Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1893-09-14
FREAKS or u oHTNlN0.
Taking Photographs, Msgnotixing 1ro
s,,d Pla DIM nfllar Pranks.

Taking Photographs, Magnotixing lr0
and Playing Other Franks.
The Etruscans of old believed in
three kinds Of lightning incapable
Of doing any injury, another more mis-
chievons in its character, and conse-
quently only to be issued with the con-
sent Of q quorum Of twelve gods, and
third carrying mischief in its train,
and for which regular decree was re-
quired 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 a long lum-
inous line, bent into angles and zig
zags 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
fash is difused. 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 a thunder storm, when he heard
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 M. Rabinet of the Academic des
Sciences, said it looked like a good
sized kitten rolled up into ball and
moving without showing its paws. 1t
was bright and shining, yet he felt no
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 1t rose vertically to the height Of
his head-which he drew back to pre-
vent it touching him-steered toward
hole in the chimney above the mantel-
piece, and made it's way into the fue
Shortly afterward-"when I supposed
1t had had time to reach the top" the
tailor said-there was terrible explo-
sion, which destroyed the upper part Of
the chimney and threw the fragments
on to the roofs of some adjoining build
ings, which they broke through. In
the forest of Nemours 4. free was once
| struck. Two pieces were rent from it's
trunk. The smaller was tossed to
distance of fifty feet, and the larger
| which eighteen men could not move, to-,
a distance of twenty feet or so in an OPP
posite tack. In 1883 the topgallant-,
mast of H. NJ. S. Rodney was hit by a.
fash and literally cut up into chips.
the sea being strewn with the frag-,
ments as if the carpenters had been
sweeping their shavings overheard.
Shortly before the topmasts of H. Nj.
S. Hyacinthe had suffered in similar
manner, and when the Thetis under
went q 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 of
the mechanical effects of lightning. It
works chemically as well. It has the
power of developing peculiar odor,
which has been variously compared to
that of PHOSPHORUS, nitrous gas, and
most frequently burning sulphur. Wafen
mentions a storm on the Isthmus Of
Darien which diffused such sulphur
GUS stencil through the atmosphere
that he and his marauding companions
could scarcely breathe, particularly
when they plunged into the wood.
| The magnetic effects produced are
often very curious, A chest con-
/ tain:ng large assortment of knives,
forks, and other cutlery was, not
many years ago, struck in the house
of Wakefield tradesman, and magnet
ism impaired to the whole of the arti-
cles. Arago, in his meteorological
Essays" speaks of a shoemaker in
1 Swadia whose tools were thus treated,
to his indescribable annoyance. HE
had to be constantly freeing his ham,
mer, pincers, and knife from his nails,
needles, and avis, which were con-
stantly getting caught by them as they
4 lay together on the bench The same
authority knew of a Genoese ship that
was wrecked near Algiers in conse-
quence of some pranks played by light
ming among the compasses, the captain
innocently supposing that he was sail
ing toward the north, when, as mat
ter Of fact, he was steering due south.
Chambers Journal
THE FASHIONS.