The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-07-17

They Are in Demand Chiefly in
Rural Districts.
Lightning Less Destructive IN
Cities Than in Towns.

many eccentricities OF behavior as
Jove's thunderbolts. Machino-made
electricity, especially whom playing
tho truant is tricky enough, but the
fiery product Of the clouds is still
more original, inconsistent and law.
less. In small towns, or in the out
skirts OF large ones, where the houses
are detached from one another, aud
are fifty or a hundred feet apart, one
frequently hears Of damage done by
lightning it is seldom a row OF brown
stone-fronted dwellings, a block of
stores, a fifteen or twenty-story apart
ment house, or a sky-scraping Office
building, in those portions of city
which are built up solidly, is hurt in
that way.
So long has this state Of affairs ex-
listed aud been recognized that it has
affected the business of making and
erecting lightning rods If a man
should institute a special search for
such apparatus in the older part of
the metropolis, with an opera glass in
his hand aud high window or roof
for his post of observation, he might
well ask whether the lightning rod has
not become, like the dodo, an extinct
species. Eventually, a few tall, slender
church spires and certain classes of
buildings under the control of federal
or municipal bureaus would be found
displaying metallic bristles, connected
by copper cable with the ground.
But these and the few other discover
able exceptions would only serve to
emphasize the rule. Inquiry reveals,
however. that an extensive business in
lightning rods is still carried on.
They are seen as frequently as ever
in small towns and on farms Occa-
sionally you will hear of a man
who has a house and big ware
houses in the city which are not pro-
vided with these safeguards, but who
employs them abundantly on his coun-
try house and stock barns. 1t is said
that Mr.. Edison and Mr.. Westing-
house, who are supposed to know a
thing or two about electricity, protect
their houses and shops, which are iso-
lated structures, in this way and the
Weather Bureau experts and other
scientists who have investigated the
subject, declare that properly con
structed lightning rod has a distinct
value. 1t is clear, therefore, that this
time-honored institution is not going
out of favor except in big cities.
The singular Indifference which the
lightning seems to manifest towards
great centres of population is prob.
ably not due to the non.conducting
qualities of the brick and stone so
largely used there in the construction
of buildings Most of the theories
advanced to account for the puzzling
phenomenon in question assume that,
In some way or other, better facilities
exist in and near great cities than else :
where for relieving thundercloud of
its superintendent electricity and
leading the same quietly to the earth.
The vast number of chimneys, flag
stoas, spires and other upward pro-
jections from the roofs, especially
when we'll wetted, facilitate a
silent discharge in innumerable small
streams. The complicated network
of telegraph and telephone wires
reaching through the streets, high
in air, has also been credit
ed with disseminating good
deal OF electricity during thunder
storms. A third factor in the situa-
ton may possibly be found in the
steel frames of some of the modern
high buildings. Certainly, if the
metallic portions of the roof of one
of these structures were properly con-
nected with the frame, and if the lat
ter reached down to permanently
moist soil, the combination would af-
ford a lightning rod Of exceptional
efficiency and proportions, Distribute
the credit among these various agents
as one may, there is evidently set Of
conditions existing in large cities