74 THE EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING. 



i 



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

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



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

 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 foundatio 

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



The power of metals arid similar conductors to give a free passage to th 

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

 erence to atmospheric electricity. When lightning comes into the neighbor 

 hood o,f 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 ir 

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

 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 smalle 

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

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

 explication of this effect. 



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

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

 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 rhe 

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

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

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

 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 Tilncy, at 

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

 happened to be in the house at tiie 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 luse wire would kill a man. In 

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

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



