Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1859 — Struck by Lightning. [ARTICLE]

Struck by Lightning.

The residence of Mr. Whitmore was struck by Lightning, during a heavy storm on Saturday evening, tihe 4th inst. The electricity melted the point of the lightning rod, then following the iron rod to the second insulator, fused the connection. Then, part at least, of the current followed the tin wa-ter-conductor; (then again dividing, one part following the corner of the house to the earth, splitting a corner post and tearing off the siding and plaster. The balance of the charge appears to have followed the tin conductor into the cistern, splitting a board that rest on the cistern. It appears from the singular course of the current that the iron rod was not large enough to hold the whole charge, or was not sufficiently connected with moisture in the earth, or because it was coated with riist, which is a non-conductor, or it may have been because the insulator was not a perfect one, being as it was so tight between the glass and rod as to be full of water, thus connecting with certainty the rod with the side of the building with a good conductor to-wit: iron and water. Such kind of rods are positively dangerous. To make the protection sure, three things are necessary. .First, the rod must be of sufficient size, and the right kind of material, to cariry any charge that may be accumulated, (copper is nodoubt the best;) secohd, it must be perfectly disconnected from the building, by good glass insulators; third, the rod must penetrate the earth to permanent moisture, (or what is better, connected by a copper wire to the water in the well.) Any one of the above precautions unheeded and the rod becomes a danger instead of a protection. Valparaiso {lnd.') Republican.