LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS. 7 



of its influence, might cause it to deviate considerably from 

 the original direction in which it started, and to take a newly- 

 created route to its destination. Hence the probability, at 

 least, that tall pointed conductors are frequently instrumental 

 in bringing down strokes of lightning on vicinal objects as 

 well as on distant parts of those to which they are imme- 

 diately attached. 



65. By taking this view (64) of the operations of light- 

 ning during its passage through the air, nothing seems more 

 easy to understand than the cause of so much damage being 

 caused by it close to the site of tall pointed conductors. 

 Nor could anything more decisively discountenance the long- 

 fostered idea that the path of lightning and the objects which 

 it strikes are definitely marked out previously to its leaving 

 the cloud. 



66. If, therefore, it be allowable to lay to the charge of 

 tall pointed conductors those cases of damage by lightning 

 which have occurred to vicinal objects (19 — 25, &c), their 

 reputation, as protectors to shipping, will appear less favour- 

 able than from the estimate already made (63). For the 

 cases of damage which would thus be attributed to them 

 would, within a similar period, be more than double the 

 number of those that have occurred in their entire absence, 

 or where they could have no influence whatever. 



67. Another important argument arises from the effects 

 that lightning has been known to produce on pointed con- 

 ductors. The most notable of these is the destruction of 

 the points by fusion, in those cases where they have* received 

 the discharge. Instances of this kind have been noticed from 

 the earliest ' period of lightning conductors to the present 

 time. Several have occurred to conductors attached to build- 

 ings; and marine conductors have frequently met a similar 



In the report already alluded to (62), it is stated that 

 in the case of H. M. ship Constance, " the main spindle was 



