322 Effects of Lightning. 



which were under the gentlemen's pillows were so highly 

 magnetized as to stop them, and render it necessary to remove 

 all the steel work. The gentlemen themselves were, without 

 exception uninjured, owing doubtless to the non-conducting prop- 

 erties of the beds upon which they were sleeping. At the time 

 the ship was struck, the lightning conductor had not been put 

 up ; but it was immediately after the accident raised to the main- 

 royal-mast head. 



The conductor consisted of an iron chain with links one fourth 

 of an inch thick and two feet long, turned into hooks at each 

 end ; at top it ended in an iron rod half an inch thick and four 

 feet long, having a polished point and rising two feet above the 

 mast head ; the chain descended down over the quarter, and be- 

 ing pushed out from the ship's side about ten feet by an oar, de- 

 scended a few feet below the surface of the water. 



Near 2 o'clock, P. M. it was observed that only four seconds 

 intervened between the lightning and the thunder. At 2 o'clock 

 there was a simultaneous flash and a shock like that in the morn- 

 ing ; passengers in the cabin saw the appearance of a ball of fire 

 darting before them while the glass in the round house came rat- 

 tling down. To those on deck the ship appeared to be in a blaze, 

 so vivid was the flash which they saw distinctly darting down the 

 conductor and agitating the water. All parts of the ship as be- 

 fore were filk;d with smoke smelling of sulphur. Although the 

 conductor was of the size which Dr. Franklin thought sufficient 

 to sustain the severest shock of lightning without injury, yet it 

 was literally torn to pieces and scattered to the winds, while it 

 saved the ship. The pointed rod at the top of the conductor 

 being fused, was shortened several inches and covered over with 

 a dark coating ; some of the links of the chain had been snapped 

 off and others melted.* 



The shock affected the polarity of all the compasses on board, 

 causing them to vary from the true point and to range betVv'een 

 each other, but they gradually returned within three points of 

 truth. The chronometer of Capt. Bennett, the commander of 

 the ship, which did not usually vary more than three seconds in 

 crossing the Atlantic, was now quite out of time ; it had gained 



* It is said tliat tlie same thing once happened in a Dutch church in New York; 

 a chain connected with the clock was melted and probably saved the church. 



