244 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



Dr. Keclzie. — If the water penetrates the joints of the rod the rust will eat 

 the thread of the screw aud the rod become disconnected. To prevent this it is 

 best to paint the rod with black paint or coal tar to prevent the entrance of the 

 water. 



Mr. Curry. — What distance will one rod protect? 



Dr. Kedzie. — The ^French rule is that a point will protect a circle whose 

 diameter is four times the height of the rod above the building ; but that rule 

 has been exploded, for a farmer at the Allegan Institute said his barn was struck 

 within twelve feet of a rod, and the lightning did not see the rod at all. 



Mr. Curry. — On a barn fifty feet long, would you recommend two points or 

 one? 



Dr. Kedzie. — That depends on Avhether the barn has one or two ventilators. 

 I would put a rod on each ventilator. Last summer, on my way to Lansing 

 from the college, I saw a small oat stack that had been struck by lightning and 

 was burning. There were tall forest trees within 150 feet of this stack. The 

 storm came from the west, the lightning passed over the trees, also passed over 

 a larger stack standing by, and struck the small stack. 



Joseph Gilman, Paw Paw. — Some fifteen years ago I built a church, and had 

 occasion to put up a rod. At the top of the belfry Avas a block or post, and I 

 passed the rod (a three-quarter-inch rod) down through this block or post. Did 

 I do right by allowing it to pass through the post ? 



Dr. Kedzie. — If I was going to put up a rod I would rather carry it down 

 upon the inside than the outside of the building. If I had a chimney stack in 

 the center of my house, I Avould carry the rod doAvn the side of the chimney into 

 the cellar. It would then be out of the Avay, and I should feel a little safer tlmn 

 if it was on the outside. 



Mr. Gilman. — The idea with some Avas that by j^assing the rod through the 

 block the electricity would leave the rod and go into the block. 



Dr. Kedzie. — Lightning never leaA"es an ample conductor for a poor con- 

 ductor. 



DISCUSSION AT COLDAA'ATEE. 



L. R. Austin, BataA^ia. — Very many of the ideas adA'anced by Dr. Kedzie corres- 

 pond j^recisely Avith my oAvn vicAvs. It is Avell knoAvn to many in this audience that I 

 was engaged in selling lightning-rods for many years. I have always thought 

 that exorbitant prices Avere charged for many of these rods, and a great many 

 times I liaA'e told the farmers hoAv they might rod their OAvn buildings with nail- 

 rod very much cheaper than by purchasing these high-priced rods. "While 

 the Professor has explained the means by which Ave can gather accumulated 

 electricity on our buildings, and conduct it to tlie earth without injury to our- 

 seh'es and property, he has as much as said to you that to put rods on our build- 

 ings is to lack confidence in the author of the rain. With tliis sentiment I can 

 not agree. I believe that we should utilize all the laws AA'hich science discoA'ers 

 in the protection of life and projierty. 



NEWSPAPEE DISCUSSIOI^T. 



The folloAving articles from the ColdAvater Republican and Lansing Republi- 

 can are inserted as a j)art of the discussion on Lightning Rods : 



