The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1900-08-04
VICTIMS OF LIGHTNING
LAST YEATS DEATH Roll -.
LARGEST EVER RECORDED "

greater than in any ear sine. ,,,,..
tics began TO be collected. Fiy,. Inn
dred and sixty-two persons wrr. Liu,,
instantly or suffered INJURIES f.
which death soon resulted. AMI "a,
persons Were injured, many Of ill.,,
suffering from physical shock. otb,,,
from painful burns and others fran,
temporary paralysis of some part o.,
the body. The most common form -,
injury resulting from lightning Seem.
to be the paralysis of the arms or loo,
In Professor Henry's report CT tno
casualties OF the year he SAYS .bars
were some remarkable ESCAPES tr.r,
death. In some cases the cluthip,, ~
the person struck WIS set on fire and
the body was Scared or burned: how.
ever. complete recovery followed. I,
is not easy to explain how these pe,.
sons ESCAPED death, and there is Srm
much uncertainty as to the maximum
voltage that can be applied to the I'm.
I man body without fatal result.
In some cases of death the body %
the person struck showed No external
marks of the discharge. and death
seems to have resulted from complets
| collapse Of the cellular tissues. In
| many cases, however. the cause Of
death was made apparent by the dis
cOlOration and burning of various parts
of the body. One singular case was
! that Of two brothers who We're killed
while driving together in dog earl.
They were found lying side by side on
the road just as they had fallen out Of
the back of the venIcle. The elder
brother had no external sign of injury.
The skin of the younger brother was
burned in n number of small, circular
holes over the chest and abdomen and
the back was burned from the neck 10
the hips. The metallic collar stud was
fused and the skin beneathit was deep
ly burned. The waistcoat and shirt
were charred. but the coat was unin-
jured. No signs of disturbance of the
ground could be seen
1t is usually supposed that the dam
age is done by a single bolt, but il is
often difficult to explain the casualties
on this theory. Thus. in one ease last
year n span of horses attached 10 s
wagon and n man in the rear of the
wagon were killed while the driver,
who was sitting between the horses
and the man, was not seriously hurt.
This case and others of Il similar na-
ture seem TO confirm the belief that
not one but a number of discharges
may reach the earth within a compar-
atively small radius inside which there
may be small areas of safety. Photo
graphs OF the sO-called ribbon flashes
show that at times the discharge is
from thirty to forty feet wide at the
surface of the earth. There appear 10
be narrow lanes within these broad
paths that are free from violent dis
turbance. \ person standing in one OF
these lanes might escape serious in
jury while others near by might be
killed.
The greatest number of fatalities. OF
10 per cent, occurred in the open. the
next greatest number, "a per cent, oc-
CURED in houses; IL per cent. occurred
under trees, and the least of all. per
cent. III barns.
A dozen persons. mostly women.
were killed either while taking clothes
from wire lines or while near the lines
curing a thunderstorm. IL is well
known that in the cities many wire
clothes lines are extended between the
dwellings and trees or the back fence.
Professor Henry says that this is
source Of danger. and that wires
should never connect q house with
tree. II wire is used At
all, 1t should not be stretched within
fifty feet of a dwelling house. Here
are some precautions that are recon-
mended during thunderstOrmS. Per
sons in a houze should avoid chimneys
and open windows. The safest place
is probably the midG-e OF the room.
In the open, persons should never seek
the shelter of trees. Wire fences and
Eve stock should be avoided. II on
1t is wise to dismOunt and
wait until the storm passes away.
In one case last year five persons
were killed by single stroke of light
ming. There was also one case of fOu-
deaths from a single stroke. two cases
Of three deaths, and several cases Of
two deaths.
The greatest number of fatalities &C.
rurred in Pennsylvania. where there
we're fifty-six deaths. and there were
tOrty-one in Illinois.
In both these States there was an
large number of fatali-
lies in the month Of May. In the whole
however, the largest nunbe;
If casualties occurred in June. July
Ind August. December was the only
month without a casualty, though only
-wo persons were killed in October,
our in November, three in January,
Ind one in February. The statistics
II 1893 and 1899 show that the number
If fatalities by lightning in any region