Sec. 21.] LIGRTNING CONDUCTORS. 345 



present I have no faith. I believe tliat, when the atmosphere is surcliargetl 

 with electricity, any metallic substance will absorb it just in proportion to 

 its natural affinity, and if tlierc is an excess of fluid in the air around the 

 top of a rod, it will run down it to the earth, just as it runs along telegraph 

 wires ; and experience has proved that a briglit, shari) noint is more attract- 

 ive tlian a blunt one. 



"Still, a blunt rod will become charged, and fo will a metal roof, and, 

 more than all, an iron building, and the Avater-cdnductor, or whatever other 

 metallic substances reach from the top to the earth, will tend to dissipate the 

 excess of electricity in the air above and around the building, and i>rcvent 

 a!i accumulation of it sufficient to produce an explosion. But I have not 

 one particle of faith that any building that liappened to be situated in the 

 ])ath of what we call a thunderbolt, ever was saved by the best liglitning- 

 rod ever erected. And if in its course the discharge from tlic cloud, coming 

 like a rifle-ball from the muzzle of the gun, ha])pens to strike the sharp 

 point of the rod, it is, to my mind, a preposterous idea to suppose tliat perfect 

 insulation of that rod from the building can be of any possible advantage." 



This opinion M*e still abide by. The worhl is full of theories upon the 

 subject. We wish we could elucidate them. "\Ve want all these lightning 

 theories reduced to two or three facts. It is claimed by some that iron is 

 the best, and by others that copper is best. One eonteixls that blunt iron is 

 just as good as sha»p gold or platina. One says that insulation is necessary, 

 and the other that it is not. Xow it is facts that we want. Farmers want 

 to know whether they can protect their buildings from danger of being 

 struck by lightning. 



A. B. Dickenson, a practical and close observing farmer of Steuben 

 County, N. Y., is of opinion that no lightning-rod will protect a barn while 

 giving off steam arising from newly stored hay and grain. Then, i>f what 

 advantage to erect one ? for that is the very time it is most needed to save 

 the farmers' barns from destruction, which arc much more likely to bo de- 

 stroyed than any other buildings, and the loss is much greater. 



Adrian Bergen, of Long Island, relates one case of a barn apparently 

 saved by the conductor. The force of the shock was so great that a man in_ 

 the barn was knocked down. The rod was a small, round one, fastened to 

 the barn by wooden supports. After the explosion a hole was found at tlio 

 foot of the rod. 



So we have read of many ca^es where there was an apparent good effect 

 from having conductors upon buildings. A very heavy cra.-h tell upon or 

 over a house and barn in New Hampshire, which melted the points of new 

 conductors and apparently dissipated the fluid so as to prevent damage, 

 though the barn appeared to be filled with electricity. 



Tlio Temple at Jerusalem stood ten centuries without ocing injured ; but 

 this buibling had a great deal of metal about it, and perhaps conductors for 

 water that carried the electricity from the n.of ti> the ground. Vet wo iiavo 

 many instances in this country 'where buildings have been stnirk that were 



