Danger to Powder Magazines. 121 



the same fate, had tliey not, some time previously, transported 

 the greatest part of the powder into more distant magazines. 

 On the 4th of May 1785, a thunderbolt set fire to the powder 

 magazine at Tangier. The magazine and most of the houses 

 in the neighbourhood were blown up. On the 26th June 1807, 

 at half past eleven in the forenoon, lightning blew up a pow- 

 der-magazine at Luxemburg, which was very solid, and long 

 before built upon a rock by the Spaniards ; it contained up- 

 wards of 28,000 pounds of powder. Thirty persons perished ; 

 more than 200 were mutilated or grievously wounded. The 

 lower town was a heap of ruins. At nearly the distance of a 

 league, very large stones of the magazine were found conveyed 

 thither by the explosion. On the 9th of September 1808, 

 lightning fell upon a magazine of military stores at the fort of 

 St Andrea-del-Lido at Venice, and blew it up. The explosion 

 completely destroyed a barrack, a neighbouring chapel, the wall 

 of a half-moon battery, greatly damaging, at the same time, the 

 barracks of the artillery. 



I have multiplied these citations regarding the explosions of 

 powder-magazines, because, by a succession of qualifications, 

 some have been led to conclude, that even although lightning 

 penetrates these buildings, yet it never sets onfire the ammunition 

 they contain. Having shewn how completely untenable such a 

 proposition is, I am free to avow that in certain instances the 

 meteor has presented anomalies which wouW warrant almost any 

 hypothesis. Thus, on the 15th of November 1755, lightning 

 descended near Rouen, upon the powder-magazine of Maromme^ 

 broke one of the rafters of the roof, and shattered to pieces two 

 casks which were full ()f powder without igniting it. The maga- 

 zine at the time contained 800 of these casks. Again, at day- 

 light, on the 11th of June 1775, the lightning struck the tower 

 of Saint Second at Venice, entered the magazine, threw down 

 the shelves, overturned the powder-cases, and, what appeared 

 quite miraculous at the time, set fire to none of it. 



A list of a number of vessels, amounting to forty-two, which 

 have been struck with lightning, has been prepared, and is 

 printed in another part of this essay. At present we shall 

 only remark that after examining it, it seems quite superfluous 



