Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-04-24
LIGHTNING A PUZZLE
NO REASONABLE GROUND FOR THE
 GENERAL FEAR ENTERTAINED. .-

Facts and speculatioas About Celestial Ar-
 tillery-some Curious Performances in
 Which the Dreaded Fluid Has Indulged
 Value of Lightning Rods.
 The weather bureau has been doing a lot of speculating of late on the sub- ject of lightning
 Ont of every three persons struck by lightning two survive and recover. The amount of electricity in a thunderbolt is not very great the experts say but it's voltage is extremely high, and that is what does the damage 1t is rather remarkable that so little should be known as to the nature of the fluid which is in such common and everyday use. Nowadays it would be as easy to get along without water as without electricity, yet the fluid is still called the mysterious, inasmuch as it's character and properties are to a great extent unknown. The latest and the best accepted theory on the subject is that, like light, it is a form of motion.
 But what puzzles the experts most is to discover the nature of the balls of electricity which are con- stantly cutting up strange eapers. FirebaHs of this description, though not properly so termed, have been produced artiieialy in Germany, by charging masses of yaper with elec- tricitg. Soon after the famous expert ments of Franklin with a kite, investi- gators in various parts of the world initiated his performance. One of these was Prof. Richman we'll known scientist of St Petersburg. He succeeded in drawing the lightning in- to his laboratory, out the result was unfortunate, inasmach as fiery ball as big as a mans fist suddenly ap- peared in the room, leaped from the insulated conductor to his head and killed him. The occurrence was de- scribed by an assistant, who stated that the ball was blue
 In recent years there has arisen q serious doubt as to the value of light hing rods. This distrust has arisen probably from the fact that buildings provided with lightning rods have on many occasions been destroyed After all, the lightning rod is only con- ductor, and is able to carry only a certain amount of the electric fluid. if an avalanche of electricity comes it may overflow, like a torrent that over flows the banks of the channel de- signed for fl, and the result is disaster.
 One of the best evidences of the value of lightning rods up to date has been afforded by tie Washington monu- ment It is capped by small four sided pyramid of aluminium, which metal, so cheap today, was very costly at the time of the building of the greatest obelisk that the world has ever known. This aluminium tip is con- neeted with the ground by four copper rods which go down deep into the earth. On April ,, 1885, five immense bolts of electricity were seen to flash between the monument and a thunder cloud Oyerhanging in the course of twenty minutes. In other words, the monument was struck fiercely five times, but it suffered no damage what ever. On June 15. of the same year. a more tremendous assault was made upon the monument from the heavens and the result was 8 fracture of one of the topmost stones. The crack still re mains to show what nature can do in the way of an electric shock, but the slightnesS of the damage is evidence of mans power to protect himself from such attacks. The obelisk is ideally located for attracting electrical as saults from the skies, and yet while many times hit, it has suffered only once, and that time 10 a trifing extent
 In old times vessels used often to be struck by lightning and the loss by that cause was very great. From 1790 to 1S40 no fewer than 2S0 ships of the British navy were struck, 100 men be ing killed and 250 injured. Nowadays warships, as well as big merchant yes sells, have lightning rods running down their masts and into the sea so that the electricity is carried off. In these days nobody hears of the destruction of a vessel by lightning. Churches are the buildings most commonly struck. There is record or certain church in Carinthia which WAS hit hy lightning four or five times 2 year on an average the services being stopped in summer on this account. A rod was put on the steeple and there Nas no more trouble.
 Turkeys Tre olsed By Dogs.
 The wild turkey in the Ozarks is