The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-25
FREAKS OF LIGHTNING.
Where 1t Strikes There Are Always
Unexpected Results.
From the New York Tribune.


From the New York Tribune.
Few natural phenomena show so many
eccentricities of behavior as Jove's thun-
derbosts. Machine-made electricity, es-
pecially when playing the truant is tricky
enough, but the fiery product of the clouds
is still more original, inconsistent and
lawless. In small towns, or in the out
skirts of large ones, where the houses
are detached from one another. and are
30 or 100 feet apart, one frequently hears
OF damage by lightning; it is seldom a
row of brOWn-stone fronted dwellings,
a block of stores, a fifteen or twenty-story
apartment house, or a Sky-scraping Office
building, in those portions Of the city
which are built up solidly, is hurt in
So long has this state of affairs existed
and been recognized that 1t has affected
the business of making and erecting light
ming rods. If a man should institute a
special search for such apparatus in the
older part of the metropolis, with an op-
era glass in his hand and a high window
or roof for his post of observation, he
might we'll 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 build
ings under the control of federal or mu-
nicipal bureaus would be found displaying
metallic bristles, connected by a copper
cable with the ground
But these and the few other discovera-
bic exceptions would only serve to empha-
size 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. Occasionally you VIII hear of a
man who has a house and big warehouses
in the city which are not provided with
these safeguards, but who employs them
abundantly on his country house and stock
barns. 1t is said that Mr. Edison and Mr..
Westinghouse, who are disposed to know
a thing or two abOust electricity, protect
their houses nd zbOnq which teO1af
structures in this way; and the weather
bureau experts and other scientists who
have investigated the subject declare that
properly constructed 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 light
ming seems to manifest toward great CEN
tiers of population is probably not due to
the non-conducting qualities of the brick
and stone so largely used there in the con-
structiOn of buildings On the other hand,
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
elsewhere for relieving a thunder cloud of
its superabundant electricity and leading
the same quantity to the earth.
The vast number Of chimneys, flagstaffs,
spires and other upward projections from
the roofs, especially when we'll wetted, ia
cilitate a silent discharge in innumerable
small streams. The complicated network
OF Telegraph ana telephone wires reachlng
through the streets, high in air, has also
been credited with disseminating a good
deal of electricity during thunder storms
A third factor in the situation may posi-
bly, 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 prop
erly connected with the frame, and II the
latter reached down into permanently
moist SOIL the combination would afford
a lightning rod of exceptional efficiency
and proportions. Distribute the credit
among the various agents as one may
there is evidently a set of conditions ex-
listing in large cities which tends to lessen
the violence of lightning there, and
which appreciably affect the demand for
lightning rods.