76 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 378 



Lightning-Discharge. 



On Feb. 24, 1890, at 8.45 p.m., there was a case of lightning- 

 discharge here which is perhaps worthy of notice. The building 

 struck was Newcomb Hall, the property of Washington and Lee 

 University. It is a three-story brick building covered with tin, 

 having seven downfalls not connected with the earth, and having 

 no lightning-rods. On top of the building, for lighting and ven- 

 tilating purposes, is a square cupola. This has wooden corner- 

 posts six or eight inches square; its walls are almost entirely 

 glass; its roof is tin. The distance between the tin on the roof of 

 the cupola and the nearest tin in connection with that on the roof 

 of the building is about four feet. The lightning struck the roof 

 of the cupola, passed down one of the corner-posts to the roof of 

 the main building, and then down five of the seven downfalls to 

 the ground. The roof of the cupola is "hipped; " and just under 

 each of the four eaves, in a horizontal position, are two planks, 

 each about ten inches wide. The four planks adjacent to the post 

 struck were thrown entirely off. The tin on the roof just above 

 the post was thrown back, uncovering about a square yard of the 

 roof. The post itself was torn to splinters at the top. All but 

 five panes of glass, out of a total of about fifty in the walls of the 

 cupola, were shattered. Nearly all of the glass fell outside, and 

 the tin all over the roof of the cupola showed signs of having been 

 pushed upwards. When the discharge left the post, it divided, 

 part of it going to the tin on the lower part of the post and thence 

 to the roof, and part of it to a strip of tin on the window-sill. 

 This strip of tin was composed of five or six pieces tacked to- 

 gether, not soldered. Nearly all of these joints were separated, 

 about two inches of the tin being bent over in the direction in 

 which the discharge travelled, from above down. This part of 

 the discharge reached the tin on an adjacent post of the cupola, 

 and thence passed down to the roof. One sharp corner of tin was 

 buimt off, leaving a burnt curved edge about an inch in length. 

 The two posts and the tin on them were blackened at the point 

 where the discharge reached the tin. There was no further trace 

 of the discharge until it reached the ground. As already stated, 

 it passed down five of the downfalls, but apparently much the 

 largest part passed down one. At this point, for a distance of ten 

 or twelve feet, the ground was as much turned up as it would 

 have been by a large plough. Some of the earth was thrown to a 

 distance of twenty or thirty yards. The clerk of the faculty has 

 his office in a corner room on the ground floor next to this down- 

 fall. He found the steel pens in a box on his desk so strongly 

 magnetized that one pen could support four or five others. The 

 pens in the penholders were also magnetized. Two panes of 

 glass were broken in this room. Fifteen or twenty feet from this 

 corner of the building is a water-pipe, wrought iron, one inch in 

 diameter. This pipe at a short distance connects with a cast-iron 

 pipe whose internal diameter is two inches; this, in turn, con- 

 nects with the system of pipes supplying the town of Lexington 

 with water. The two-inch cast-iron pipe was found the next day 

 to be leaking badly in seven places within a few hundred yards of 

 Newcomb Hall. There seems to be no reason to doubt that the 

 discharge in some way burst the pipe. The leak nearest the 

 building was over fifty yards away. There were no indications 

 of melting. One hole in the pipe was an inch wide and about 

 three inches long, a piece of that size apparently having been 

 knocked out. The pipe is very old and rotten, being almost as 

 soft as graphite. The water in the pipe is under a pressure of 

 about a hundred feet of water. The only other case with which 

 I am acquainted, where water-pipes were damaged by lightning, 

 is that given by Secchi in the Telegraphic Journal o.nd Electrical 

 Review (London, 1872, translated from Les Mondes). In that case 

 the pipe was broken, and some lead melted, at the point where 

 the discharge first reached the pipe. 



The report at the time of the discharge may be described as 

 terrific; it was the more so, because it was the very first indica- 

 tion of any ttiing like a thunder-storm. There was no lightning 

 before this discharge, and not much after it. 



Besides the facts given above, there were some other reports 

 concerning the discharge which may be of interest. Having 

 heard that some persons saw what seemed to be a ball of light- 



ning, I made as careful inquiry as I could concerning it, with the 

 following result: — 



1. A student was sitting before an unshaded window, from 

 the roof of which Newcomb Hall is visible, and less than two 

 hundred yards from it. Attracted by a bright flash, he looked 

 up, and reports that he saw a ball of fire, in size and appearance 

 about like a Roman candle, slowly descending on the building. It 

 disappeared about the time it reached the roof, when the explo- 

 sion was heard. He at once reported what he saw to his uncle, 

 the president of the university, saying he thought the building 

 was struck. They then looked out for signs of fire, but saw 

 nothing. 



3. Tn another dirfection, and at a greater distance, is a house 

 from which Newcomb Hall is plainly visible from top to bottom. 

 A lady in this house, sitting before a window, had her attention 

 attracted by a flash, looked up, and saw a shower of fire-baUs 

 falling on Newcomb Hall. On careful inquiry, I learned that 

 she did not see these balls above the top of the building: they 

 seemed to be very nearly or quite on it when she saw them. She 

 possibly saw what was concealed by the building from the stu- 

 dent. This lady told me that some young ladies in another room 

 in her house saw what she herself saw: I did not talk with them 

 about it. 



3. About a quarter of a mile from Newcomb Hall, on Main 

 Street, stands the Court-House, a short distance back from the 

 street. Mr. B. was standing in the door of the Court-House, 

 looking out on Main Street in tljte direction of Newcomb Hall. 

 He first heard a sharp, quick noise like that produced by slapping 

 the hands together, which seemed to come from his telephone. 

 He then saw across the street from him, at a height of about fif- 

 teen feet from the ground, a ball about the size of a large orange 

 just luminous enough to be plainly visible, followed by a brighter 

 trail ten feet long. This ball moved horizontally and slowly up the 

 street about twenty yards, and then burst with the brightest flash 

 Mr. B, ever saw, and a terrible noise. This noise was immedi- 

 ately followed by another of like character in the direction of the 

 university buildings. Mr. B., I should state, is a man of the very 

 highest character, and his word would be taken without question 

 by all who know him. He is calm and unimaginative. I omitted 

 to mention that his face felt as if it had been hit with sand, and 

 that there was an unpleasant sensation for some hours after- 

 wards. It was rainy, and Mr. B. saw no one on the street; but I 

 learned that three negroes were standing on the sidewalk nearly 

 under the point where Mr. B. saw the globe burst. As they were 

 not moving, Mr. B. might easily miss seeing them. I questioned 

 two of these negroes. They were standing facing each other, one 

 looking up the street, and the other down. Each of them thought 

 he saw a ball of fire fall in the street in the direction in which he was 

 looking, and at a distance of from fifty to one hundred yards away. 

 Neither of them knew any thing of the explosion reported by Mr. 

 B., although it was almost immediately over their heads, and only 

 twenty or thirty feet away. Newcomb Hall could not be seen by 

 either Mr. B. or the negroes. 



I give the facts as I gathered them, without comment. There 

 is no reason to think that any of the persons questioned failed to 

 give a substantially correct report xjf the impressions made on 

 their senses. S. T. Moeeland. 



Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va., April 26. 



Sunspots and Tornadoes. 



The following figures show a slight parallel between the fre- 

 quency of tornadoes in the United States for the last twelve years, 

 and the sunspot curve of the eleven-year cycle. The solar data 

 employed have been obtained from Professor Rudolph Wolf (Zu- 

 rich), the well-known sunspot specialist. The tornado numbers 

 are supplied by Lieut. John P. Finley of the United States Signal 

 Service, but should be i-egarded as only approximate, and subject 

 to more or less change, for these reasons : (1) better facilities now 

 exist for obtaining news of tornadoes than existed fifteen or 

 twenty years ago, owing to the special activity of the United 

 States service, the organization of State weather bureaus, and the 

 co-operation of the press; and (2) west of the Mississippi the coun- 



