64 MR. WILLIAM STURGEON ON LIGHTNING 



to be formed ia direct opposition to the well-established 

 laws of electricity; but it might easily be made to appear 

 probable that those pointed conductors were conducive 

 to the lightning's approach from the opposite side, and 

 yet incapable of affording sufficient facility for securing its 

 arrival at their elevated extremities. 



15. In the case of the tall chimney (9), there is every 

 reason to suppose that, after striking the coping-stones, or 

 the iron hoop which lay upon them, the lightning found its 

 way by explosion to the conductor, and was thence quietly 

 conveyed to the ground. But there is no evidence what- 

 ever, that any portion of the lightning entered the points 

 with which the conductor was armed. 



16. At the Northumberland Arms (8), the case was some- 

 what different, there being no indication whatever of any 

 portion of the lightning having entered the conductor at all. 

 The whole force of the discharge seems to have been 

 directed through the chimney flue to the fire grate, and 

 thence by means of the gas apparatus to the ground. In 

 both cases, the lightning seems to have made its approach 

 on the opposite sides of the objects damaged to those on 

 which the conductors were situated. 



17. The leaden plate that was struck on the magazine at 

 Bayonne (11), was obviously a portion of the conducting 

 metallic mass belonging to the lightning-rod; and, although 

 the damage at that part of the building might have been 

 effected by a discharge perfectly distinct from that which 

 fused the point of the conductor, the transmission of the 

 electric fluid between the roof and the ground would be 

 through the same conducting channel, excepting such por- 

 tions as would flow over the surface of the wet walls. But 

 in this case, as well as in the cases A and B, there is much 

 reason to suppose that the tall pointed conductor was con- 

 ducive to the lightning's approach, and consequently to the 

 event. Nor am I less disposed to attribute the effects of 



