Effects of a Stroke of Lightning. 359 
Art. XVII.—Particulars of the effects of a strok light- 
ning in the house of Madam ae J ws - A: 
amily. 
On Saturday evening, the 3d of June, 1826, while the 
rain was pouring down powerfully, a clap of thunder burst 
with a tremendous explosion over the eastern part of the 
building. The lightning ran down the chimney to the ceil- 
ing of the front chamber, where it came through, leaving a 
hole nearly an inch in diameter ; tore off the paper and plais- 
e wall, and descended on a row of nails in the 
laths, to a picture ; melted all the gilding, burned and tore 
one side of the frame, and again rending its way, upon. 
the nails to the fire-place; separated the breast work from 
the chimney, and from thence took a horizontal direction, at- 
tracted by an umbrella in the corner of a closet. A small 
line is to be seen from a nail to a bolt in the opposite closet. 
From the umbrella, in a triangular turn, it came out over the 
fire-place in the lower room, in nine holes, the largest the 
gilding, blackened the frame, and passing off at another cor- 
ner, separated again into several lines, intersecting each oth- 
er, until they centred in a nail in the shelf. It passed down 
back of the moulding, tore away a hard cement below, threw 
forward a false back of brick and iron, split the floor each 
side of the hearth, rent off splinters two feet in length, from 
the under floor in the cellar, and went east and west through 
a stone wall into the . 
The greatest force was in the chamber closet. The poiut 
of the umbrella was brass, and just beneath the wire which 
. 
connects the whalebone, it was burnt off, and the silk, the 
folds in some woollen carpets were burnt, g not a ves- 
tige for a yard in a place; and a fur muff, a cloth coat, and 
some other articles, were considerably injured. A and 
part of the waist of the coat were destroyed, while the cot 
ton lining, to which they were stitched, was left whole, and, 
excepting a small piece, was not even tender from scorching- 
