The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-07
BALL LIGHTNING.
Rare Phenomenon Described by {
 Weather Observer.

New York Sun.
 Every schoolboy has seen pictures or what is called ball lightning. It is very rare phenomenon, and no meteorologist pretends to understand it. Professor Da- wis of Harvard says in his Elementary Meteorology" that discharges of atmos- form of globe lightning, having the ap- pearance of luminous balls, seeming to be B foot or so in diameter, moving at moderate velocity and passing about lmong objects near the ground, remaining visible number of seconds and com monly disappearing with an explosion. No satisfactory explanation has been of fered for this phenomenon. Careful ob- Hervation should be made of it."
 Another meteorologist calls it a very rare form of lightning. He says that a vivid flash accompanied by a violent eX- plosion seems to project a brilliant bomb to the earth. Upon striking the earth the bomb may rebound several times before 1t splits up and disappears. He adds that no satisfactory explanation has been gtv- en of this singular form of electrical dis charge.
 A short time ago there was a display of ball lightning near Cumberland, Md, and a short account was given of it in a loca newspaper. The strange vagaries Of ball lightning are so seldom witnesses that scientific men have sometimes expressed doubt that there is any such thing. Il has as yet been found very difficult to form theory about it that will cover all its peculiarities, particularly as regards shape, color, slow and cratic movement and finallv explosive effects.
 All reports of ball lightning that are well described are welcomed by meteor ologists, who hope by accommodating evil Hence to some day attain better idea of this curious phenomenon. The latest ex- perience reported is from the pen of Rob- ert Seyboth. an observer in the Weather Bureau. who writes to The Monthly Weather Review of an experience with ball lightning when he was a lad on a New Bedford whaling bark in the north west corner of Hudson Bay.
 About o'clock in the morning, after a terrible storm of wind and rain the boy was sent~a aloft to secure the upper hold on the foretopseil 'bface. While at work he saw thundercloud apparently only a few yards Above the mizZen trusk and a moment later he say a ball of fire the size of a mans head detach itself from the cloudS and sah quite lesiurely to the mizzen truck. It struck this object and exploded with a deafening crash sending a shower of hissing sparks over the rig Ring and deck.
 When the boy regained consciousness the right side of his body was paralyzed. Some of his shipmates were engaged in clearing away the wreckage of the shat tered mizzen mast, while others were sounding the pump to find whether the bottom. It appeared, however, that the lightning had found an easier escape to the water by way of the anchor chains and no further damage was done to the ship.
 All the men standing on deck were more or less shocked but none was rem dered insensible. The third mate hap pened to be standing inside a big coil oi inc anchor chain. along which the light ming flew, looking like huge fiery ser peRt. The mate was swiftly turned around on his own axis a number of Hines. looking more like a whirling der wish than a grim old tar, as the lightning followed the evolutions of the coll When he had regained his breath the profanity of the veteran whaleman was said to have been awful
 At a later time MT. Seyboth was in charge of the signal service station on the summit of Pike's Peak, where he had ample opportunity to familiarize himself with the many different manifestations of htmcspheiic electricity. but he has never again witnessed the mysterious and weird phenomenon known as ball lightning.
 It's a hard matrimonial knot that the di.