PROTECTION AGAINST LIGHTNING. 815 



the English commission, the silence which they have thought it their duty to 

 keep respecting ray new system of lightning-rods, while giving the regulations 

 and laws which, according to it, secure the most efficacious protection, aside 

 from all consideration of the constructors who advertise soJargely, or who are 

 protected by letters-patent. 



The distinguished electrician of Brussels is not without good ground 

 for this complaint, but he may console himself for his disappointment 

 in the approval of his system that has been accorded by other highly 

 competent authorities. In his " Report on Static Electricity and Para- 

 tonnerres " at the International Exhibition of Electricity at Paris in 

 1881, Professor M. E. Rousseau says : 



From the comparative examination that I have made, I am convinced that in 

 each of the three constituent parts of which the lightning-conductor is composed, 

 namely, the point, the rod, and the root or earth contact, the system of M. Mel- 

 sens has a marked superiority over the old system; and, as MM. Angot and 

 Nardi have remarked, must be regarded as efficacious as the old system, if not 

 more so, besides being at the same time less costly.* 



M. Angot, the author of an able treatise on " Elementary Physics," 

 printed in Paris in 1881, speaks of Professor Melsens's system of light- 

 ning-protection as being " more efficacious, as well as less costly, than 

 the older jalan, and sure to come soon into general use." M. Nardi, in a 

 memoir on "The Parafulmine of Melsens," printed at Vicenza in 1881, 

 describes the multiple system of points and rods and the large earth 

 contacts adopted by Professor Melsens as being " the most rational, 

 the most efficacious, the most easy to construct and fix, and the least 

 costly of all the alternative systems of construction." M. Mascart, 

 Professor of Physics in the College of France, in his excellent treatise 

 on " Static Electricity," describes the entire system devised by Professor 

 Melsens as "forming, without any doubt, the most beautiful model of 

 the paratonnerre that has been realized." The frank and outspoken 

 acceptance and praise of France, Italy, and Belgium may, therefore, 

 fairly be placed as a set-off against what Professor Melsens feels to be 

 the discourteous, if not condemnatory, silence of London. 



Since the appearance of the report of the Lightning-Rod Confer- 

 ence a small volume has been published by " Major Ai*thur Parnell, of 

 the Royal Engineers,"! entitled "The Action of Lightning, and the 

 Means of defending Life and Property from its Effects." In this little 

 book the author has been at the pains to compile a reference to a very 

 large number of accidents that have been occasioned by lightning. 

 This, however, has been done for an ulterior and somewhat insidious 

 purpose. He has a new theory of his own to propound, and a revolu- 

 tion in the practice of lightning-rod engineering to propose. He wishes 



* Professor Melsens estimates that the cost of effective protection by the old system 

 amounts to very nearly 4^ francs the square metre, but by his system to only 0"66 of a 

 franc the square metre. 



f Now Colonel Parnell. 



