Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1889 — An Anti-Lightning Cage. [ARTICLE]

An Anti-Lightning Cage.

Besides the orthodox or “gather-up-and-carry-away” system of .protection against lightning, there is another system suggested by Clerk Maxwell—the “birdcage” or “meat-safo” principle. “In a banker’s strong-room,” says Professor Lodge, “you are absolutely safe. Even if it were struck nothing could get at you. In a bird cage, or in armor you are moderately safe. A sufficiently strong and closely meshed cage or netting all over a house will undoubtedly make all inside perfectly safe—only, if that is all the defense, you must not step outside, or touch the netting while outside, for fear of a shock. * * * An earth connection is necessary as well.” A wire netting all over the house, a good earth connection at several points, and a plentiful supply of barbed wire stuck all over the roof, constitute an admirable system of defense. Points to the sky are recognized as correct; but there should be “more of them, any number of them, rows of them, like barbed wire—not necessarily at all prominent—along ridges and eaves. For a single point has not a very great discharging capacity; and, if you want to neutralize a thunder-cloud, three points are not so effective as three thousand. No need, however, for great spikes and ugly tridents, so painful to the architect. Let the lightning come to you, do not go to meet it. Protect all your ridges and pinnacles —not only the highest—and you will be far safer than if you built yourself a factory-chimney to support your conductor upon.” Popular Science Monthly. The salmon fisheries of British Columbia have been a source of great wealth to the province this year. The bark Tithonies sailed for London last week from Victoria with 51,429 cases of salmon, valued at $300,000.