a a = 
98 
XIII. EFFECTS 
OF LIGHTNING ON THE HOUSE OF CAPT, THOMAS MANNING, 
IN PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE 3 
In a letter to the Rev. John Ekiot, p.d. F. As As 
By Rev. TIMOTHY ALDEN, jun. a.m. s. xs. 
ee 
Portsmouth, N.H. 14 December, 1808. 
REV. AND DEAR SIR, . 
IT’ appears upon inquiry, that several persons have, at different 
times, been killed by lightning in Portsmouth and its vicinity ; but, 
in no instance, as I can learn, in a close room. 
That the danger however from an electric explosion is as great in 
a close, as in an open room, seems evident from the circumstances de- 
tailed in the following narrative. 
On Friday, in the afternoon of the twenty second of last May, the 
north front of captain Thomas Manning’s dwelling house, near to Lib- 
erty Bridge in this town, was considerably injured by lightning. Com- _ 
mencing at the northwest corner, the lightning tore off several feet of 
the clapboards near the corner, between the eaves and lower story. 
It then took a horizontal direction, just above the window frame, and . 
entered the lower room, shivering the moulding, and starting, for sev- 
eral feet, the plaistering of the planchment, contiguous toit. Be- | 
tween the two front windows it burst off the boards, externally, and 
the most of the plaistering, internally, from the planchment 
to the floor; threw down a large looking glass, which was 
broken, seemingly, into a thousand pieces; burnt a considerable 
part of a muslin covering, which was drawn over the face of the glass; 
and turned a table, which stood under it, upside down, casting it near- 
