WATER-PIPKS ON A DISCHARGE OF LIGHTNING. 113 



the terrific force of the lightning stroke, and at the same 

 time the ignorance and indifference which prevail in some 

 quarters with respect to the means of averting such 

 disasters ; for wherever lofty buildings are furnished with 

 conductors from the summit to the base and thence into 

 the earth, damage of the mechanical kind is now happily 

 unknown. 



Even in those cases where lightning conductors have not 

 extended continuously through the whole height of a 

 building, or where the lower extremity of the conductor 

 has, from any cause, terminated abruptly at the base of 

 the building, the severity of the stroke has been greatly 

 mitigated, the damage being limited in many cases to the 

 loosening of a few stones or bricks. 



The ever extending introduction of gas- and water-pipes 

 into the interior of buildings armed with lightning con- 

 ductors has, however, greatly altered the character of the 

 protection which they formerly afforded ; and the con- 

 viction has been long forced upon me that, while buildings 

 so armed are effectually protected from injury of the 

 mechanical kind, they are more subject to damage by 

 fire. 



The proximity of lightning-conductors to gas- and water- 

 mains, as an element of danger, has not yet, so far as I 

 know, engaged the attention of electricians ; and it was 

 first brought under my notice at Oldham in 1861, by 

 witnessing the effects of a lightning discharge from the 

 end of a length of iron wire rope, which had been fixed 

 near to the top of a tall factory chimney, for the purpose 

 of supporting a long length of telegraph-wire. The 

 chimney was provided with a copper lightning-conductor 

 terminating in the ground in the usual manner. In close 

 proximity to the conductor and parallel with it the wire 

 rope descended, from near the top of the chimney, for a 



SER. III. VOL. X. I 



