The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-01-09
THE FREAKS OF LIGHTNING
PUZZLES THAT THE WEATHER.
BUREAU rs CONSIDERING,
Uniform Death Rate GlobuIar Light
ning-Glass Made of Fused Snnd-Ctties
I'm Less Peril Than Formerly.

In Less Peril Vhan Formerly.
The weather bureau has been doing a
lot of specializing of late on the subject
of lightning. Its experts have made up
the figures for the last year, and they
find that during that period 1862 people
We're killed by the dreaded fluid in this
country. This was twenty-one deaths
! in excess of the previous twelvemonth.
Oddly enough, the mortality from light
ming stroke averages SO evenly that just
about so many persons annually are
destroyed in this way. In any three sue
| cessive years there will be few over
thousand fatal cases. Of course, many
individuals are struck and do not die.
| Recently an investigation was made
by Clark university of the causes which
excite fear in human beings. No fewer
than 1,707 persons were examined on
the subject, and they acknowledged a
great variety of things they We're afraid
of. These things were 29S in number,
and lightning led them all. 1t appeared
in a word, that lightning was the chief
individuals from tornado regions put
the funnel cloud first.
Now, the Investigations Of the wealth
er bureau prove that there is no reason
able ground for this widespread fear Of
lightning. Taking the figures as given
for the last year, it would apear that
the chance that any individual will be
killed by thunderbolt during the next
twelvemonth IS only one in 190,607. Ones
prospect Of dying by the kick Of horse
Is about so per cent. greater. In New
York city alone 200 people are drowned,
$50 are burned or scalded to death, and
so come to an untimely end by falls in
every year. 1t is interesting to compare
these figures with the mdf,eality for the
whole of the United statss from light
ming.
Out of every three persons struck by
lightning two survive and recover. The
amount Of electricity in a thunderbolt
is not gerat, the experts say; but the
voltage is extremely high, and that is
what does the damage. 1t is rather re-
markable that so little SHOULD be known
as to the nature of fluid which is jim
such common and every day day use.
Nowadays it would be almost as easy
to get along without water as without
electricity, yet the fluid is still called
the mysterious" inasmuch as it's char
acter and properties are to great ex-,
tent unknown. The latest and best ac-si
cepted theory of the subject Is that 1
likt light, it is a form Of motion.
But what puzzles the experts most is
to discover the nature Of the balls Of
nJa t,jo x,ybich q n tipO
up strange capers. One cannot point to s
such a thing and say, "Oh, don't you
know, that is only a form Of motion"
Sometimes these lightning balls enter (
dwellings and explode. Great numbers
of them were seen playing about in
Louisville during the tornado a few
years. and now and then they would
burst With deafening reports. Fireballs
of this description, though not properly /
so termed, have been produced recently I
by artifice in Germany, by charging /
masses of vapor with electricity.
Phenomena of this kind are by no !
means rarity; electric balls are fire.
quently seen. Apparently, they repre-
sent q very highly condensed form Of .
electricity. This Is sufficiently shown by
the violence with which they explode. .
But what causes the condensation? OF
,,,h.+ sort ~ oopsistn,,c,, ,ra thovo And
1ybv do tbev hurstp n ie easy enonph
n COW +b,t electricitv Ia a form If mo
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