The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-08-31

when what [ odge terms an avalanche"
or an "impulsive rush. occurs all laws
and Lawmakers are in danger. 1t is
as if one undertook to fill a bottle by
emptying pail Of water at it. In cases
where one. would naturally expect the cur
rent would mostly follow a wet roof dur
ing the storm, where the water is per-
feet cascade, it has sought other routes.
A personal knowledge Of the facts in one
instance will illustrate this. During the
early days Of telegraphy the writer was
in charge of an office in Michigan in a
town of perhaps 1900 inhabitants-a
county, seat The courthouse, a some.
stories, was surmounted by belfry and
topped out with wooden ball, up through
the center of which ran a bar one and one
half inches square, the top of this last
being pointed. This rod only penetrated
far enough downward to give it sure
position, and stopped in timber on the
belfry. There was no rod on the build
ing. During severe thunderstorm
think in June-lightning struck this
pointed rod, shivered the ball, and went
its way downward. Some portion OF the
current descended to the dry rafters
under the roof, splitting some Of these,
as we'll as the timber on the wall under
the caves, and then jumped through the
wall to the conductor-pipe, down which
it ran to the wooden trough placed to
carry the water away from the founda-
ton, made hole in the trough large
enough for rat to go through and went
thence into the ground. Directly opposite
the building was small elm tree up
which a stroke went tearing the bark
loose from the bottom, and stripping 1T
up the trunk, while many OF the smaller
twigs on the tree were burst at their ex-
tremities. Whether this was the return
stroke" or an induction charge is left to
the reader to settle. Perhaps this may
be more readily decided after carefully
examining the illustration. In the
original photograph, Of which this is
copy, the main stroke has the appearance
of being as perfectly cylindrical as wire
OF course it is known that "streak"
of lightning is spark or ball, moving
with such rapidity as to leave on the
retina the impression of line of light.
Now, person seeing this approaching
or receding in direct line with the eye
would see it as a ball OF fire.
[Plante, who in quiet way did large
amount of experimenting, produced balls
of globular lightning electricity be-
tween glass plates, and these arranged
themselves like strings Of beads. He pub
lished an illustrated article showing these
in La Lumiere Electrique.
The cratic movement Of the flash, de-
void of zlzzag angles, is another OF its
peculiarities Its track is more nearly
one of curves than of angles. 1t evidently
crossed its own path and did larger
amount of wandering before deciding
where to go to earth, until finally it
landed on the line of wires shown The
difference in the diameter of the flash at
different points in its crazy progress is
probably accounted for by the varying
distances at which it is viewed. A very
marked exhibit is seen in the faint flash
which is shown to the left and below the
main discharge. This has been variously
explained 1t has been called the return
flash, q residual discharge, and second
ary or inductiye discharge. I think the
latter the true explanation.
The explosive or disruptive action OF
a lightning flash is another of its unex-
planned characteristics. In the case first
mentioned this was instanced in the
bursting of the wood of the elm tree
This was attributed to the sudden CONVEX
sion of the sap into steam of high tension,
and this acting secondarily, burst the
wood But what about the ball on the
cupola, and the dry timbers in the attic
and finally the bursting out Through the
wall and then diving through an inch
board, scattering all the chips from the
under side, showing conclusively its
downward course? Cases are on record
where the clothing has been almost COM
pletely stripped from human victim
and the body of the corpse scarcely
marked.
Mr.. McAdie has been eminently sue
cessful in photographing these dis
charges. Peculiar interest centers in one
from Popular Science Monthly, where the
so-called dark flashes are shown along
side the impulsive rush.
Cases of ball lightning are quite rare
but are we'll authenticated. A case in
Chicago was brought to the writer's no.
tice some years since which is interest
ing. The family of a gentleman on the
South Side was sitting in the yard enjoy
ing the shade one afternoon when he
noticed thunder storm rapidly coming
up and advised retreat into the house
They all hurried in as fast as possible and
had hardly got under cover when one of
the younger ones said: 80, look at that
ball of fire on the picture-rail." They all
saw it travelling at a moderate rate around
the moulding. When it arrived at the
corner of the room it shot through the
brick wall with noise like pist oil and
left a hole behind as memento.
A ball of lightning in one of the streets
of Paris made a straight dive at gas