Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1916 — How to Dodge Lightning. [ARTICLE]

How to Dodge Lightning.

The fear of being struck by lightning is both very real and a sensible fear. But lightning can be avoided like all other evils. It will strike in certain places and will not strike in other places. There are reasons for its behavior in both cases, for nature never operates by chance. A steam engine or railroad coach is as Safe as any place in the world as far as lightning is concerned. No one has ever been struck by lightning while he was aboard a train. The business part of a city likewise is never struck by lightning. Neither are tall skyscrapers ever hit. It is a matter of record that insurance companies never have any losses from lightning striking any building with metallic sides and frame work of steel.

A steel battle ship is also safe from the clouds, as is a steel wind mill tower. This is because every one of these objects is its own lightning rod and needs no further protection than they can give themselves. There is another list of things lightning will strike. It will strike a country house or a house in the outskirts of town. It likes to hit a barn, church, schoolhouse, tree, stack or animal, especially if it is near a wire fenced As for a house, the safest place in a lightning storm is in your brass bed or iron bed. It is very dangerous to stand near the bed because you are taller than the bed. The reason why you are safe w'hen you are lying on it is that the bed head and foot extend above your head. The current will not leave the bed to pass through your body. The walls and the floor may be ripped to pieces, but you will be safe as long as you lie still in your bed. Feather beds offer no protection whatever from lightning unless you lie on a metal bed. If the bed is of wood and the springs are of steel, the wood of the bed may be split to pieces, but you will nevertheless remain unharmed. During the day the safest place in a house is in the center of a room provided there is no stove near. Contrary to the popular opipiou it makes no difference whether the doors or windows are opened or closed. Lightning can get in under any circumstances if It wants to.— Ex. ”