446 Danger from Lightning. 



steeple of St. Martin, was again struck, and five days before the light- 

 ning had fallen at la Guerche, and around that city, within the space 

 of a league in different directions, upon ten chapels and other edifices-. 

 At Paris, on the night between the 7th and 8th of August 1807, the 

 lightning fell upon the sign-post of a shop in the Rue de Thionville, upon 

 a house near la Halle, upon a reflector of a lamp of the Rue de Perpiynan 

 in the Rue aux Ftves at Vauyirard, and at Passy. On the 14th May 1806, 

 we find it damaging a joiner's workshop in the Rue Caumartin ; on the 

 2Gth June 1807, it injured nine portions of a house at Aubervilliers ; on 

 the 29th of August 1808, it struck a public-house near the Barriire des 

 Gobelins, and killed and wounded many ; near the Barrier e Mont-mart re, 

 it fell upon another public-house filled with people, many of whom 

 were knocked down in a state of insensibility; on the 14th of February 

 1809, it knocked to pieces a wind-mill, situated on the road to St. 

 Denis; on the 29th of June 1810, it did much damage to a house in 

 the Rice Aumaire ; next day it broke and scattered about whatever it 

 encountered in a house in the Rue Popeleniere ; and on the 3d of August 

 1811, it fell upon a house at the Barriere de Pantin, and wounded many 

 individuals. 



On the 11th of January 1815, during a thunder-storm which embraced 

 the space comprehended between the Northern Ocean and the Rhenish 

 provinces, the lightning fell upon twelve steeples dispersed over this 

 great extent of country, set fire to many, and greatly injured others. 

 In leaving this recapitulation of recorded facts, it is scarcely necessary, 

 I imagine, to remark that I believe it very far indeed from being complete, 

 every one indeed will recognise that it reaches only the minimum limits 

 of the subject. 



The necessity there is for protecting buildings against lightning, 

 should be measured by the number of those which are annually struck 

 by it, and also by the extent and importance of the damage which it 

 carries in its train. Three or four citations will shew the importance 

 of this last-mentioned consideration. In the year 1417, lightning set 

 fire to the woodwork which terminated the steeple of St. Mark at Venice, 

 and the whole was consumed. This pyramid was reconstructed, but 

 another thunder-storm reduced it to ashes on the 12th of August 1489. 

 On the 20th of May 1711, a single thunderbolt not only did very great 

 damage, both to the interior and the exterior of the principal tower 

 of the town of Berne, but it also devastated nine houses in its immediate 

 neighbourhood. The pyramid of St. Mark (on this occasion it was 

 built of stone) received a violent stroke of lightning on the 23d of April 

 1745. The repairs of the damage cost more than 8000 ducats. On the 



