322 Effects of LigJitning. 



which were under the gentlemen's pillows were so highly 

 magnetized as to stop them, and render it necessary to remove 

 all the steel work. The gentlemen themselves were, without 

 exception nninjuredj owing douhtless to the non-condncting prop- 

 erties of the beds upon which they were sleephig. At the time 

 the ship was struck, the lightning condnctor had not been put 

 up ; but it was immediately after the accident raised to the maiii- 

 royal-mast head. 



The conductor consisted of an iron chain with links one fourth 



r 



of an inch thick and two feet long, turned into hooks at each 

 end ; at top it ended in an iron rod half an inch thick and four 

 feet long, having a pohshed point and rising two feet above the 

 mast head ; the chain descended down over the quarter, and be- 

 ing pushed out from the ship's side about ten feet by an oar, de- 

 scended a (o\v feet below the surface of the water. 



Near 2 o'clock, P. M. it was observed that only four seconds 

 intervened between the lightning and the thunder. At 2 o'clock 

 there was a simultaneous flash and a shock like that in the morn- 

 ing ; passengers in the cabin saw the appearance of a ball of fire 

 darting l)e fore them while the glass iti the round house came rat- 



tling down. To those on deck the ship appeared to be in a blaze, 



so vivid was the flash which they saw distinctly darting down the 

 conductor and agitating the water. All parts of the ship as be- 

 fore were filled with smoke smeUing of sulphur. Although the 

 conductor was of the size which Dr. Franklin thought sufficient 

 to sustain the severest shock of lightning without injury, yet it 

 was literally torn to pieces and scattered to the winds, while it 

 saved the ship. The pointed rod at the top of the condnctor 

 being fused, was shortened several inches and covered over Avitli 

 a dark coating ; some of the hnks of the chain had been snapped 

 off and others melted.* 



The shock affected the polarity of all the compasses on board, 

 causing them to vary from the true point and to range between 

 each other, but they gradually returned within three points of 

 truth. Tlio chronometer of Capt. Bennett, the commander of 

 the ship, which did not usually vary more than three seconds in 

 crossing the Atlantic, was now quite out of time j it had gained 



* It is said that the same thing once happened in a Dutch church in New York; 

 a chain connected with the clock was melted and probably saved the church. 



