The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-09-20
LIGHTNING PHOTOGRAPHS.
Trees Are Found Printed on Bodies of
Stricken Men.

London. Sept 1s.-The St. James Ga
zette says:
During a thunderstorm this week a
number of Swiss marksmen were struck
| by lightning while practicing al the rife
| butts. 1t was subsequently found that
upon their bodies were imprinted photo
| graphic impressions of the trees by which
the range is surrounded.
The report of the affair has been receiv-
ed with incredulity in some of the Lon
don papers. The skepticism is more sur
prising than the occurrence. For at least
a century and a quarter the Photographic
powers of lightning have been known to
the scientist. The records of the Royal
Society abound with data upon the point
Benjamin Franklin noted an instance in
1865, in which the effect of what he err
roneously described as a thunderbolt was
to photograph upon the breast of man
the likeness of a tree against which he
was standing. A New York scientific
journal noted a case of little girl upon
whose body was impressed the exact i'm
age of young maple tree growing before
the window at which she stood when
struck by lightning.
Modern ingenuity has done a great deal
in photography, and by the aid of won
derfully rapid shutters has given us from
time to time very good photographs Of
lightning flash. But the man is not yet
born who can make a shutter fast enough
to catch the real full thing. Seen at
night, a fash of lightning appears little
more powerful as an illunninant than
moonlight As a matter Of fact. the dur
alton of one of these flashes Is so brief
that one million of them could be crowded
into the space of single second. If one
fash could last but tenth of a second
1t would give near objects an illumination
one hundred thousand times more bril-
liant than that of moonlight The most
rapidly rotating bodies known to science
appear absolutely stationary when lit up
by II. The brilliancy of a fire-ball is in
comparably less vivid than that of flash
of lightning. being, rouShiy, no brighter
than red-hot iron. With its intense l,lroi-
Mostly and almost imme asurai Ie apiditY.
it is not surprising that the lightning
should prove a wonderful photographer
when a suitable negative offers.
A series of unauthen.icated instances Of
photography DS ISHlu-iS NdS
Gated TO the Royal SocI,ty by Prof. Ar
dres Poey. a one time director of the Ha-
vana Observatory. Amrng his instances
were several very notable ones. A tree
in which was a boy in .',e - of rohbinS
a birds nest was struck by lightning. Up
II the breast of the boy appeared the
image of the branches of the tree with
the rest lodged in thsm. and the young
firds in the nest. Upor tie hack Of
sailor struck dead by lightning appeared
a photograph of a horseyhae fastened to
the foremost against whicn he had beer.
standing Another mariner had lefr up
on is chest the inscriLti n "a just as
it appeared upin one OF tn masts. Again,
q Young man struck when wearing belt
il, which he had concesiei a quantity Of
coi7s. carried to his grave the photograph
ic impression Of those coins. More re-
narkable still was the case of a lady
upon whose leg was imprinted the i'm
preston of a flower which happened TO
be IN the path of the electric current, and
was photographed through a brick wall