LIGHTNING 



3430 



LI HUNG CHANG 



the more distant part of the trunk, and is con- 

 tinued by echoes among the clouds. Light 

 travels 186,000 miles per second, a rate practi- 

 cally instantaneous. Sound, on the other hand, 

 is slow, traveling at the rate of only about 

 1,100 feet per second. By counting the time 

 interval between the flash and the thunder, 

 an observer can tell how far distant is the 

 flash. This interval is seldom more than sev- 

 enty or eighty seconds. Because of the refrac- 

 tion of sound as it makes its way through 

 the atmosphere, the sound of thunder begins 

 very soon to rise from the ground, and at a 

 distance of fifteen miles can seldom be heard 

 on the earth's surface. It takes a sound wave 

 about eighty seconds to travel fifteen or six- 

 teen miles. 



Protection Against Lightning. Lightning in 

 its course to the earth is likely to follow such 

 convenient tall objects as trees, the steeples 

 of churches and the chimneys of houses. Ac- 

 cording to statistics lightning strikes oaks more 

 often and beeches less often than any other 

 trees. It is also true that single trees standing 

 apart from any other tall objects are more 

 likely to attract lightning than any one tree, 

 no matter what variety, in a forest. It is well 

 to protect buildings with rods, which should 

 be fastened to the roof and any projecting 

 points. The rods should be sunk so low into 

 the earth as to rest in soil which is always 

 damp, or they should be connected with water- 

 pipes or gaspipes which enter the ground. 



A person struck by lightning is usually 

 merely stunned or shocked. The shock may 

 be great enough to stop the action of the 

 heart, but it is well to remember that a person 

 apparently killed may have sustained no seri- 

 ous injury. Respiration may have been stopped 

 by a temporary paralysis, but efforts to restore 

 breathing should be continued for at least an 

 hour. The method used after lightning stroke 

 should be exactly the same as after drowning 

 (which see). C.R.M. 



Lightning Rod, a stout iron rod, erected on 

 a building for the purpose of receiving light- 

 ning and conducting it into the earth to pre- 

 vent injury to the structure. It is fastened to 

 a building by passing through glass noncon- 

 ductors, and the lower end is carried into the 

 ground to a considerable depth. Benjamin 

 Franklin invented the lightning rod in 1752. 

 The principle upon which it was devised is 

 that by putting an electrical conductor far 

 enough above buildings to determine the place 

 of a threatened discharge it will carry a light- 



Li HUNG CHANG 



ning bolt to earth without destructive results. 

 In early days the lightning rod was thought 

 to be an impious interference with the wrath 

 of Heaven, evil in principle and doubly sacri- 

 legious if successful. See LIGHTNING. 



LIG'NITE. See COAL, subhead Varieties. 



LI HUNG CHANG, le' hoong' chahng', 

 (1822-1901), the "Grand Old Man of China,' 

 to whom much of that country's progress dur- 

 ing the latter half of the nineteenth centui 

 was due. He played the most prominent 

 in all of China's 

 affairs for over 

 forty years, rep- 

 resenting his gov- 

 ernment and ex- 

 tending its foreign 

 r el a t i ons with 

 great skill and 

 wisdom. He held 

 the highest offi- 

 cial rank of any 

 man in China be- 

 low the emperor 

 First Grand 

 Secretary of State. He was born of the people 

 not of high rank in the year of Ge 

 Grant's birth, a fact of which he was alwaj 

 proud. In the severe examinations which ad- 

 mit a man to the literary caste in China 

 passed ahead of 15,000 competitors. He we 

 his great renown in the service of the Tartar 

 dynasty during the T'aiping Rebellion. Dur- 

 ing his long service as Viceroy of Chi-li he 

 made his home in Tien-tsin, where he carried 

 on labors which won for him the reputation 

 of being the most progressive man in China. 



During a visit to Europe Li told Bismarck 

 that he had sometimes been called the Bis-' 

 marck of the East; the great German states- 

 man is said sincerely to have replied, "I never 

 could hope for the honor of being called the 

 Li Hung Chang of the West." When, in June, 

 1899, Li Hung Chang returned to China after 

 a visit to the United States he received the 

 order of the Double Dragon, a distinction sel- 

 dom conferred upon anyone not a member of 

 the royal family. He enjoyed his greatest 

 power from 1874 to 1894, when he was Viceroy 

 of the Metropolitan Province, Superintendent 

 of Northern Trade and the undelegated but 

 recognized Minister of Foreign Affairs. Among 

 the evidences of his far-reaching power is the 

 fact that he controlled all the pawnshops in 

 China, and with one exception outside the royal 

 family, was the richest Chinaman, 



