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burfting off from the lower part of the fpindle the 
ftones contiguous to it on that fide. 
At each of the angles of the metal, the ftone on 
which it reded is cracked, which probably was oc- 
calioned by the lightning ifliiing with greater freedom 
from thole parts, than from the flat furface. 
No part of the fpindle is in the lead; injured by the 
lightning, notwithftanding the great quantity which, 
from it’s effects, appears to have been accumulated 
in it 
From hence, as low as to the corniche B, itfeems 
to have been conducted along the furface of the fpire, 
which was wetted by the rain that had fallen in the 
morning, before the lightning: and having been ac- 
cumulated in the iron bars B and C, in difcharging 
itfelf from them, it has made the greateft explofion at 
this place. 
Under this part the freedom of it’s paflage feems to 
have been hindered by all the dry ftonework under- 
neath, which was defended from the rain by the 
corniches: and it appears from fome experiments 
which I formerly made-f, that dry free ftone, when 
warm’d to a certain degree (which probably does not 
exceed the heat which the ftones of buildings acquire 
in hot weather) reflfts the paflage of the eledtric 
fluid or lightning fo ftrongly, that with plates of that 
ftone, inftead of glafs, 1 performed the Leyden ex- 
periment. 
* In the year 175° the ftones furrounding this fpindle were 
fo much damaged, that there was a neceffity of taking them 
down and rebuilding that part of the fpire. The caufe of this 
was not known at that time, it is probable that it was occaftoned 
in the fame manner as the prefent accident. 
f Philofophical Tran factions, anno 1759. p. 83. 
Under. 
