The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-01-30
United States Government Bu-
reau Of Standards Gives
Valuable Advice.

WASHINGTON. Jan. 29.-lf you find
yourself indoors during a thunder
storm, don't go near a stove; 1t is
dangerous. Keep away from the
chimney; avoid the close vicinity Of
the telephone, and don't touch Q
screen door.
This advice Is given by the United
States government bureau of STAN
dards. which has just published a
lightning book, summing up the re-
suits Of an elaborate investigation it
has made on the subject.
II a house be struck by lightning,
this authority says. there is no place
anywhere inside Of it that is safe.
The death dealing agent may pene-
tFate anywhere, rendering escape i'm
possible. But some places, such as
those above mentioned. are more dan
gerous than others.
Avoid Wire Fences.
Out Of doors, in a thunderstorm,
the safest place is in the woods.
Lightning may strike a tree, but it is
not likely to be the one under which
you have taken shelter. On the other
hand, under such circumstances, the
most foolish thing you can do is to
stand beneath an isolated tree. But
an open shed, especially If at some
distance from large buildings, is near
ly if not quite as dangerous.
Never 60 neal a wire fence during
Q thunderstorm. Even in a house that
has no lightning rod you have a
much better chance Of escaping injury
or death than anywhere outdoors.
Even If struck indoors, you have at
least one chance out Of two Of sur
yiving; but If such a thing happens
in the neighborhood of a tree, you will
almost certainly be killed. Not more
than one in thirty-ive people hit un-
der such conditions lives to know
what happened.
"Skyscraper' Needs No Rods.
'You can be absolutely safe in a
thunderstorm only If you bury your
self underground las in a cyclone eel
lar, or get inside of a cage Of metal
network. But right here is a very
curious point Of fact. A modern steel
frame building or city "skyscraper" Is
in effect Just such a cage, and needs
no lightning rods because it is light
ming proof.
Next best in respect Of safety is
the properly rodded house. Such
houses are struck by lightning now
and then, but, as it is r%eckoned, they
would be hit just about fifty times as
often If they had no rods.
Cattle are apt to seek shelter I'M
der isolated trees during a thunder
storm, and are often killed in CON-
sequence. 1t is sometimes a good idea
TO rod such trees on a farm, running
copper cable from the topmost
branches deep into the ground.
425 Killed Every Year.
But the way in which cattle are
most commonly killed by fire from the
skies is through the accident Of drift
ing up against wire fences when a
thunderstorm is raging. Lightning,
collected by the fence, brings it to
the bunch Of covering beasts, and
they perish. This sort of thing may
be prevented by earthing the fences
at intervals along its length with
wires running down the posts and
into the ground. Or the posts them
selves may be made Of iron pipe,
On an average, lightning kills about
425 persons infthis country every year,
and injuries more of less seriously l.
O65. Thus it appears that two and a
half persons struck by bolts from the
sky survive for every m that dies
in consequence. The number killed
and injured in this way would be
greatly reduced (says the lightning
book if all dwellings were rodded.
Chief Danger In Western States.
Nine-tenths of the annual mortality
from lightning occurs in the rural dis
tricts Qncluding under this head all
towns and villages Of $500 inhabitants
or less). Lightning is one Of the prin-
cipal causes Of fires in the rural dis
tricts, the loss from which might be
largely lessened by putting rods on
all barns and isolated buildings.
In respect to the number of deaths
caused by lightning, Nevada comes
first, followed lin order as given by
North Dakota, South Dakota, Colo
RADIO, Montana and Utah. These states
may be said to comprise our prlnci-
nal thunderstorm belt. The fewest
deaths and injuries from lightning oc-
chr in the state Of Washington, where
storms of this kind are very infre-
quent.
Is there any protection against
lightning? Yes-lightning rods prop
erly installed are an almost certain
protection, but not for the reason
commonly supposed.
The old fashioned idea used to be
that lightning rods we're stuck UP on
a house as a sort Of shield to catch
the descending charge Of electricity
from the clouds and lead it safely into
the ground, thus sparing the build
ing itself from doing this duty.
Function of Lightning Rod.
The present scientific view is based
upon the idea that there is in the
cloud a charge Of electricity positive,
We will say; in the ground there is
4 mass Of electricity (negative), we
will say). The charge above and the
charge below are trying to meet. The
charge in the ground percolates up
into the building and saturates the
building in its effort to get to the
charge above in the cloud. If the
building is high enough and the cloud
low enough. and conditions are just
.gnt, the charge above and the charge
below will come together in the cleo
trically saturated building.
Now the modern conception Of the
hnction OF the lightning rod Is that