1876.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER- 



i21 



mineral constituciils rcnioYPd in tlio ]iiinlui'- 

 tion; or, wliat auiounts to the same (liinj;, that 

 this has been alU'ctcd by tin- aiii (if a iiiaiUMf, 

 of which the 1,'ri'atci' portion is lost to tlic land 

 in the Kin-oju'an system of civilization. — l^ii- 

 hiy''!< Lrtters '») Mmhin Aiiriciiltiiir. 



[The foregoinfi; cxliil]its so nnich of a inacti- 

 cal character, and moreover so nnich against 

 which there exists yet snch deeji-scated )ireju- 

 dices, notwithstanding; the jihilosoiihy of the 

 question, that we <;ive it a jilace in The 

 Fahmkh, as a .system that will iierhap.s lie 

 studied with more lirolit in the future, than 

 it has yet lieen up to the present time. A cen- 

 tury hence, and with the same ratio of increase 

 in our population as that which hascliaracter- 

 ized our first century as a nation, may luit an 

 entire new face on the question, and we may 

 gather something from it that will be useful."] 



LIGHTNING AND LIGHTNING RODS. 



From this time till frost comes, look out for 

 the advent of the li<ilitninLC-rod man. He will 

 call at the house and eiaiuire for the owner, 

 and is never so hajipy as when informed that 

 he is absent. This j^ives him an opportunity 

 to scare the women folks, who arc very likely 

 to lie "afraid of thunder." He will lepresent 

 the danger of living in a house that lias no 

 lightning-rod attached to be So great that tliey 

 will not "slee]) nights" till one is jiut up. 

 Having talked for an hour, lie will leave a 

 tract, iialf of which is devoted to statistics of 

 mortality from lightning, and the other half 

 to the advantages of the celebrated patent, 

 sjiiral, tubular, double-and-twi.sted thiuider 

 exterminator. 



He calls again in a week and expresses his 

 surprise that the house i.s standing and its oc- 

 cupants are alive. The head of the family is 

 ready for a trade, for he fears that tlie female 

 members of this household will ilic of fright if 

 the house is notequijiped with a lightning-rod 

 before tlie next thunder cloud appears," He 

 sign.s a skilfully v\'orde<l contiact, by the terms 

 of which he obligates himself to pay so much 

 per foot for a suHicient amount of rod to ])ro- 

 tect tlie building he occupies. Of course the 

 lightning-rod man, lieinganexiiert attlie busi- 

 nes.s, is con.stitiited sole judge of what length 

 of rod is necessary. Ilt^ roughly guesses that 

 about fifty feet will b(' re<iuired. 



The next visit is for the puipose of laitting 

 II]) the celebrated lightniug-dcmolisher anil 

 tlinnder-tanior. A survey of tlie hou.se is now 

 made for the pui'po.se of seeing how many feet 

 ot rod the signer of the contract can be forced 

 to pay for. Youniiiy depend on the lightning- 

 idd man to figure this very line. He under- 

 stands how to bend the rod round the eaves of 

 the house, how to carry it to the extreme cor- 

 ner, and how to attach it to the most distant 

 chimney. He is engaged in selling rods by the 

 yard and he has no notion of disposing of a 

 scant pattern. When measured up with all 

 its crooks and turns it is found to he about 

 three times as long as was originally supposed. 



If this was the only swindle connected with 

 the transaction there vvoul<l lie less cause of 

 complaint. But it is not the only one. The 

 rod is generally sold for four or five times as 

 much as it cost. Most of the claims for the 

 efliciency of the rod, the aliility of the point 

 or points to attract lightning, and for its 

 peculiar method of attachment to the building 

 are fraudulent. (Some smart fellow got a pat- 

 ent on some iiarlicular turn or twist in a iiiece 

 of fragile metal that could not support itself, 

 and used it for the [lurpose of selling an arti- 

 cle almost entirely useless. 



Every electrician knows that the fewer turns, 

 twists, cmves, angles, and joints there are 

 about a lightning-rod, the lietter it is for the 

 purpose for which it was designed. The truth 

 of the matter is, there has been no essential 

 imiirovcment on the original lightning-rod as 

 brought out by Dr. Franklin. That was a 

 straight continuous bar of wrought iron, secur- 

 ed to a building by attachments of wood or 

 metal. It was a very inexpensive and simple 

 contrivance, but it conducted electricity bet- 

 ter tlian most of the new-fiingled humbugs that 

 liave taken its place. 



, The cheaiie.st way to procure a good liglit- 

 ning-rod is to buy a bar of round iron three- 

 fourths of an inch in diameter, and of the ri'- 

 i|uisite length to reach ten feet above the high- 

 est point of the roof, to extend over the roof 

 on the most direct line to the ground, and to 

 continue into the earth till permanent mois- 

 ture is reached. This can he secured to the 

 chimney, the roof and walls of the build- 

 ing by means of iron staples. 'J'he tip of the 

 rod should be cut in the form of a screw so as 

 to lit into a polished point that can be obtain- 

 ed in ahno.st any hardware shop. Sometimes 

 IMiints may be obtained that will lit over tlic 

 end of tlu' rod. 



Instead of a round iron bar a strip of iron 

 one inch wide and a fourth of an ineli thick 

 may be used, and in some respects it is supe- 

 rior. This sli'ip may be jiiereed with holes 

 and tacked directly to the building and chim- 

 ney, or it may be secured by staples, or by 

 liieces of iron bent over it and secured by 

 screws. Whichever kind of conductor is used, 

 it is advisable to paint it of the same color as 

 the house, so it will not act to clisligure it. 

 The jiaiul will protect it against the action of 

 the air and rain, and will not essentially in- 

 jure its conducting power. 



At iireseiit, all persons versed in the laws 

 that regulate tin- pa.ssage of electricity, look 

 with disfavor on any atteTupts ti> insulate a 

 rod by means of pieces of glass. ( )n the other 

 hand they advise connecting the rod directly 

 with the building, and jiarticularly with metal 

 eave-spouts, or other metal surfaces about the 

 exterior of th(! building. The old idea that 

 electricity only passes over the surface of a 

 substance is abandoned. It is now accepted 

 as a fact that electricity in motion pervades 

 the entire s\ibstance of the object through 

 which it iias.ses. This disiien.ses with the 

 argument in regard to tapes and riblious of 

 metals as conductors of electricity. 



The matter that demands most attention in 

 putting up a lightning-rod is the connection 

 it forms with the earth. This is tlie thing to 

 which lightning-rod men give the least care, 

 as digging in the hard eartli is not the kind of 

 occupation they prefer. It suits their purpose 

 lietter to sink a crow-bar into dry sancl and to 

 (Irnii the end of the bar into it. The end of 

 the rod shoulil reach ]ieiinanent moisture, or 

 else it should extend into a. jiit filled with char- 

 coal, coke, or scrap iron, either of whi<-h con- 

 stitute very excellent conductors of electricity. 

 — Chlrayo Thiies. 



[We, of course, do not hold ourselves re- 

 siionsililc for the sentiments of the foregoing, 

 nor yet for the following from I'rof. Wise ; nor 

 do werepulilish them in disparagement of .any 

 of the men, or any of the systems, involved in 

 the UijlitiiiyKj-rdil huxincfs. 



But of late years the phenomena, and the 

 exiieriences of those who have been both prac- 

 tically and .scientifically interest eil in the sub- 

 ject, have been so various, have taken such a 

 wide range, and have iHilmiiiaf<il in conclu- 

 sions so different from those which had Jirevi- 

 ously been current among the |ie(i]ile, that we 

 think it about time that both sides of the sub- 

 ject were seriously considered. If lightning- 

 rods are any protection to buildings— and it is 

 very extensively iiresiimed that they are — or if 

 they are entirely useless — and a very intelli- 

 gent portion of the (^immunity believe that in 

 their present forms they are — the people who 

 incur the expenses of their erection, or who 

 may desire to .save that expen.se, ought to 

 know just where they are standing. There is 

 one consideration, in addition to arguments 

 and practical experiments, which al.so ought 

 to hav'e its due weight in the matter,. in these 

 rather degenerate times. The wi'it/rr.s of those 

 who are the zealous advocates of lightning- 

 rods, and tho.se who from iiliilosophical 

 grounds deem them entirely u.seless, are of 

 quite a dilTerent character, although there 

 may be a certain lOiase of self-interest in both ; 

 but the one is more likely to be exerci.sed in be- 

 halfof self alone, perhaps, than theother.-AV^] 



I'rof, .John Wise writes as follows to the 

 I'hiladelphia Timci: 



About dusk liist evening, while in conversa- 



tion with I'rof. Blasiusuiion the philosojihy of 

 ■storms, the eli'ments of nature were clever 

 enough to give us an ocular demonstration of 

 howa stoiin is precipitated upon us. We were 

 sitting at the time in front of lii.'il North 

 Klevenlh street. A streak of chmd, running 

 from southwest to northeast, marked the node 

 of the polar current from thesoiith. Soon the 

 heavens were all ablaze with lightnings- heat 

 lightning, flashing from cloud toclouil; forked 

 lightning, running horizontally, and spitting 

 out lati-ral streaks along its track ; zig/jig 

 lightning, crashing downwiird with fearfulde- 

 toiiations. It was a brilliant display of natural 

 fireworks. The orange-colorid flashes were 

 followed by heavy thuds and rmnliling rever- 

 berations; the vivid, diamonil-like discharges 

 were followed by crashes like the explosion of 

 a thousand pen'ussioiicaps. 'l"he orange-colored 

 was low tension, the diamond-coloreil high ten- 

 sion. It seemed as if the pularcurrent supplied 

 the electricity and the Imiiical current fired it 

 off. A few hours later a secon<l storm was 

 precipitated over the city. This oiu-caMie with 

 artillery and battering rams. The(lestruction 

 from the wind was the carrying away of flags, 

 awnings, roofs, etc.; that oi' the elec'tiicity in 

 the manner of tlnnah-rbolls. The building un- 

 der the r<iof of which tlie 7V/;i(.s thundi'i-s forth 

 its anathemas against the jiolitical corruption 

 of the day was the recipient of a grand siduto 

 from .Tupiter's artillery. The shot came from 

 the southwest, and took in its rangi'one of the 

 .sandstoni' pinnacles on tlic parapet wall. It 

 broke off one of its ornate projections and then 

 struck the roof, which is of <-orriigalecl iron, a 

 good comiieiisator. Now this has on it a ranire 

 of chimneys, four of tlieni lined from west to 

 east. The ele<trical force is not manifest on 

 the western one. On tin- .second one, which 

 stands in the line of iirojection, the iron plate 

 on its top was displaced anil the mortar lie- 

 tween the bricks was forced out and scattered 

 ai-onnd to a considerabUi extent. The next 

 chinniey eastward showed a less mechanical 

 action on its mortar; the last one in the row 

 still less, showing conclusively that as more 

 surface of metal was flaslied over the less Ixv 

 came the force. This temple, like that of Sol- 

 omon, has its immnnity from harm by lightning 

 in the metal that forms its roof. 



A not her shot locik In its range the flag-pole of 

 the Custom Ilniisedlie old rnited States Hank 

 building.) It shivered tin- lla^-iioU' into lino 

 kindling wood, but one big splinter was hurled 

 over an adjoining Imilding, which in fallitig 

 planted itself into the slate roof. The pole was 

 shivercul down to where the metal sheeting of 

 the roof was in contact with it. Beyond that 

 not a trace of the electric force is visible — an- 

 other conclusive proof that metal roofs afford 

 certain protection from lightning strokes. 

 -Vbont a week ago Ilirsh's mnbrella house had 

 a similar electrical visitation, but having a 

 metal roof nothing w.is damaged but the flag- 

 liole. These are a few of the hundreds of 

 lightning strokes that I have examined that 

 show the protection in iiK'fal roofs. The "light- 

 ning rod" as a iirolectiun in itself is of no more 

 value as a protection than a bodkin would be 

 to ward oll'the ball lireil from a columbiad. I 

 may add that all thunilerbolfs <'ome from the 

 westward, in the line of direction of the storm. 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES. 



There are probably few persons now living 

 who have paid the subject any attention, who 

 are not inclined to attribute to the iullueuces 

 of inheritance many more elm racteristies than 

 were formerU' a.ssigued to that source. Less 

 is heard of tne term "instinct" and more of 

 tile term " heri'ditary." It has liecn s<'en that 

 nmcli of that which we call intuitive in ani- 

 mals and men, is only the s:ime knowledge, 

 perhajis a little exaggerated, :us their parents 

 pns.sessed ; and when, .as in the ca.se of tlie eave 

 swallow, we know thi; origin of ci-rtaiu habits 

 which are now just as ninch innate in the 

 young as others, the origin of which is lost, 

 we are inclined to consider all instinct. .sr>- 

 called, but the sum of inherited experience. 

 The parent transmits to the young not only 

 its general fonn and external appearance, and 



