The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-07-25
PLAY OF LIGHTNING.
Greater Danger from Ihunderbolts in
the Country Than the City.
Explanation of What is Termed Light
ming Photography.

Explanation of What is formed Light
ming Photography.
Statistics collected for the past Ave
years show that country people are in
five times as great a danger from light
ming death as city people. A statistical
inquiry made last summer in Germany
shows that telephone, telegraph and troll
ley wires in large cities greatly diminish
the destruotiveness of lightning strokes
by distributing the electricity evenly over
the area covered. A we'll known cleo
trician recently said that on this acooun t
a seat in trolley car ia one of the safest
places to which person can resort dur
1 ing an electric storm. The continuous
underground piping and tin roofing of
city houses likewise aid in the distribu-
ton of the lightning.
/ Recent meteorological and astronomical
observations have given rise to an inter-
esting theory accounting for the source
of electric phenomena displayed in
storms, az we'll as for the latent atmos-
pherio and terrestrial currents always
present, even in winter This theory is
that such connections rs lightning are
only possible when the sun spots are in
a particular locality over the surfaco of
the sun, and when the earth occupies a
certain position in relation to them. 1t
is further believed that the masses of
matter thrown off by the sun when the
latter is violently agitatsd at certain
times constitute the medium through
which electrical energy ia conducted from
the sun to the earth. This cause has
been attributed to the aurora borealis,
thought by some authorities to ba form
of lightning.
POWER OF IIGHTNIN G FLASHES
Scientists in different parts of the
world are at work deyising means of de-
uermining the horse powers. lengths, di-
ameters and durations of lightning flash
es. The most accurate computation of
the power of an exceptionally severe flash
is said to have lately been made in Ger
many. The bolt entered "a house and
struck a wooden post, melting two nails,
each q sixth of an inch in diameter. 1t
was carefully estimated that in order to
melt nails OF this volume and material,
and accomplish the destruction in
one-tenth of second would require
thunderbnlt acting with power equal
to that of so, 600 horses, each lifting one
pound $4,000 feet in one minute. A bolt
Of this power, coming upon you. either
above or below, would hardly b. attract
ed by small conductors.
Your Aunt Mary Jane will tell you not
to hold pair of scissors or a needle and
not to wear steel buttons or buckles on
your clothes during thunder storm. lest
these little things coax the thunderholt
from Its regular path. Similarly ridcu-
lous is Ehe old-fashioned notion that
single pane of glass would refract the
course Of a bolt coming head on. AS TO
the diameter ola flash, some savere ones
have been found to measure foot in this
particular. A cross section of thunder
bolt looks like that of round iron har
heated to Wilderness. The particles of
the atmosphere in reality become white
hot on coming in contact with the light
ming. The flashes which We commonly
see during thunderstorms are found to
be anywhere from 2O0 feet to half mile
III length.
Very recent studies of the duration of
the lightning fash have disclosed fact
of great interest to every one. This is
that what appears to us to be a sudden
repetition, sometimes several times. of
lightning flash Is in reality On hallucina-
ton. You have invariably noticed that
a lightning flash seems to appear in sud
den jerks, as though turned on and eff
again in rapid succession. 1t Is now be-
lieved that sensation Is what really acts
in vibrations. and that the nervous our
rent by which we see the flash is reflected
at the center of the brain where the per-
ception OCCURS, returning to the outer end
OF the seeing nervo, returning again to
he brain, and so on. 1t has been scien-
tifcally proven in France that an i'm pres
sion of intense light of almost instanta-
neous duration is followed by sensa-
tion of great darkness, then light, then
lesseS darkness, and SO on.
ELECTRIC PHOTOGRAPHY.
Herr Karyall of Vienna in a recent
scientific publication of that city is said
to have solved the problem concerning
the cause of lightning photography
that is, the imprint of certain forms
upon persons as well as inanimate things
struck by thunderbolts With power
full induction coil Herr Kryaall produced
an articfiial electric storm and allowed
the spark therefrom to strike a glass
plate whose surface WAS smoked, The
black was put on in such a manner that
each particle struck by the electric spark,
as 1t hit aud scattered, was knocked
from Its place. Glasses go treated were
examined through q powerful microscope
and projected on q screen. They were
imprinted with various tree-like and
moss-like forms. With an unusually
strong current WAS made a figure re-
sem bling dim photograph of a rustic