46 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Aug. 29, 182} H-^ 



a|>|>car very strange, lias the effeci of neutralizing 

 every lii)uiil witli which it is iiiixcd, even anient 

 s|iirits. This is a tact, try it as you will. — JVew 

 Jersei/ Adv. 



GRAFTING PEARS AND APPLES. 



Peiirs may be grafted on stocks of tlie Mountain 

 Ash ami the i-ervic; tree, hoth of which will grow 

 ami thrive where pciir stocks wouM not. I have 

 also seen apples grafted on quince stocks, and 

 planted in a soil so wet that an ajjple could not 

 live ; but they are doing very well, and making 

 exceedingly tine shoots. 



Itusticus in L'rbr, tii Loudon's .Magazine. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1829. 



CONDUCTORS OF LIGHTNING. 



The many accidents which, at this time of the 

 yoar, occur almost daily, in conscijuence of dis- 

 'chargps from the great natural batteries of elec- 

 tricity, with whicli the atmosphere is replete during 

 tlio summer months, render the means of obviating 

 the more dangerous effects of such disdiarges a 

 .subject not merely of interesting, but of anxious 

 inquiry. It appears to us that some useful infor- 

 mation relative to this object may be obtained from 

 a circumstantial and scientific account of the de- 

 scent of lightning on Mr J. G. Carter's hou.se in 

 Lancaster, Mass. furnished by Mr Carter himself, 

 and published in a late Lancaster Gazette. 



This account states, that " The house had, at- 

 tached to -one of its chimneys on the northern as- 

 pect, a conductor of the usual form, extending 

 about four feet above the top of the bricks : this 

 was fastened at the top of the chimney by a thin 

 strip of iron, hugging it close, and interlocking 

 with the bricks. At the roof the conductor was 

 bent to fit that jiart of it which was outside of 

 tlio chimney, being about two feet. Here an iron 

 staple of four or five inches in length, enclosing 

 the conductor, was driven into a block of maple 

 wood of about the thickness of the length of the 

 staple, which block was nailed to the roof of the 

 house with nails of sufficient length to hold it fast. 

 From the roof the conductor i)assed down with- 

 out touching the body of the house, and entered 

 flic ground the usual depth. 



" From a caroful examination of the effects of 

 the discharge the following is supposed to have 

 been its courtc. Although the body of the house 

 is spacious and presented to the cloud coming over 

 it three other larger chinmeys than the one to 

 which the conductor was attached, and of cipial 

 height with it, from one of which a smoke was is- 

 suing at the time, the points seem to have done 

 what was expected of them in gathering the whole 

 charge. It apparently pas.sed down without in- 

 turruption to the staple on the roof, where the con- 

 ductor being less perfect on account of the oxide 

 accumulated by the .s])atturing of water from the 

 shingles it scpariited. A part followed the con- 

 ductor to within a few feet of the ground, where 

 it diviiled again, one branch striking the ground 

 by the nearest direction, the other following the 

 roil to where it entered tlie earth, disi)laced the 

 stones around it, and pas.-ieil olf without leaving 

 any Other marks of its progress. Not so with the 

 part which followed the staple at the roof; this 

 part of the charge diaplactd the maplt block to 

 which Iht conductor was fastined, and entered the 



roof rending the shingles somewhat, though not so < 

 much as one would have sujiposcd it must, from its 

 effects below. 



" After entering the roof no marks of its pro- j 

 gress are visible till it reached the horizontal tiin- , 

 bers of the chamber door. Here this branch ^ 

 seemed again to divide ; one part followed the per- 1 

 pendieular limbers, drawing every board nail for , 

 the space of ten feet from the chamber floor to the 

 sill, and breaking some of the studs. Some of the 

 boards and clapboards were (juite thrown off from 

 the corner of the house, and the whole started out 

 from the timbers two or three inches. At the sill 

 some of this part of the charge took the ground, i 

 where its marks may be traced several feet to a 

 wet spot at the mouth of the kitchen drain ; the 

 rest took the cellar wall and moved a part of it in- 

 ward two or three inches, throwing out the lime i 

 in which it was laid. | 



" At the chamber floor, the branch of the charge ) 

 which followed the horizontal timbers, crossed on 

 them the room occupied for a stuily, where several 

 of the family had been all the forenoon, and where 

 they would have again been in a few minutes, and 

 loosened the upper ceiling so that some of it fell ', 

 to the floor. On the side of the room opposite to I 

 the chimney was a wire communicating with a 

 bell. The electricity found this and followed it, i 

 destroying it as it went across the ent.'y to the 

 bell, which it put in motion, and thence it took the , 

 wire, leading through a long entiT to the parlor, 

 doing no damage but consuming the wire. Just | 

 before entering the parlor the wire jiasscd through • 

 a ceiling, and here the casings of a door were 1 

 shivered to pieces. Where the wire to which the ^ 

 bell rope was attached entered the parlor, the • 

 casings of another door were torn oil", and thrown | 

 across thcrooin, a distance of 18 feet. After pass- j 

 ing down the ca.sjngs of these two doors, which i 

 stand \ery near to each other, these two streams , 

 seem to have united themselves. They followed i 

 for a few feet a row of nails fastening to the entry 

 lloor an oil cloth carpet, which, being a poor con- | 

 ductor, was much torn: this part of the charge,] 

 which had pcrformeil a circuit of more than fifly 

 feet in the house around and among us, then pass- 

 ed through the lower floor, and dislodging the eel- 1 

 Inr door in its progress, entered the ground in the 

 cellar nearly under llie centre of the house." 



The above fm-nishes facts of considerable ini- i 

 portancc for elucidating the laws of electricity, ! 

 and teaching mankind how to defend their habita- 

 tions against this mysterious and terrible agent. It 

 proves that wood interpo.sed between a lightning 

 rod, and the building, which it is wished to pro- 

 tect, is not a sure defence. "A ))art of the charge," 

 as stated above, "disi)laced the maple block to 

 which the' conductor wos fastened, and entered 

 the roof," &c. We, likewise, find tliat the electric 

 lluid followed perpendicular and horizontal lim- 

 bers, which is i)roof that wood has some power as 

 a conductor of liglitniiig. Now if these premises 

 are con-ect, it follows that the mode of connecting 

 lightning rods to buildings by wooden cramps in- 

 stead of iron' staples (thout'li wood is doubtless, of 

 the two to be preferred) is not uncxceptionablo. 

 The method, which it appears to us ought to su- 

 persede all others, is that invented (and we believe 

 imtenteil) by Messrs U. Brown and G. W. Robin- 

 son, of Providence, R. I. This consists simply in 

 placing blocks of glass firmly between the con- 

 ducting rods and the roofs anil sides of buildings. 

 Two metallic staples with bolt heads are insened 

 about half way into the glass, while in a state of 



fusion, so that when the glass cools the bolt | 

 of the staples are held fast and solid, leavj tfBi 

 thickness of two or three inches of solid . tf^' 

 between the building and rods. Small ov 

 bars arc placed over the rods and secured bjr 

 whicli hold them fast in grooves made in 

 middle of the gl.nss blocks. The block of 

 may be easily fitted to oiiy building, old or 

 and preseuts a barrier, which the electric 

 will never |iass. Blocks of glass, of this det lii 

 lion may be hud at the Agricultural Estal 

 nient of J. R. Newell, No. 52, North Mi 

 street, Boston. 



The following directions resjiectiiig the 

 striiction and application of conductors, are 

 writer whose remarks were first published in^i 

 Boston Recorder, and afterwards reiiublish 

 the New England Farmer, vol. 2, p. 77. 



" The rod should be made of round si 

 iron at least three quarters of an inch in diaoT^r,.: 

 and when it can be conveniently done, inst«t i"?- 

 linking should be smoothly welded together 

 when by reason of length or otherwise, it i 

 convenient to weld the whole rod, let it be sin 

 ly connected by screwing the end of one pai 

 to the end of another. There should he fr 

 more points, one in the centre, perpendicular 

 the others oblique. They should be filed 

 sharp blender point, and tipped with silver. 

 )ioints should be elevated at least five or sii 

 above the highest part of the building. The 

 tomof therodshouldgoiiito the earth six or 4 

 feet, and terminate in a bed of two or three 1 

 els of wet charcoal. The wet coal, covered 

 earth, will probably retain dampness lui _ r 

 any other substance. 



"A conductor constructed and put up.:.roi 

 to the above directions, will perfectly sf cii 

 building for twenty feet on everj' side. W'h 

 building is more than forty feet long, for pti^:. 

 security, there should be two or more rods, 

 lating one rod for every forty feet." 



50TANY, HORTICULTIbJ 

 CPERLMENTS, &c. h 



p-atified lo find, hy ilic followioj »■"" 

 sofa highly respcclable Insiinu . '■ p 



MEDICAL BOT.' 

 EXPER 



IJj'We are much 

 from the proceeding 



genlleniaii, every way competent to the lask, has 

 ed to make our paper (lie vehicle of imporlanl ii 

 the liealiugart, aud a channel for tlie comniuun :j 

 useful kuowledge, which is ihc object of iho reso!.:. . n 

 below. 



At a meeting of the Board of J'isitors ■; '' t 

 sachxtsclts Professorship of .\'atural //k ' , 

 August S, 1820, 



VoTF.t), That the Curator of the Botanic 

 den be requested to publish in the New K>oi 

 Farmer, the results of any experiments ho 

 have made in the raising of valuable nudii 

 and other plants, not generally cultivateil in 

 England, and especially such as are now impt 

 by druggists, and are costly, but which niaj 

 easily and extensively raised in this pan of 

 United States ; and that he state particularly 

 circumstances in regard to the choice of soil 

 situation which may be important. And also 

 he be requested to communicate from time to 

 to the public, through the same pa|>cr, nnv b 

 cultural exjicriiuents of his own, or any infoi^ 

 lion he may possess, the communication o!" w' 

 in his opinion would bo useful, and that ihit* 

 done under his own name as Curator of the* 

 tanic Garden, 



(From the records.) BENJ. GllLD, Set 



t 



