226 
Lightning Explosion in Ini ally. 
which bolt having no immediate attractive power, it split the frame to pieces, till it 
reached a small bolt at the bottom, the brass work of which it bent. 
On reaching the lower story, both branches of the electric fluid seem to have 
spread in different directions, with different degrees of power ; the strongest 
attraction appears to have been from the hinges and iron fastenings of a Venetian 
door, which opened from the lower room mentioned to an inner one; part of tlw 
fluid having passed up the frame of this door, and through the wall, above, till it 
reached the Venetian of a dressing room, immediately over it ; part of which Venetian 
it destroyed, attracted from one iron fastening to another, and finally passing up 
the bolt, penetrated the brickwork by a small hole, and escaped outward just below 
the cornice 1 . 
I have thus described where the electric fluid did most damage, but its presence 
was traced in no less than seven rooms, four bathing rooms, and the back stair- 
case, in all twelve different places. In one of these two children were in bed, and 
in another a young man; through the brick wall of whose room a very remarkable 
small perforation appeared direct to the handle of the bolt of a Venetian door, 
standing open against the wall on the other side ; down this bolt the fluid seemed 
to have passed, and entered the wall again by another small hole, exactly even 
with the bottom of the bolt 2 ; this room was in the north-east corner on the lower 
story, and the lightning had evidently been attracted by a long iron rod standing in 
the adjoining bathing room, other holes in the wall appearing at the top ot t,e 
rod 3 . 
The proprietor of the house was preparing a lightning conductor, but had not 
erected it when this accident took place ; it is now put up, being about tw el' E 
feet higher than the roof, with a pointed gilt copper cap. The lower extremity o 
base rests on the ground, two feet distance from the foundation of the hou- - 
inserted in a leaden pipe, which extends about fifteen feet from the house 1 
sloping direction, under ground; to which he is adding two other leaden ro 
branches, which will extend still further, and be about five feet deep ; water ia ^ 
now risen in the hole dug for the purpose, within two feet six inches of the ^ 
pace. He intends erecting another conductor, in the same manner, at the nor ^ 
west corner, distance from the first 100 feet ; also laying narrow plates oi r° 
lead upon the roof or walls, connecting the same with the conductors. 
1 Upon examining the premises, it appeared to us more probable, that tins raC 
under the cornice, was owing to a second stream of lightning having ^ een ^ 
charged from the wet roof in this place: — the direction of the fluid could 
be pronounced from the nature of the perforation, which was like a clean g 1 
hole where it entered, and was broken away with the stucco, where it escap®^^ 
2 This was a very curious example of a deviation of, perhaps, fifteen feet ^ ^ 
a room, and through a solid wall, for the mere object of running a few e 
the metallic conductor, and afterwards resuming its course below. Another si o ^ 
perforation was made through a wall to the corner of a picture frame, hang 1D » ^ 
other side ; after soiling the gilded work at that place, and on the oppo glle 
the electric fluid returned through another hole in the wall. , lS jbe 
3 The lightning here also seemed to us to have traversed downwar > ^ r(< 
plaster was knocked away at the top of the rod. All the circumstances^ ^ 
loped in this instance, tend strongly in favor of the employment of eon u ^ 
we agree with our correspondent, in thinking, that the strips of lead on ^ ere . 
would assist materially in conveying away any accumulation of elec n ^ pin 
from : — it might, however, be sufficient to place the rod near one 0 
spouts,— E d. 
