244 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



natural one, when it is considered that so many casualties from 

 lightning have occurred despite the presence of certain kinds of 

 lightning rods. These rods have been, in many instances, highly 

 recommended by scientific men, or, at least, have purported to 

 be ; and, when they failed, the idea at once arose that, inasmuch 

 as these rods, alleged to be of the latest improvements, had 

 proved useless, therefore no confidence could be had in any 

 rods. A safer opinion, and one which he thought to be fully 

 established by the data in his possession, was that the efiecting 

 of protection from lightning eminently demands the exercise of 

 the soundest discretion and judgment, based upon thorough sci- 

 entific knowledge and experience, not only in the matter of the 

 mechanical construction of the rod itself, but in the manner of 

 its arrangement upon or adaption to the building. Buildings are 

 differently situated and exposed as regards lightning ; therefore, 

 the person who attempts to protect them, should have the requi- 

 site ability to enable him to detect and consider the nature and 

 extent of exposure, together with a knowledge of the proper 

 means to apply to provide for the peculiar exigencies of the case. 

 If he is deficient in these particulars, he is liable to error, and 

 the result of his mistake may be the destruction of the building 

 by lightning, which has heretofore not unfrequently occurred. 

 The mere fact that an ignorant person has failed to accomplish 

 what might be called a scientific result, was scarcely sufficient to 

 condemn all efforts in the same direction, and as an evidence of 

 the utility of lightning rods, it was to be observed that during 

 the last twenty-five years or so, A. M. Quimby & Son had direc- 

 ted the application of lightning rods to many buildings in vari- 

 ous parts of this and neighboring countries with uniformly suc- 

 cessful results, that is, so far as is known ; not a single instance 

 had occurred, he said, where these rods have failed to afibrd the 

 desired protection to the buildings on which they have been 

 placed. This fact, of course, was very important, and would 

 seem to cover the whole ground, but as there had been strenu- 

 ously asserted differences of opinion as to the construction of the 

 rod, it was desirable to consider the subject in its theoretical 

 aspects. They had always believed the practice of insulation to 

 be radically unscientific and wrong, and had therefore never 

 adopted it; yet as was just observed, their rods had always 

 proved perfect safeguards from lightning, while various kinds of 

 insulated rods had, in many cases, proved utterly useless. 



