432 



peating circle, made for the occasion, by order 

 of the Board of Longitude, to show tbe supe- 

 riority of very small iustrumeuts of that kind, 

 which the learned Captain Lad estimated at 

 a single second, amounted, in fact, to ten 

 seconds; so that all the results depending 

 upon observations, made with this instrument, 

 were vitiated throughout. The same circle 

 was subsequently employed by Lieutenant 

 Foster, in the northern expedition. We 

 know not what to think of the accuracy of, 

 or the dependence to be placed upon gentle- 

 men, who can employ an instrument in all 

 parts of the globe, without ascertaining its 

 corrections, or verifying its adjustment ; but 

 we appreciate the discrimination, as highly 

 as we estimate the judgment, of two scien- 

 tific bodies, who have immortalized a series 

 of exemplary blunders, by the well- merited 

 distinction of an honorary medal. 



Wonderful Effect of Lightning. The 

 following account of a miraculous effect of 

 lightning is contained in Professor Silliman's 

 valuable journal : On the evening of June 

 3, 1826, during a heavy shower of rain, a 

 clap of thunder burst, with a tremendous ex- 

 plosion, over a house in Wethersfield, Con- 

 necticut. The lightning ran down the chim- 

 ney to the ceiling of the front room, where it 

 came through, leaving a hole nearly an inch 

 in diameter tore off the paper and plaster 

 from the wall descended on u row of nails 

 in the lathes to a picture melted all the 

 gilding burned and tore one side of the 

 frame and, again rending its way, ran upon 

 the nails to the fire-place, separated the 

 breastwork from the chimney; and from 

 thence taking a horizontal direction, attracted 

 by an umbrella in the corner of the cupboard, 

 a small line is to be seen, from a nail to a 

 bolt, in an opposite closet. From the um- 

 brella it went off at an angle, and came out 

 over the fire-place in a lower room, in nine 

 holes, the largest the size of a common gim- 

 blet, scorching and slightly tearing the paper. 

 It entered at the corner of a picture, melted 

 the gilding, blackened the frame, and, pass- 

 ing off at another corner, separated again 

 into several lines, intersecting each other, 

 until they centred in a nail in the shelf : it 

 passed down the back of the moulding, tore 

 away a hard cement below, threw forward 

 a false back of brick and iron, split the floor 

 on each side of the hearth, rent off splinters 

 two feet in length from the undev-floor in 

 the cellar, and went east and west through a 

 stone wall into the earth. The greatest force 

 was exerted 'in the chamber-closet. The 

 point of the umbrella was brass ; and just be- 

 neath the wire which connects the whale- 

 bone, it was burnt off ; and tbe silk, the stick, 

 and the whalebone were nearly consumed. 

 Several folds in some woollen carpets were 

 burnt, leaving not a vestige for a yard in a 

 place ; a fur muff, a cloth coat, and some 

 other articles were also much injured ; a 

 sleeve and part of the waist of the coat were 

 destroyed while the cotton lining, to which 

 they were stitched, \\as left whole, and, ex- 



Varieties. [APRIL, 



cepting n small piece, was not even tender 

 from scorching. A black sulphureous smoke 

 arose from the spot, and filled the house. A 

 lady was in the closet, with the door shut, 

 and but a foot distant from the course of the 

 lightning. The sound was dreadful, like can- 

 non, at her ears, and the heat inexpressibly 

 great, as if she were in the midst of flames. 

 She spoke at first of intense light ; but all 

 consciousness of that has since passed from 

 her mind. In this terrific and awful situation, 

 she was preserved unhurt, came out imme- 

 diately, and closed the door. It may be 

 remarked, that she was clothed in cotton, 

 and a roll of carpetting stood between her 

 and the umbrella. Five boards were thrown 

 down, and four rooms were filled with the 

 smell of sulphur and covered with soot. The 

 electrical fluid entered four closets adjoining 

 the room in the lower story ran round china 

 cups, plates, &c. raised and dissolved the 

 gilding, or converted it into the purple oxide 

 of gold and, leaving a dark bluish path 

 next to a nail, where it splintered the parti- 

 tion, escaped through the back of a door to 

 a hinge. In a closet, without paint, it dis- 

 coloured the wood three inches in width, 

 broke lour dishes, and drove out nine nails, 

 four ofthem from a hinge ; in a third, it left 

 an aperture, as large as a bullet-hole, in the 

 ceiling, split the floor three feet, and tore up 

 four inches, about an inch wide ; in a fourth, 

 it overturned, tossed out, aud broke large 

 vials of medicines, pill-boxes, wafer-boxer, 

 &c., drove four nails partly out of the hinges, 

 and rent off a piece of the casement. On 

 the top shelf lay several iron articles. It 

 pierced the ceiling in the back room, came 

 down in two branches, and so completely dis- 

 sipated four cents, weighing about 165 grains, 

 which lay upon a nail in the moulding, that, 

 except a metallic stain on the lead paint of 

 the shelf, not a trace of them remained ; 

 they appeared to have flashed away like gun- 

 powder. In the chamber, eight feet from the 

 chimney, it came out over the corner of a 

 looking-glass in three places the largest 

 like a gimblet-hole split the back- board of 

 the glass into three parts, melted the gilding, 

 and went off at an opposite corner, in one 

 large place and nine small ones, through the 

 wall to a window in the room beneath 

 splintered the casement, by a nail, into five 

 or six small pieces and killed a rose-bush, 

 which was tied to a nail on the outside of 

 the bouse. Opposite, and fifteen feet from the 

 chimney, hung a piece of embroidery ; three 

 small holes are left in the wall over one cor- 

 ner of it ; two-thirds of the top of the frame, 

 which is of mahogany, is split up to a cor- 

 ner, where it appears as if the fluid ran down 

 the back of the glass to a basket wrought 

 with gold thread, and, blackening it, passed 

 off at another corner, through three small 

 places in the wall, and came out in five 

 points, like nail-marks, in the ceiling over 

 a looking-glass in the first story, ran all over 

 the 'gilding, and went off through the wall 

 by the nails which support the glass. The 



