PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. 455 



number, height, or conductivity, bad points or bad earth connec- 

 tions ; . . . and there was no authentic case on record where a 

 properly constructed conductor failed to do its duty. . . . He per- 

 sonally had under his supervision at that present moment 500,000 

 lightning conductors, and, fixed throughout the offices (post-office 



LIGHTNING CLOUDS, MULTIPLE FLASH. 



and telegraph), had apparatus, protected by about 30,000 or 40,000 

 lightning protectors." 



Dr. Lodge said that " if his views were correct, very few build- 

 ings are effectively and thoroughly protected at the present time. 

 . . . He had read carefully the Conference Report, and found a 

 large number of entire failures ; . . . one noteworthy one, a brass 

 rod an inch thick on a steeple which was smashed to pieces and 

 the spire destroyed. Again, the best protected building in the 

 world, the Hotel de Ville at Brussels, on which M. Melsens had 



