PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. 45 



as regards results. From numerous illustrations I select the 

 following instructive example furnished by the stroke of an im- 

 mense timber spire or tower in Newbury, (Vt.) : " Lightning fell 

 upon' the upper part of the tower; it shattered and threw to a 

 distance a timber pyramid seventy feet high. After it had over- 

 thrown this heavy mass it found in its path a metallic wire which 

 connected the clapper of the bell with the wheelwork of the clock, 

 twenty feet lower down, and threw itself entirely or almost 

 entirely upon this wire, which it melted in some parts. For this 

 length of twenty feet the surrounding timber of the tower suffered 

 absolutely no injury, although the lightning was far from having 

 exhausted itself upon the upper pyramid. As soon as it had 

 reached the lower end of the wire, it threw itself afresh on the 

 timber of the tower and injured it considerably. On reaching the 

 ground, its force was still such, that it tore up several stones from 

 the foundations of the building, and projected them to some 

 distance." So long as the wire was followed, no injury resulted ; 

 when that was abandoned, destruction ensued. 



Still another example, not less pertinent, is adduced. On the 

 15th of March, 17TB, lightning fell at Naples on the house of Lord 

 Tylney. His apartments at the time contained not less then five 

 hundred persons attending a grand reception. Yet not one of 

 them sustained actual injury. Saussure the next day examined 

 the rooms and found that almost all the gilt parts had been 

 affected. " The gilt mouldings and cornices of the ceilings, 

 metallic rods placed so as to protect the tapestries from the con- 

 tact of furniture, the gilt portions of sofas and arm-chairs in con- 

 tact with those rods, the gildings of the door-posts, and lastly 

 the bell wires had all suffered more or less by fusion, discoloration 

 or scaling off of the surface. As usual, the maximum of effect 

 had taken place where the lightning in its course had met with 

 interruptions in metallic continuity. A stroke of lightning capable 

 of melting a bell wire is strong enough to kill a man ; yet here, 

 as has been said, no one was hurt. We have thus a sufficient 

 proof that the fulminating matter or lightning, in passing through 

 the nine rooms which formed the suite of apartments, directed 

 itself by preference, or almost in totality to the metallic sub- 

 stances found in the different rooms." 



From references already made a well known fact appears, viz. : 

 that lightning often fuses pieces of metal which are struck by it. 

 The important fact, however, for our present purpose, is to de- 



