PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIGHTNING FLASHES TAKEN 

 SEPTEMBER 18, 1888. 



By C. Ray Woods. 



[Read 26th September, 1888.] 



At the meeting held here a month ago I brought forward some 

 attempts made to photograph lightning flashes during the thunder- 

 storm of July 30th. I on that occasion drew attention to the report 

 issued by the Thunderstorm Committee of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society with various illustrations from the " Photo News " and by 

 photographers in this Colony. A consideration of the various photos 

 of lightning flashes that had passed through my hands led me to 

 draw a different conclusion to that given in the report, which said 

 that there was reason to believe that " lightning assumes various 

 forms under conditions at present unknown." The view that I 

 ventured to put forward was that the conditions did not greatly 

 diflPer from experiments in high tension electricity made in the^ 

 laboratory ; that it is more probable that lightning only assumes 

 two forms, the single spark and the compound flash or series of 

 sparks, the various forms of the latter being due to modification in 

 appearance only by the obstruction of cloud masses. 



The photographs taken on the 18th do not tend in any way to 

 modify those views. Apart from the point brought forward in my 

 last part, I shall merely content myself with a brief description of 

 the photos. It would be interesting to speculate on the physical^ 

 ehiefly electrical, conditions of this and the preceding storm, but 

 as any evidence that may be derived from these photos is too meagre 

 for any theorizing beyond vague suppositions, and unless any points 

 are brought forward in discussion to cause me to express any vagu& 

 ideas I may have formed thereon, I prefer to postpone the matter 

 till I can speak with greater confidence. By the time the next 

 thunderstorm occurs, I hope to be in a position to record it on a 

 more extensive scale. 



