The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-08-31
L1GHrN1NG's DANGERS.

In this country we have no means
of ascertaining precisely what is the
amount of mischief done by lightning,
says the London Chronicle. In France
and Germany statistics on the subject
are Systematically tabulated by the
government every year. If complete
statistics were accessible there can be
little doubt they would show that the
annual loss of life and property is far
greater thau is commonly supposed.
In one respect the damage is often
greater than it need be, even apart
from any consideration of lightning
conductors.
During FIVE or six days in the sum-
mer of 1884 it was estimated by
competent authority that besides
other mischief not less than 600 ami
mails of one sort or another in Eng
land were killed by lightning, most
of them being sheep and cattle in the
field. In all such casualties it is
usual to regard the carcasses as unfit
for human food, and they are ordinari-
ly buried.
This summer has been especially
disastrous. In various parts of the
country thunderstorms have been
frequent, and scarcely a week has
passed of late in which the newspa-
pers have not recorded the destruction
of sheep and cattle.
But, besides the killing of sheep
and cattle, there have been several
disasters fatal to human life, to say
nothing of a great deal of mischief to
property of various kinds. Here,
again, the mischief is often quite easi-
ly avoidable. 1t is, of course, very
we'll known that good lightning
conductor properly fixed is an abso-
lutely reliable safeguard against all
injury but a fact which is not so
we'll known is that an efficient light
uing conductor might often be set
up at the cost of a few shillings by
taking advantage of the conducting
power of trees.
Everybody should be aware by
this time that trees are source of per-
il in times of thunderstorm, though
from accidents which every now and
again occur it would seem that there
is still a great amount of ignorance on
the subject. Only few days ago a
lightning flash struck a poplar tree
near Winchester and killed a man
who had taken shelter at the foot Of
it, no doubt in ignorance of his dan
ger. Such fatalities are exceedingly
common and 1t has not infrequently
occurred that cottages and other build
ings have been struck by lightning in
Consequence of the vicinity of some
tall tree.
The casualties to animals are often
due to the fact that with the CON-
mencement of thunder shower they
are apt to gather for shelter beneath
the branches of some isolated tree.
The explanation of the mischief is
very we'll known. A tree is a con-
ductor of lightning, but not very
good one. In the absence of better
channel the lightning will fash
through it, but there is always a
chance of its glancing aside to any
medium that affords a reader pass
age. Now, the body of a man or an
animal constitutes a much better con-
ductor than a tree does, and, conse-
quently the electricity, whenever it
has an opportunity of doing SO will
leave the tree and flash through the
animal body. The same thing will
often occur when the lightning, pass
ing downward through the tree,
reaches a point at which a reader
passage is presented by some adjacent
building. The full volley is DETECTED
from the tree into the building.
1t has been suggested that in all
such cases If metal rod were carried
from the earth for short distance up
the tree there would be no such de-
hection. The metal conductor would
afford reader passage than the body
of man or the materials of house,
and the tree, which otherwise is a
source of danger, would become an
absolute protection, even to persons
or animals sheltering beneath it. Of
course nobody would suggest that all
trees should be thus dealt with, but
it often happens that from its special
position a tree during thunder
storm is not only a source of some per-
il, but is the occasion Of much uneas-
mess and anxiety.
According to the Lightning Rod
Conference appointed few years ago
by the Meteorological Society of Lon
don to inquire into the subject and
report on the best form of the thing
there is nothing much better than