Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1891 — Mysteries of Electricity. [ARTICLE]

Mysteries of Electricity.

Electricity in the many forms in which it has been made useful to man has become so familiar to most persops in recent years that it is rather a matter for surprise, that in some of its most interesting manifestations it remains to-day as mysterious an agent as it ever was. The tremendous power of a stroke of lightning is beyond all possibility of imitation by artificial means, and yet that power is saidom exercised twice in precisely the same manner. Sometimes Jhe lightning appears to exert Its full might like an angry giant, and its blow then resembles a shot from a hundred-ton gun—nothing can withstand it, and it rends, tears and scatters broadcast whatever object it encounters. As an instance of its terrfle capacity for destruction possessed by a bolt of lightning was the instant demolition in England, a year or so ago, ot a great oak tree which for generations had been the pride of a neighborhood. , Occasionally all this fearful power is .expended upon an insignificant object, as happened near West Louisville, in Kentucky, last June, when a turkey-buzzard, sailing high in the air at the beginning of a thunderstorm, was suddenly annihilated in the 'sight of several spectators Toy a bolt of lightning that darted from a cloud. The same mysterious force manifests the variety of its powers by such perfprmances as photographing—foi a sort of photographing it really is—the forms and colors of neighboring objects upon the surface of whatevet thipg has felt the fury of its assault. Near the town of Warren, in Ohio, last July, a young man who had taken refuge under a tree during a thunderstorm was killed by lightning, and upon his breast and other parts of his body appeared wonderfully distinct images of the leaves and branches of the tree.

We often hear accounts of the strange behavior of what is called ball lightning; and still another form in which the electricity of the atmosphere occasionally manifests itself, is the so-called St. : Elmo’s tire which ‘illuminates the yards of a ship as with ghostly lanterns. The European scientific papers have recently contained an account of a very lingular appearance of this kjijii, bf.^pctjric,flight which ,waswitnesised near the town of Gottschee. t . «;■ ~- < j Two gentlemen Walking .along a country road during, a snow-storm, saw what seemed to .be a glimmer coming out of the new-fallen 1 snow. It was presently discovered that the light enveloped the iron Cap on the end of the cane carried by one of'the pedestrians. When herraised the cane in the air little sparks sdemed to dance forth from it. There are many of these electrical exhibitions furnished by nature which j occur in the presence of persons who do not take the trouble to , observe them carefully, and, afterward to report what they have seen. Some of the things that now appear ; mysterious would cease to be so if ; more people would learn to use their • eyes and their brains at the same J time.* I: j • < jf; 5 .■ : 1 ■. . ( >iic*v - fjr you have nothing else to be thankful for, be thankful that you can’t always read your best friend’s I thoughts. , Could the man who predicts caI tastrophes in the money market be called a financier?