Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1894 — LIGHTNING’S FREAKS. [ARTICLE]

LIGHTNING’S FREAKS.

SOME QUEER PRANKS OF ELEC* TRIC DISCHARGES Cutting a Bay Window From a Housa -Incessant Thunder and Lightning. A Dangerous Plaything. The freaks of lightning are extraordinary, says the Washington Star. A Wooster, Ohio, in June, 1892, a twostory bay window was cut from the main structure of a house as if by a knife. In the same month, at Norwich, Connecticut, a bolt went into the ground and jerked out of the earth 100 feet of iron water pipe. In October, 1848, three men were struck at the bottom of a mine shaft 880 feet below the surface. It was supposed that the electricity must have passed down into the shaft by a chain. There are many cases on record where people killed by lightning under trees have been marked in one part of the body or another with the image of a tree or of a leaf. This has been considered very mysterious ; but it is probable that such phenomena are largely attributable to imagination. Marks made by lightning are apt to be forked and branched in such a fashion as to suggest likenesses of the sort to excited minds.

There have been instances where lightning has entered a powder magazine and dispersed the gunpowder without setting it on fire. This is more easily understood when it is learned that there is difficulty in setting fire to gunpowder by sending a charge from a Leyden jar through it. The powder is simply scattered without being ignited. If anything interferes with the free passage of the electricity, however, the powder will explode. There have been several frightful disasters caused by light- | ning striking powder magazines. At midnight, August 10, 1857, a magazine at Joudpore, in the Bombay presidency, was blown up in this way, killing 1,000 residents. At Luxembourg, June 26,1807, a magazine containing twelve tons of gunpowder was struck, ruining a large part of the town. But the worst accident of I this kind happened at Brescia, .Aug. | 18, 1769, when 207,600 pounds of powder belonging to the Republic of Venice were exploded by lightning, destroying a sixth part of the city and 8,000 human beings. There are some parts of the world where at certain seasons thunder and lightning are practically incessant, the sky being lighted continuously by vivid flashes, while the ears are deafened by a roar of celestial artillery without pause. One of these localities is the east coast of San Domingo, a region shunned on this account by men and beasts at the rainy time of the year. There is a place in the Republic of Kew Genada where nobody will live on account of the frequency of lightning strokes. Thunder, by the way, is caused by the electric fluid rending the air, which has not time to get out of the way. The “rolling” of thunder is due to echoes thrown back from the clouds. Practically all of the 200 deaths caused by lightning in the United States annually occur in the five months from April to September, the highest being in June and July. Such strokes are very apt to produce a condition of suspended animation. Accordingly, the weather bureau recommends that everything possible shall be done to stimulate respiration and circulation in the person who has been struck, even though there are no apparent signs of life. Cattle and sheep suffer from this cause much oftener than human beings, sometimes an entire flock of sheep is wiped out literally in a flash. In nine years ending in 1892, 2,235 barns, 102 churches and 664 dwellings were struck in this country. During the same period there were about 4,000 fires from lightning, with a property loss of $14,000,000. Risk from lightning in rural districts is five times greater than in cities. Oak trees are struck fifty-four times as often as beeches, though nobody knows why.

•J - Though physicists 3ay that electricity is a form of motion, the fluid is a mystery yet. Its presence everywhere helps to make it interesting. Children shuffle over the carpet with their feet and thus generate enough electricity to light the gas with a spark from a finger. Anybody can do that, though the carpet must be of wool and very dry, as well as the floor beneath. Tesla, the famous expert, makes a light burn in his hand from electricity passing through his body. When a powerful electrical machine is being worked in a room, projecting sharp points about the furniture or fixtures are apt to be seen in the dark tipped with light. This is an artificial production of the so-called St. Elmo’s fire, which sometimes appears on the masts of vessels at sea, exciting the superstitions of sailors. On rare occasions church steeples are illuminated in the same strange fashion. During thunderstorms people’s heads have exhibited the phenomenon, each hair being terminated by a minute luminous tuft. Electricity has not always been found a safe plaything. The kite experiment of Franklin was repeated in France in June, 1758, by M. Romas, a provincial judge of scientific tastes. He made a kite eight feet high and three, feet wide, the string used being wrapped with copper wire. At the beginning of a thunder-storm he raised it to a height of about 550 feet. Instead of sparks he obtained flashes of fire a foot long and three inches wide, accompanied by loud noises like the cracking of whips. This performance was imitated in August of the same year by Professor Richmann, of St. Petersburg, the apparatus being set up in his dwelling. In the midst of the entertainment a large globe of bluish-white fire appeared, with a report like a gun. The experimenter fell back and died instantly, while his assistant was rendered unconscious. The house was filled with sulphurous vapors and was considerably damaged. Marks of burning were found on the dead man’s body. In 1857 lightning drawn from the clouds was made to yield sparks ten feet in length.

Hagar is believed to be. from the Hebrew, and means the Stranger.