AND LIGHTNING C0NDUCT0K8. 



59 



Heckinghara, in which lightning struck .buildings to which 

 pointed conductors were attached, made very Uttle impres- 

 sion on the minds of those philosophers whose doctrines 

 might have been thrown into jeopardy by a careful inves- 

 tigation of all the circumstances connected with these im- 

 portant events. They were considered as cases of easy 

 explanation, by admitting imperfections of conduction from 

 metal to metal, or from the conductors to the ground. But 

 the abundance of similar cases of more recent date, in none 

 of which is such a subterfuge to be found, will neither 

 allow of a summary disposal, nor the evasion of a rigid 

 enquiry, for the mere purpose of giving countenance to any 

 favourite doctrine whatever. They are events of vital 

 importance to society, both at sea and on shore ; and form 

 a topic of the highest consequence to which philosophers 

 can at this time devote their attention. 



The following cases will be sufficient of themselves to 

 call immediate attention to this class of events. The first 

 two described have come under my own observation ; and 

 the others are from authentic records. 



8. Case A. — About half-past eleven in the forenoon of 

 Saturday, June 3, 1848, a flash of lightning struck a stack 

 of chimneys on the Northumberland Arms public-house, 

 Chester-road, Manchester. I visited the house a few days 

 after the occurrence in company with two scientific friends, 

 Mr. E. W. Binney and Mr. John Leigh ; and obtained a full 

 account of the circumstances attending the event from the 

 landlord's brother, who was on the premises at the time it 

 happened. The stack of chimneys struck by the lightning 

 is precisely five yards from a lightning conductor, which is 

 attached to another similar stack of chimneys, and above 

 the summit of which it rises about two yards, terminating 

 upwards in several diverging metallic points. 



The particular chimney that was struck belongs to the 

 kitchen, the only room in which there was a fire at the 



