74 



THE EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING. 



the carpentry surrounding it suffered no damage, although the flash had by no 

 means expended its force, as was proved by its effects in descending lower. 



Arriving at the lower extremity of this wire the lightning again passed 

 through the carpentry, which it damaged considerably ; and such was its in- 

 tensity, that when it reached the ground it tore up several of the foundation 

 stones of the building, and projected them to a considerable distance. 



The power of metals and similar conductors to give a free passage to the 

 electric fluid, is not the only quality from which they derive importance in ref- 

 erence to atmospheric electricity. When lightning comes into the neighbor- 

 hood of masses of metal, whether they be exposed or covered by non-con- 

 ductors, the lightning will force its way to them, bursting through any inter- 

 vening non-conducting bodies, and fracturing or otherwise damaging them. 

 This may be easily explained by the known effects of induction. The in- 

 ductive action of the lightning, decomposing the natural electricities of the 

 metal, attracts the fluid of the same name to the end nearest to it, and is recip- 

 rocally attracted by it. The energy of this attraction may be sufficient to pro- 

 duce the effects which are observed. Lightning will also desert a smaller 

 metallic conductor and rush to a larger one, breaking its way through interve- 

 ning non-conductors. The principle of induction is equally applicable to the 

 explication of this effect. 



Lightning having struck a large rod of iron placed on the roof of the house of 

 Mr. Raven, in Carolina, U. S., passed along a brass wire which was carried 

 down the external surface of the wall, and connected with a bar of metal 

 which was sunk in the ground. In its descent the lightning fused all that 

 part of the wire extending from the roof to the first floor above the level of the 

 ground, without damaging the wall against which the wire was attached. At the 

 height of the first floor it took another course, deserting the wire, bursting 

 through the wall, in which it made a large aperture, and entered the kitchen. 

 The cause of this singular deviation at right angles to its former course be- 

 came manifest, when it was found that a gun standing on its stock rested with 

 its barrel against the kitchen wall, exactly at the place where the lightning forced 

 its way through it. The lightning passed along the barrel of the gun without 

 injuring it, breaking, however, the stock, and damaging the hearthstone near it. 



In the night between the 17th and 18th of July, 1767, lightning struck a 

 house in the Rue Plummet, in Paris. Several frames were suspended in one 

 of the rooms, one of which only was gilt ; this one it attacked, neglecting all 

 the others. A tin lantern, and two thin glass bottles, lay upon the table ; it 

 demolished the lantern, but spared the bottles. In another room was placed 

 an iron stove ; this was destroyed, while everything else in the room was un- 

 injured. In another room was a wooden chest containing several articles made 

 of iron ; the chest was broken, and the iron articles presented evident marks of 

 fusion, yet half a pound of gunpowder, which was contained in an open pow- 

 derhorn which lay among these articles, was not fired. 



On the 15th of March, 1773, lightning struck the house of Lord Tilney, at 

 Naples. A large assembly, consisting of not less than five hundred persons, 

 happened to be in the house at the time, among whom were SAUSSURE and 

 Sir WILLIAM HAMILTON. Almost all the gildings of the rooms, the cor- 

 nices of the ceilings, the rods supporting the drapery of the furniture, the 

 gilding of chairs and sofas, the gilded frames of the doors, and the bell-cords, 

 were fused, blackened, or scaled off. As usual, the greatest effects were pro- 

 duced wherever the continuity of the conducting matter was interrupted. It 

 is certain that lightning sufficiently powerful to fuse wire would kill a man. In 

 this case, therefore, lightning sufficiently intense to produce death traversed 

 1 nine rooms, containing five hundred persons, without injuring any one, its 



