together on the bench" The sam
authority knew of a Genoese ship tina
was wrecked near Algiers in conse
| quence of some pranks played by light
ming among the compasses, the capital
innocently supposing that he was sail
ing toward the north, when, as maj
ter of fact, he was steering due south
Chambers Journal.
|
A Junior Napoleon of Finance.