Danger to Powder Magazines. 447 



27th of July 1759, the lightning burned all the wood-work of the 

 roof of the Cathedral of Strasburg. In the month of October following, 

 this meteor struck the upper part of the magnificent tower of this same 

 town, and so completely divided one of the pillars which supported 

 the lantern, that it was discussed at the time, whether it should be 

 taken down. The reparation of the damage cost more than three hundred 

 thousand francs. The three strokes of lightning which, in the night 

 from the 25th to the 26th of April 1760, struck the church of Notre - 

 dame of Ham, led to the burning and complete ruin of this great and 

 beautiful building. 



In speaking of damage, I should not forget that which lightning 

 sometimes occasions when it strikes powder magazines. On the morning 

 of the 18th of August 1769, lightning fell upon^the tower St. Nazaire 

 at Brescia. This tower stood upon a subterranean magazine, which 

 contained 2,076,000 pounds of powder belonging to the Republic of 

 Venice. This immense mass of powder ignited in a moment. The sixth 

 part of the edifices in the great and beautiful town of Brescia were over- 

 turned, and the rest were much shaken, and threatened with destruction. 

 Three thousand persons perished. The tower of St. Nazaire was pro- 

 jected entire into the air, and fell down again a shower of stones. 

 Fragments of it were found at enormous distances. The destruction of 

 materials was rated at two millions of ducats. 



On the 18th of August, lightning set fire to the powder which was at 

 the time in the magazine of Malaga. The building was overturned ; 

 and the whole town would assuredly have shared the same fate, had 

 they not, some time previously, transported the greatest part of 

 the powder into more distant magazines. On the 4th of May 1785, 

 a thunderbolt set fire to the powder magazine at Tangier. The maga- 

 zine and most of the houses in the neighbourhood were blown up. On 

 the 26th June 1807, at half past eleven in the forenoon, lightning blew 

 up a powder-magazine at Luxemburg, which was very solid, and long 

 before built upon a rock by the Spaniards ; it contained upwards 

 of 28,000 pounds of powder. Thirty persons perished ; more than 200 

 were mutilated or grievously wounded. The lower town was a heap of 

 ruins. At nearly the distance of a league, very large stones of the ma- 

 gazine were found conveyed thither by the explosion. On the 9th 

 of September 1808, lightning fell upon a magazine of military stores at 

 the fort of St. Andrea-del-Lido at Venice, and blew it up. The explo- 

 sion completely destroyed a barrack, a neighbouring chapel, the wall 

 of a half-moon battery, greatly damaging, at the same time, the bar- 

 racks of the artillery. 



I have multiplied these citations regarding the explosions of powder- 



