308 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1772. 



ments, and threw them in all directions from the place, and melted ofF the end 

 of one of the spikes. It left a smoky track on the under part of it, and then 

 struck the edge of the lead on the plinth, which it melted in two places, quite 

 through its substance. A little below these was a third spot ; this was melted in 

 a very regular and curious concave, about an 8th of an inch diameter, at the 

 surface, with a small perforation at the bottom, through which might have been 

 introduced one of the finest sort of sewing needles. The whole figure somewhat 

 resembled a small funnel.* It passed thence by a regular communication of 

 metal, till it reached the wire of the clock hammer before spoken of, melting it 

 about half through its diameter, which, in this place, was less than the 12lh 

 part of an inch. The edge of the lead pipe, from which it leaped to the wire, 

 was also much melted. The wire was melted at every juncture of the links ; the 

 packthread at the bottom was but little injured, but the electric matter leaped 

 through a few inches of air to the striking rod of the clock, in which, near the 

 end, it melted a large spot, whence it was conducted by the work of the clock to 

 the upper part of the pendulum, in the axis of which it melted another large 

 spot, and descended by the rod passing over the ball, which it melted in a most 

 remarkable manner in 6 or 7 places (perhaps on the ball it might accumulate, 

 and for want of a proper conveyance break out in different parts of it) and 

 quitted it at the bottom of the nut, which it melted in 3 places. Here the elec- 

 tricity leaped through 8 inches of air, or passed in conductors of the worst kind, 

 dry brick and wood, with a considerable cavity between them, till it reached the 

 frame of a window, over the doors, where it broke the ceiling, and burnt the 

 wood to a coal. Here it met with the point of a nail, driven upward into the 

 window frame as a security to the centre bar. The point of this nail is melted 

 off full half an inch; it was also melted in two large spots on the opposite sides 

 near the head. Mr. Jones drew it from the bar, &c. This gentleman also took 

 a sketch of the window, and an outline of the parts affected of the building. 

 The lightning passed down the aforementioned bar, and by a bent iroi>, in con- 

 tact with both, into another bar, whose point, which was greatly melted, came 

 much nearer the upper bolt of the door. The lead-work, from the point of the 

 bar, was melted, and a board nearly in contact with the staple of the bolt much 

 blacked by the passing of the electricity. Here it struck the upper edge of the 

 staple, which projected a little above the top of the bolt, melted it in a most extra- 

 ordinary manner ; the spot, and indeed several others, having run into a kind of 

 spiral form, which is raised considerably. This effect was first observed by Mr. 

 Nairne. When it quitted this bolt, it struck on a semicircular handle of iron 

 (first tearing out a large piece from the door), the upper part of which has 3 



* Quere, is not this a token of the stroke's being from the clouds downwards ? — Orig. 



