Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-25
WIHEN the government, through the

not long ago a consideration of the damage
inflicted to life and property by lightning,
there was realized for perhaps the first time
the widespread ravages of this strange and
terrible foe to humanity. Statistics show
that in the United States between seven hun
dred and eight hundred persons are killed
annually and twice that number injured by
lightning There have been instances of
lightning fatalities, however, that have ut
terlv baff1ed the trained investigator A
startling theory, recently propounded by an
English scientist, IS that some of the most
destructive bolts of lightning are flashed, not
from the clouds to the earth, but from highly
electrified points on the earth in an upward
direction.
Some wears ago a house in a town on the
Massachusetts, coast was struck by lightning,
and one man was killed, while others, even
in the same room, were uniniured. On eX-
amining the premises it was found that, in a
garnet directly over where the victim was
sitting in the room below, a saw was hung to
a rafter and the point OF it reached the floor
almost exactly over the mans head. Then,
in the basement Immediately below the sit
ting room were number of tools, among
Others a crowbar, which was standing against
the WALL nearly below the feet of the victim.
The result evidently was that the crowbar,
the body of the man, the saw, and that part
of the chimney above the roof formed con-
nected series of conductors for the trans
mission of the electric force, and the victim
was killed simply because he, and not Others,
came in the track of the bolt.
To stand by the side of a continuous con-
ductor, of sufficient conducting capacity to
afford free transit to the electric charge, Is
the safest position person can take IN an
electric storm. A house with good light
ming conductor passing down its wall offers
a proper medium; but to be near an imper-
feet conductor, as a tree for example, or to
form part of a broken chain of conductors,
is the most dangerous.
IN the city of Washington man, his wife,
and an infant were killed by lightning
some years ago in circumstances that at
tracted much attention.
In the room where the fatality occurred
stood table covered with knives, forks, ETC.,
left after dinner This table was almost OPP
posite the body of a tree that stood four feet
from the house, its branches projecting over
the roof Between the table and corner of
the room, at the height of four and half
feet, hung bright hand saw, above which
and perpendcularly with it was a small oak
stand, its foot mortised in the upper log of
the wall, the other end supporting the outer
roof rafter The house had no ceiling other
than that afforded by the under side of the
gable roof. Nearly under the correspond
ing stud of the opposite side was an iron
coffee mill, secured to the side of a small
cupboard, four feet above the floor. On the
ledge formed by the upper surface of the top
log of this end wall (wall plate), against
which the studs were stepped, there lay,
over the coffee mill. at the foot of the stud
on that side, several old knives, ETC., and be-
tween the studs, over the table a broken gun
lock.
The woman, with an infant in her lap, sat
in chair at the corner of the table, in front
of the saw and three feet from it; her hus-
band was seated on the opposite side, reclin-
ing his head against the corner of the cup
board few inches below the coffee mill, one
| foot from the wall.
| The lightning struck the tree in front of
the house, the bolt descending evidently to
about the height of the house, where it
branched or bifurcated. One part passed
down the southeast part of the tree to within
about four feet of the ground, where a small
twig seemed to have again divided it, and
the bark was stripped off in two parallel
strips, each about three-fourths of an inch
wide. The other bolt, doubtless the largest,
perforated the clapboard opposite the tree
ten feet above ground, leaving a burnt hole
about one by two inches. 1t descended the
stud behind the woman, splintering it super
1,,., Il