28 THE LATE Mil. WILLIAM STURGEON ON 



He became quite delighted with this piece of information, and 

 immediately took me to another part of the mill where a 

 quantity of cotton had been set on fire on the drums of two 

 carding machines. This accident occurred close to a window 

 which had suffered no damage whatever, nor was there to be 

 found any trace of the direct action of lightning. The two 

 drums on which the cotton was ignited are distant about forty 

 yards from the gas-pipe already mentioned, and as the fluid 

 that struck the burner would follow the pipe to the ground, 

 which was in a direct line downwards to the metre on the 

 ground floor, and thus to the underground main, it would 

 be impossible to imagine that any direct action from that flash 

 of lightning on those distant carding machines could take 

 place ; and, as not the slightest damage was done to any part 

 of the mill beyond that already mentioned, at the distance of 

 forty yards, there appears no other mode of accounting for the 

 fire than that arising from a consideration of the effects of 

 electrical disturbances by vicinal flashes of lightning. 



These effects of electrical disturbance are in direct corre- 

 spondence with many others, of the same class, that have been 

 observed, but hardly ever clearly accounted for. Such are 

 deaths from lightning where no external marks of violence 

 appear on the subjects ; the singeing of garments without 

 injury to the wearer, beyond that of a momentary shock, &c. 

 In many cases, however, the expansion of the air and the 

 sudden conversion of fluids into steam and gases are pro- 

 ductive of much damage, and even of death. 



Every flash of lightning necessarily disturbs all the electric 

 fluid around it, and thus produces an electrical wave, which, 

 in some instances, reaches to great distances, causing a sudden 

 increase of pressure, and a consequent intromission of fluid to 

 the ground through the conducting vegetable points and 

 sharp edges with which it is covered. Now, we have only to 

 imagine a tree, which exposes a large area of foliage from 

 its branches, to be situated near to the track of a heavy flash 



