The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-01-18
LIGHTNING A M|YSIER|
This Phenomenon Of Nature q &
Puzzle to Science.
THE THEORY OF THUNDER,

In Q General Way Il 10 undsrsteed,'
but, - q Matter Of Fact, the oset!
From the Storm In its Erratie Tsmd-
sNeiss Ds6es the in~sstisatsr.
In a general way we understand t.
theory Of thunderstorms. Az q mat
tar Of fact. there Is no phenomenon
Of nature. but excepting even earth
quakes, Of which we know 20 little.
Man-made nghtning-that IL. cleo.
tricity Of the highest power. which
We can artificially produce-win act
according to certain known laws. Il.
viii. for instance, travel along a con-
ductor Of metal
quent leap from a well defined metal.
path and launch itself through the air
or some adjacent object which is an
infinitely poorer conductor.
This may be due to the almost In
conceivable force Of q fash Of light
ming, says a writer in Parsons Week
ly. 1t is estimated that fash Of
lightning a mile long represents .
pressure of discharge equal to 5000.
100000 volts. q
As such fash lasts only about the.
tbousandth part Of a second the en-.
ergy dissipated by the discharge h.
equal to 100000 horsepower. Put II
other words. IL We could find some
means Of saving and using lightning
We should be the richer by a good
round sum for every fash.
Lightning is. as we know. usually
accompanied by a peal Of thundef.
which Is louder the nearer the hearer
is to the point Of the discharge, but
this is not an invariable rule There
are cases on record Of most destruc-
tive lightning flashes which were un-
accompanied by sound.
Such phenomenon occurred at Brad
ford some years ago. What is de-
scribed as "a silent thunderbolt'' fell
in graveyard, destroying one monu-
ment and smashing to atoms nearly
seventy glass cases containing wreaths
and flowers.
In the same summer SwanScombe.
in Kent. was terrified by a freak OF
lightning. All of sudden "a great
mass of blue fire" swept along the
street, and next moment it was seen
that the fine old parish church. bull,
nearly 100 years ago. had been struck
The building. with all it's fine old
carved oak, was soon a roaring fur
mace. and only a part of the chancef
was saved.
Scientists are still hopelessly at sea
as 10 the cause of that peculiar pho
nomenon known as globe lightning. AT
Coventry some years ago during a VIC
lent thunderstorm it passed along a
street like soap bubble built of blue
fire and drifted into she'd where II
exploded. blowing the roof off the
place.
At Rheims. in France, similar fire
ball came into cobbler's shop
through the open window. The soli-
tary occupant of the place sat perfect
ly still. paralyZed with terror, while
his fearful visitant lowered for sever
al seconds overhead. Then it moved
toward the fireplace and presently
passed up the chimney.
Next moment there was an explo-
sion like shell bursting and the up-
per part Of the chimney came crashing
down.
Not long ago Count G. Hamilton
made n record of n similar freak of
electricity. He was sitting at dinner
at house on Lake Wiener. in Sweden,
when just after 4 vivid fash of light
ming a brilliant white ball appeared
over the table and after hanging poised
there for some seconds went off with
with a loud bang.
Fortunately it did no harm to any
one. although it was quite close to
several people. Those who saw it sug-
gested it was like ball of cold light
ming
In November. 1902, Sydney. Austria
liza. was visited by Il terrific dust
storm, in the midst of which a perfect
rain of electric f e balls began to fall.
These set fire to number of houses,
and most appalling panic set in. A
cry was raised that the end of the
world was at hand, and people rushed
out of their houses into the ink black.
dust deep streets.
The most amazing and terrifying
displays of the power of lightning are
seen on mountains. In 1890 a party
was on the top of mountain in the
caucasus when huge violet ball. sur
rounded by vivid rays, struck a rock
near by and. exploding like a bomb,
burst into atoms. One OF the party
was badly hurt.