The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-08-22
LIKES AND DISLIkES
OF THE LIGHTNING
(Toronto Mail and Empirel

Inc DuDiIc mas many Illusions dDouL
lightning, its coincidence and effects.
The way lightning acts is in reality
much different from what the average
person imagines. For instance, there
are superstitions against keeping in
the hand anything of steel, even a
penknife. You are told to keep away
from windows or doors through which
there is a draft. The iron in the wire
of a screen door is believed to attract
lightning. TIE vicinity of the cook
stove is forbidden, because it, being
iron, would have a tendency to draw
lightning. All these are idle fancies,
generally speaking. There are few
chances of being hit, but very few,
and these few chances consist in being
in close contact with an isolated build
ing or tree that offers the closest
electrical connection with the light
ming.
1t is said that of all the vivid light
ming flashes in summer storms. only
one per cent strike the earth The
others are confined to the sky-to
making contact with other clouds
The chance of being hit by falling
brick or being bitten by mad dog are
greater than being hit by Lightning.
In the United States, about 500 per-
sons year are struck by lightning,
Or about one in every two hundred
thousand. The ratio of suicides, ac-
cidental deaths, railway fatalities,
drowning, deaths from heat and other
sources of mortality is much larger
from four to twenty times as much.
When lightning does strike the earth,
it takes the shortest path. Penknives,
screen doors or drafts do not have any
effect on the course of the bolt. There
is, of course, only one really safe
place, and that is a cellar or dugout
deep in the bowels of Mother Earth.
Being a ready conductor, the earth
| Immediately scatters lightning or any
other electrical current, and no one in
it would suffer any electrical shock.
The next safest place is in build
ing with steel frames. The great
| skyscrapers, for instance. they are
| built on steel framework, are among
the safest of buildings, even though
they tower into the sky far over any
other buildings, and offer the finest
target for a bolt of lightning. It
| lightning does strike, as might happen,
| it Immediately takes to the steel
frame, and courses down to earth
without damage. AS long as a quick
safe contact to earth is provided there
| is no danger to persons in or near the
building. IF these buildings were
struck, the people inside would never
| know it, even though outsiders might
see the contact. The Eiffel Tower in
Paris has been hit many times. but
has never been damaged because it is
steel. When lightning takes the
shortest course a house on a hill is
much more in danger of being hit than
one in a hollow A low house in a
valley is immune. Wood, stone, brick
and stucco houses are all equilly
liable to be struck, to be damaged,
because the material in them are poor
conductors, it heats the element and
skaters it. Then a fire starts if the
material is infiammable. The barb
may be ripped off tree by the sud
den expansion of air cells, or the cloth
ing or shoes ripped off person in the
path of bolt. Any upright object
is better target than the air sur
rounding it. "A house, barn, tree or
other projection from the earth's sur
face is better conductor than so
much empty space. All buildings
with tall chimneys, steeples, or high
roofs are most susceptible, unless they
have steel frames.
The places of real danger are under
solitary tree in the middle of a
field. Beneath hanging lamp with
metal chains to the ceiling is danger
Gus. To stand between two metal
objects, such as a stove and kitchen
radiator, is also dangerous, because
lightning will jump more readily from
one to the other than go through con-
ductors of greater resistance. On
the average, however, one part of a
house is about as safe as another.
There is no particular use in lying be-
tween the folds of feather bed, hid
ing in closet or sinking into dark
corner. The only safe place is in the
cellar. Small, isolated pieces Of iron
are not attractors of lightning. Some
golfers might throw away their steel
sticks but when they do that they
show ignorance of the way lightning
acts. What the current in a bolt
wants is an easy short path to the
earth, and it will not deviate to touch
an isolated piece of iron metal that
does not offer a good contact with the
ground.