Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-04-28
FRANKS OF LIGHTNING.
Many Peculiar Freaks Noted.

There was a belief among the Etr11s-
cans that there were three kinds Of
hghtning-one incapable of doing in
jury, one more harmful in it's nature
and consequently only to be issued
with the consent of a quorum of twelve
gods, a third carrying disaster in it's
train, for which a regular decree was
required from the highest divinities.
Curiously enough modern scientists
have also decreed that lightning is of
| three kinds, says the Cincinnati Com
mercial Gazette. The first comprehends
that in which the discharge manifests
! itself in a long, luminous line bent into
angles and zigzags This kind is known
as forked lightning. The second differs
from the first i'll the range of surface
over which the flash is diffused and is
called sheet lightning, and the third
class has been made the subject of wide
discussion and contention. 1t never as
SumeS the form of long lines nor of
sheets Of flame, but appears as balls
| or Jumps of fire. They are not mo-
mentary apparitionS, but last several
seconds and burst with bright flare
and loud report, and occasionally dis
charge flashes of lightning A school
master in Ohio whose school was
struck during a recent storm declared
! that he saw ball Of fire strike and
roll down the flagstaff of the school
house, and the ball caused a panic
among the scholars.
! A singular story comes from Paris
A tailor who lived on the Rue st.
Jacques was eating his dinner one day
during a thunder storm when he heard
Il loud clap and saw the chimney board
fall out and globe of fire, as big as a
man, had come quietly out and moved
about the room a few feet above the
| floor. After moving slowly about the
ball went back into the chimney, and
Il moment later there was a loud eX-
plosiOn which completely shattered the
| chimney. A great many yers ago the
southwest pinnacle of an old church in
Breog, in Cornwall, was demolished by
Il stroke of lightning, and one stone,
weighing 800 pounds, was hurled up
ward and in southerly direction a dis
lance of 100 yards and third 100 yards
to the east.
| In the forest of Wemoun a tree was
once struck and two pieces torn from
it's trunk. The smaller of the two
| pieces was tossed Il distance of twenty
feet, and the larger, which it took eight
cen men to move, was tossed twenty
! feet in the opposite direction.
| In 1915 the tOpmast Of the fishing
schooner William and Mary of Swamp
into chips, and since that time tl'2,ae
coasting schoOners have had the s, g
experience A British ship, while cross
ing the North Pacific ocean from China
was struck by ball of globular light
ming, which left such a sulphurouS odor
| behind it that the crew were obliged
to take to the rigging i'll order to avoid
/ SutfOcatiOn. This OdOr after an eXplO'
sion occurred recently in Cuba, when 4
large company of laborers on a tobacco
plantation were obliged to take to the
woods in order to avoid it.
The magnetic effects produced by
| lightning are often very singular i'll
deed. A chest containing a large as
sortment of knives and cutlery was
recently struck in a carpenter shop in
| Chicago and all Of the articles were
at once magentized. And a shoemaker
in Swabia had his tools treated in tho
same way, to his great annoyance, as
he had to be constantly freeing the
hammer from his avis and nails, which
were always getting caught as they
lay together on his bench. And some
years ago Il Genoese ship was wrecked
near AlgierS in consequence Of the light
ming having played pranks with the
compass, and the captain supposng
that he was sailing to the north instead
of to the south.
Another class of effects caused by
| lightning are cures. GOuty men have
been enabled to walk freely, epileptic
persons have been healed and rheuma-
tlsm has been cured by a flash. On
| the other hand the effects of magnetic
lightning are harmless. Three hundred
persons were once struck in Charles
ton prison and completely robbed of
| their muscular strength.
i There is still another phenomenon
produced by lightning, and this is the
/ lightning prints. Mr.. Poly, who has
treated the subject of lightning prints
very fully in the pages of the French
scientific journals, mentions twenty-four
cases of the impression on the bodies
Of men and animals. Of these eight
are of trees or parts of trees, one of
a bird and one of a COW, two of horse
shoes, one Of a nail, one of metal
comb, four of crosses. Crosses in this
connection are very old, for it was de
clared that in the year $50 A. D. they
were printed on the bodies and cloth
ing Of the Workmen, who were employ
ed in rebuilding the temple of Jerusa-
lem.
A horseshoe was found indelibly
marked on the neck of young man in
Cuba, who was struck dead by lightning
near house upon the walls Of which
a horseshoe was nailed.
In 1858 little girl was standing
at a window near which stood a young
maple tree. A flash of lightning struck
either the girl or the tree, or both,
and the image of the tree was found on
her body. In another case a boy was
climbing a tree to steal a birds nest,
when he was struck by lightning and
the tree with the bird and the nest ap-
| peared upon his back.