The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-09-24

way compared to those receiving
railway and other mishaps.
How many kinds of lightning are
there? Well, the two principal kinds
are distinguished linear and ball. The
effects of the first may be peculiarly
destructive. It's flashes are followed
by thunder and are usually accom-
panied by a downpour of rain. When
its light is seen from great dis
lance, often through clouds through
the horizon, it is called diffused. heat
or sheet lightning.
"A long flash of linear lightning
if visibly composed of a number of
short segments, in the same general
direction, is called pearl or beaded
| lightning. If a streak splits in two
or more parts it is known then as
forked lightning.
THE exact nature of flash is un-
known. Although kite experiments
have shown the varying potentials
between air strata, and although it
| is generally held that electricity flows
from a positive toward a negative
body, there is still evidence that a
lightning discharge is, in most cases,
pulsating. Photographs have shown
not only a number of parallel flashes,
which appeared as one flash to the
naked eye, but they have also shown
the flash to have a width, like rib
bon. 1t seems that a flash, If last
ing only thousandth part of a Sec
ond, may be composed of a large
number of separate flashes having
much smaller duration.
cit has been held that lightning
stroke differs according to the flash;
as to whether the earth is negative or
positive; and that although flashes
are most common between differently
electrified clouds, or from cloud to
the earth, still they also ascend from
the earth into the air. The violence
of the discharge and its effects are
matters of pressure or tension be-
tween the earth and a cloud or a
person, or, indeed, between one per-
son and another at the same time.
After a discharge there is sometimes
an adjustment of potentials known
as 'choc de jour-
HAS ball lightning other names?
Yes, it is also called fireball and
globuIar lightning and sometimes
loosely thunderbolts. Balls may diff
fer from half an inch to several feet
in diameter They differ in form
and motion from linear lightning, but
as both kinds are erratic their effects
are sometimes peculiar. Balls may
come from any direction, may move
slowly or rapidly, and may be harm
less or deadly. They float through
open doorways or windows or up
chimneys. They may play around a
lightning rod without being attract
ed, or may strike the ground and re-
bound without being dissipated. 1t
would be difficult to believe, as some
maintain, that such an outlaw could
set fire to trees in the forests.
Then, there is still another kind.
Ball should not be confused with st.
Elmo lightning or St. Elmo's fire,
the 'corpo santo,' blue or red cleo
trio discharge sometimes seen on the
masts and yards of ships at sea, and
, more rarely on church spires and
| trees, and points of rock on land,
or about the heads of persons. Nor
should it be confused with the ignus
| fatUus, elf fire, will-O'-the-wisp, or
| jack-o'- lantern, a se1f-luminous glow
sometimes seen at night in swamps
or marshes"
Mr.. Plummer, who has made the
study of lightning his life work, and
who means to watch its pranks for
many years to come, understands
4 thoroughly why many timid persons
! | should show fear at the approach of
4 a storm, but after being made reas-
o onably safe he is unable to see the
. necessity of hiding in closets or be-
: tween %he cover of handy mattresses
e to avoid danger. To him 1t is NAV
-e thing, with which he has beer
4 brought into close contact