Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-20
An Account of Some Interest
ing Studies by the Government.

railroad the third time when a church Pew
was wrecked under MIN. the fourth tima
when his morse WAS killed and the plough
which be WAS guiding was twisted cat Il
shape, the NTH time when he was la,Ckod
senseless from the supper table and
the sixth time when he was Knocked
from his horse and stripped OF all Of las
garments below the waist.
In front of the entrance to tho Emitted
States House OF Representatives. thorc -
| an old linden tree which can hrag If
at least five strokes from lghtning. ga, IA
of which glanced from the Capltol dome
above and left d well defined groove in
the bark
Speaking Of trees. statistics obtained by
our government from the German forestry
bureau show that the oak suffers most
frequently by far and after that Ia order
birch.
That thunderstorms are DETECTED 10y tho
tides up and down Delaware bay has long
been the belief OF the woatherwise natives
about Cape May. n. J. Recently the
weather bureau made inquiry of It's agent
at the cape. who replied that the poI ulaca
were correct: that an incoming flood tide
generally carries thunderstorms with Il
northward; that an outfluwing obh sins
ilarly bears them with Il southwa!d and
that during slack water such storms 40
across the bay regardless of the tides. 4
That the moons phases regulate the FREE
quency of thunderstorns is Indicated Ivy
data recently tabulated by Prof w H.
Pickering of the Harvard Observatory
He says that the liability of such storms Is
greatest between new moon and first quar-
ter and least between fun moon and last
quarter.
lightning photographs" on the skin.
where red figures representing ferns and
trees in intricate form often appea. after
a lightning stroiae-fhese forms having
given rise to supersttions concerning the
reproduction OF scenes In the ncigaburing
landscape-have recently been explained
by experiments made by Prof. Elmer Gates
of Chevy Chase Md whO nv "a Ia tt1Ir
electric sparks TO impnge upon photos
graphic plates, has reproduced these fig
ures In what he terms "electrogtaphs. u,
some of them showing beautiful fernlIke
forms.
Measuring Thunder Heads.
BY aid of surveying instruments arranged
at two stations connected telephonically,
the weather bureau recently measured n
large number of thunder heads" which
were compared with other classes of clouds
and found to be by far the largest of all
vaporous forms floating In our atmospheric
Several were found to be seven and one
half miles in height, from base to summit.
the apexes touching points ten miles above
earth.
That at least one thousand million volts
is the force required to send lightning to
earth from thunder head a mile high,
as frequently occurs-was recently esti-;
mated by Prof. Trowbridge of the Lau-i
renee School of Science, Harvard, who has
erected instrument that reproduces
lightning phenomena on small scale.
The United States National Museum has
installed in its geological collections a.;
number of exhibits illustrating the diam-5
eters as well as the effects of some thun-
derbolts which have struck In beds OIL
sand, transforming the silica OF the sand
into glass, thus making tubes presumably
of the same size as the thunderbolts Tubes
of this kind have been followed into the
ground for thirty feet and they have varied
In thickness from the diameter of a quill
to three inches or more.
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS.