Contents 



The August Storms. Walter C. Kerr. 155 



Petrographs at Lake Pend D' Oreille, 



Idaho. John B. Leiberg 156 



Corn Cane, F. L. Stewart 157 



Nature and Distribution of New York 

 Indiaa Relics. W. M. Beau- 

 champ 1 59 



Sarcology: a New Medical Science. 



Wallace Wood 161 



History of Science in America. John 



Reade 162 



British Stone Circles — IV. Somer- 

 setshire and Dorsetshire Circles. 

 A. L. Lewis 164 



Scientific Research Work in America. 



Albert Schneider 165 



Letters to the Editor. 



Temperature in Storms and High iy| I M C D A I C ^t^ **^"/*-. 



Areas. H. A. Ha.en 165, [llmtKfiLd. ''^'^JTe^krtu.enU. 



--Sharks m Fresh Water. Theo. 1 gend for our " Winter Bulletin," recently issued, 



Gill ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ i"5 Minerals, Gems, Microscopical Sections, Fine Lap- 

 Sharks in Lake Nicaragua. Hugh =j-__T.7„-i- 

 M, Smith 166 



Among the Publishers 167 



TO THE SCIENTIFIC PUBLIC. 



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Incorporated. 

 Fhiladelphia, U. S. A. 



World's Fair Exhibits — -Electricity and Manufactures Buildings. 



idary Work. 



A monthly magazine for the study 

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9. L. ENGLISH & CO., Mineralogists, EiS!£S 



Removed to 64 East 'i2th Street, New Yorl' 



NEW METHOD OF PROTECTIKG BUILDINGS FROM LIGHTNING. 

 SPARE THE ROD AMD SPOIL THE HOUSE! 



Ziglitning Destroys. Shall It be Tour Bouse or a Pound of Copper ? 



PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING. 

 What is the Problem? 

 IN seeting a means of protection from ligh-ning-disoharges, we have In view 

 twooWects-theouo the prevention of damage to buUolngs, and the other 

 ihe prwentlon of InJ ary to life. In order to destroy a building lu whol f or In 

 Dart It is necessary that work should he done; that Is, as physicists express 

 Ft energy is required. Just before .he lightning-discharge takes place he 

 energy clpable of doing me damage which we seek to prevent exists in the 

 column of air esteudln| from the cloud to the earth m some form that makes 

 ?tca?kbleof appearlng'^as what we call electricity We will therefore ca.l it 

 electrical energy. What this electrical energy Is, it is not necessary for us to 

 consider in thll place ; but that it exists there can be no doubt, as it manifests 

 Itself in the destruction of buildings. The problem that we have to deal with, 

 thereforeris the conversion of this energy into some other form, and the ac- 

 complishment of this m such a way as shall result In the least injury to prop- 

 erty and life. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ p^.j^^ j, 



•When Ughtnlng-rods were first proposed, the science of energetics was en- 

 Hrelvundeveloped ; that is to say, in the middle of the last century scientific 

 mJn had not come to recognize the tact that the different forms of energy - 

 w^ etectrlclty7mechauical power, etc.- were convertible one into the ether, 

 and thireaoh could produce ]ust so much of each of the other forms, and no 

 more ThI doctr ue of the couservatlou and correlation of energy was first 

 Seariv WOTkcd out in the early part of this century. There were, however, 

 some f alts known iu regard to electricity .-i hundred and forty years ago ;aud 

 aZng thise were tue Ittractlrg power of points for an el/ctrlcspark and the 

 crmductina power of melals. Lightning-rods were therefore Introduced with 

 ?he idea that the electricity existing In the lightning-discharge could be coq- 

 veyed around the building which it was proposed to protect, and that the 



''"The"!u7stto1.'al'to diltiplion of the energy involved was entirely Ignored . 

 naturally- and from that time to this, in ,=r,ne of the be^t endeavors of th. ^e 

 fntS-efted. i?ghtnlng-rods constructed in accordance with Franklin s pnncrple 

 have not furnished satisfactory protectlou. The reason for this " PPa^ nt 

 when it Is considered that the electrical euergy f^lstirg in the atn jsphere 

 heforethe discharge, or, more exactlv, in the column of 1'^''?,'-"'^;^'°™ "/,'' 

 cloud to the earth, above referred to, reaches its maxln. urn yalu- on be sur- 

 face nf the conducti.rs that chance to ho within the colnran of d'electrlc, so 

 that the greaTes^display of energy will be on the surface "(^■'-f,l?'l}'l^'t\% 

 rods that were meant to protect, and damage results, as so of leu pio»*3 to be 



""^It win he understood, of course, that this display of ^^ersy on the su. f .ce 

 of the old lightning-rods Is aided by •'^'^l^bMugraoreori s 1 ^lUatedno^^ 



energy upol Its surface,-" to draw Ihe lightning," as it Is so commonly put. 

 Is there a Better Means of Protection? 

 Havlne cleared our minds, therefore, of any idea of conducting electricity, 

 and keening clearly m view the tact that in providing protection against llght- 

 Sfnf. we must furulsh some menns bv which the electrical energy may be 

 SkrLressly dtssfpared%he'^ue"lou arbos. '• Can an Improved form be given 

 to the rod so that It shall a, ii this d I ssipatiou 1 



* As the electrical energy Involved manifests Itself on the surface of conduc- 

 tors, the Improved rod should be metallic; but, instead of making a large rod, 

 sunpose that we make It comparatively small in size, so that the t iial aaiount 

 of inetai running from the top of the house totomo pumt a Utile below the 

 foundations shall not exceed one pound. Suppose, again, that we imroduce 

 numerous insulating Joints in this rod. Wo shall then have a rod that experi- 

 ence shows will be readily destroyed — will be readily dissipated —when a 

 discharge takes place; an 1 it will be evideut, tuat, so tar as the electrical en- 

 ergy is consumed in doing this, there will be the less to do other damogs. 



The only point that remains to be proved as to the utility of such a rod Is to 

 show that the dissipation of such a conductor does not tend to injure other 

 bodies in its immediate vicinity. On this poin- I caa only say that I have 

 found no case where such a conductor (for luitauce, a bell wire) has been dis- 

 sipated, even if resting against a plastered wall, where there has been any 

 material damage done to surrounding objects. 



Of course, it is readily understood that such an explosion cannot take place 

 In a confined space wiihuut the rupture of the walls (the wire cannot be 

 boarded over); butin every case that I have found recorded this disalpation 

 takes place J list as gunpowder burus when spread on aboard. Ihe objects 

 against w .ich the conductor rests may be stained, but they are not snattered, 



I woi'ia therefore make clear this distinction between the action t.f eltctri- 

 cal euergy when dissipated on the surface of a large conductor and when dis- 

 sipated on the surface of a comparatively small or easily dissipated conductor. 

 When dissipated on the surface of a large conductor, — a conductor so strong 

 as to resist the explosive effect, — damage results to objects around. When 

 dissipated on the surface of a small conductor, the conductor goes, but the 

 other objects around are saved 



A Typical Case of the Action of a Small Conductor. 



Franklin, in a letter to Coliinson read before the London Koyal Society, 

 Dec 18, 1755, describing the partial destruction by Ughtuing of a church-tower 

 at Newbury, Mass., wrote, " Near the bell was fixed an Iron hammer to strike 

 the hours ; and from the tall of the hammer a wire went down through a small 

 gimlet-hole In the floor that the bell stood upon, and through a second floor m 

 like manner; then horizontally under and near the plastered ceiling of that 

 second floor, till it came near a plastered wall; then down by the side ot that 

 wall to a clock, which stood about twenty feet below the bell. The wire was 

 not bigger than a common knitting needle. The spire was split all to picce'- 

 by the lightning, and the parts flung in all directions over the square lu whith 

 the church stood, so that nothing remained above the bell. The llgbtripg 

 passed betweeu the hammer and the clock In the above-mentioned w.rc 

 without hurting either of the fl.mrs, or having any effect upon them (except 

 making the gimlet-holes, through which the wire pnssed. a little bigger), and 

 without hurting the plastered wall, or any part of the building, so tar as the 

 a'ornsaid wire and the pendulum-wire of the clock extended; which latter 

 wire was about the thicUness of agowe-quill. From the end of the pei:du- 

 lum down q'llte to the ground, the buil iin- was escaedingly rent and dam- 

 a"ei No p^rt of the aforementloutdl )Ug, small wire, betweeu the ciccK 



aud the hammer could he round, except about two Inches that hung to ihe 

 taii"ff-.e hammer, aud about as much that was fastened to the clock; the 

 rest being exploded, aud Its particl^^s dissipated in smoke and air. n.s gun- 

 powder is by common fire, and had only loft a black smutty track -.m thf plas- 

 terluc, threeorfour inches broad, darkest in the mlddl^, and fainter loiv.tids 

 ts," e'i'es, all along the celling, under which it passed, aud down the wall. 



On., hundred feet of the Hodges Patent Lightning DIspellor (made under 

 pateuts of N. D. C. Hodges, Editor of Science) will- be raalled, postpaid, to any 

 address, on receipt of five dollars (?5). 



Correspondence elicited. Agents wanted. 



AMERICAN LIGHT t^ING PPtOTECTION CO , 

 87-1 Bx-oadway, New Vork Citv. 



