VOL. LXXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 307 



down, were replaced ; but we found means to procure distinct information of 

 those repairs from the workmen who had been employed to execute them. In 

 order to communicate a clear idea of the accident, it will be necessary to premise 

 a general account of the building ; then to represent the manner in which the 

 conductors were applied ; and, lastly, to describe the stroke of lightning, with 

 its effects. 



The general form of the building is that of the Roman letter h consisting of 

 a centre range and two flanks. It stands on a gentle rising, which can by no 

 means be termed a hill, with its front facing s. 9 w. To the western side of the 

 west flank, and eastern side of the east flank, some lower buildings are annexed, 

 serving as offices of different kinds ; and there are two courts, one before and 

 the other behind the house, with some small gardens and yards on each of the 

 flanks, in all of which stand various detached offices. 



A very minute description is then given of all the parts of the building of 

 the poor-house, with various low detached and attached offices, as lean-tos, stables, 

 yards, privies, pig-houses, &c. &c. the whole illustrated by drawings of plans 

 and elevations in 6 engraved plates ; which may well be spared on this occasion. 

 To all the 8 chimnies of the building they found iron rods affixed, reaching 

 between 4 and 5 feet above the top of the chimney, pointed at the upper end, 

 and tapering about 10 inches to that point. Each rod or bar was nearly square, 

 measuring, on a mean, about half an inch one way, and -^ of an inch the 

 other, with the angles just rounded off. These conductors were continued down 

 the building by a succession of similar bars of iron, in general from 6 to 8 feet 

 long, joined to each other by 2 hooks and nuts ; that is, the corresponding ends 

 of each bar being formed into a hook bent at right angles, the hook of the 

 uppermost went into a hole of the lowermost, where it was fastened with a nut, 

 and the hook of the lowermost went into a similar hole of the bar above, where 

 it was fixed in the same manner ; the length of each of these joints, from nut 

 to nut, was about 2 inches. Though there were 8 of these conductors reaching 

 above the chimnies, yet they had only 4 terminations below. For the conductors 

 to the 2 chimnies, called d and e, being continued toward each other along the 

 roof, united in the valley over the lead gutter there, and from that point only 

 one conductor was continued down the valley toward the ground. In like 

 manner the 2 conductors from the chimnies a and c united in the valley of the 

 roof between them, and were carried down toward the ground as a single rod. 

 All the 3 conductors from the chimnies f, g, and h, successively joined toge- 

 ther, and only a single rod was continued from them down the lower part of the 

 building. Lastly, the conductor from the chimney b went down single all the 

 way, without having formed a junction with any other. 



The conductors in their passage down the building being thus reduced to 4, 



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