150 ■ ' PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I764, 



to pieces. That this bar was joined in the middle to one end of another bar, 

 about 1 foot long, and 1 inch thick, which laid horizontally, and, passing to the 

 wall, had been there fastened with lead. That the lightning in rushing along 

 the inclined bar, had wasted or reduced its thickness in some places very consi- 

 clerably, insomuch that it looked like a burnt poker which had been long used; 

 and broke the bar into 2 pieces, about an inch above the joining of the lesser 

 bar, the ends of which had a burnt flaky appearance. That the other parts of 

 the bar were changed in colour to a grey, or whitish hue: resembling iron after 

 it has been exposed to a violent heat and then suffered to cool. That the hori- 

 zontal bar had also undergone an extraordinary change by the lightning, but par- 

 ticularly at that end next the wall of the chapel, it being reduced from 1 inch in 

 diameter to the size of a slender wire, but tapering towards the wall. That 

 when the soldiers rested against the wall, their heads were about the same height 

 with the shortest bar; and, from what he can recollect, were very near being 

 opposite to that end which was inserted in the wall. That the 2 soldiers were 

 forced from the wall at the same instant by the lightning: so that their feet, 

 which were I yard or more from it, were nearest to the wall, and their heads the 

 farthest off. That their flesh appeared very black. That their clothes were burnt 

 and scorched in many parts, and their belts shrivelled up, as if they had been 

 exposed to a large fire. That Capt. Dibden, and other people, felt a disagree- 

 able kind of an electric shock, at the same instant that the soldiers were killed. 

 Capt. Dibden gave an account also, that he was lately at Virginia, 1763: that 

 the inhabitants of Norfolk had changed their opinions in respect to fixing of wires 

 and small rods of iron on the tops of their houses; from the frequent instances 

 they have lately had of their being melted, or destroyed, by the violence of the 

 lightning: and that now they adopted in their stead, rods of iron from 4 an inch 

 thick to ■} of an inch thick, or more. That those rods ended in a point at the 

 top, and extended from 3 feet above their houses down to the ground; and that 

 many houses had one of these conducting irons at each end. The Captain added, 

 that though the pine trees are considerably higher than the oaks in the American 

 woods, yet the oaks are the oftenest attacked by the lightning: and that he does 

 not remember any oaks growing among the pine trees, when the latter have suf- 

 fered by lightning: which must be owing to the greater resistance arising from 

 the unctuous nature of the pine trees. 



XLV. A Solar Eclipse observed at the Roman College by the Jesuits, April \, 

 1764; True Time after Midnight. From the Latin, p. 254. 



With a tube of 10 palms, the beginning of the eclipse was obser\ed at g^ 49"" 8", 

 and the end at \1^ 52"" 49'. 



