Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1890 — LIGHTNING-RODS, [ARTICLE]

LIGHTNING-RODS,

While They Are Rot Reliable, They Are Better Than No Protection. SE . p>. - Indianapolis Journal. i It was found necessary last night at Plymouth Church to press extra chairt into service, such was the interest manifested to hear the lecture of Prof, j Leo Mees, of Rose Polytechnic Insti- [ tute, on “Electricity.” The large audience was composed in part of [ visiting scientists, but the greater portion were Indianapolis residents, to ! whom the lecture proved not alone ■ interesting, but instroetive as well. I In the absence of Professor Goodale,' I president of the American Association, the pleasant task of introducing Professor Mees devolved on Dr. Minot,: of Harvard College, who accomplished' it gracefully, saying in substance that it would be better for Pro'e sor Meesj to introduce him, as he came from' such a distance and was so little known to the people here. However, he represented, he said, the great association of scientists, and therefore, spoke not personally, but for them,: and so speaking expressed their grati-i fication at what he termed the accu-' mulated hospitalities they had en-. joyed at the hands of the people of' Indianapolis. Professor Mees prefaced his lecture, proper by stating that he had, been re-' quested to talk upon the general sub-j ject of electricity, but that it would be 1 futile for him to attempt in so short a[ time to give a resume of the develop-' ment of electricity during the last, century, for that period marks its gress. He had, therefore, selected the single branch of protection against; Injury from lightning, or, to be brief,, lightning-rods. It was supposed that the last word upon this subject had! been said when the lightning-rod congress of 1880 laid down careful rules; for pßjtection against lightning, yet ib is well known that from time to time lightning plays queer freaks with} houses amply provided with rods. Thei Professor then proceeded, with simple apparatus, to explain what he called! electrical inertia, which, he said, plays a very important part in the question. Inertia he defined as a negative property, stubbornness on the part of matter which doesn’t want to be disturbed. After illustrating inertia resistence in bodies at rest, he proceeded to demonstrate its existence in bodies in motion. A brass chain was placed on a grooved wooden wheel, which was revolved with great rapidity. and the chain, upon being forced off, flew through the air like a hoop and bounded along the floor, rigid for several seconds from inertia resistence, The Professor caused some amusement by remarking that a day or so ago he discovered by jumping the wrong way from a moving train that he was material, and that inertia characterized his body. An illustration which afforded the audience much entertainment was one with two connecting iron tubes filled with water. A violent blow with a mallet on aplunger inserted in one of the tubes caused the water to give several persons in the front row a small Medion of an involuntary bath. A repetition of the illustration caused one srentleman to raise an umbrella and hold it before him. When the water discharged hit the' umbrella square in the middle th®, audience voted the illustration an allj around success. To show the torch; required to overcome the inertia of air a thin piece of board was placed on a,’ table with its end projecting, and a ' piece of paper spread smoothly over, it. It could be tilted easily enough by? a slow motion of the hand, but when! the edge was struck a quick blow with; the side of the hand or a mallet, it| would break off without raising the! board in the least. This, the professor! explained, was due to the inertia of thei air confined by the paper spread over! the board. Without the paper the} same result could not be produced. Prof. Mees then proceeded to smash! into smithereens all the popular superstitions concerning the protection afforded by lightning rods. He exs plained that the Leyden jar, which he used to generate electricity, had re-, fused to respond early in the evening,; owing to the dampness in the phdre, but that he had succeeded im warming it up and must use it at once for fear that it might again get bashs ful and refuse to spark. This piece of pleasantry was duly appreciated by the audience. He illustrated the effect of lightning on a church spire, whether protected by a single pointed rod on • one consisting of several smaller points, and explained that with the clouds in a certain position the rods work all right, but that if that position happens to change so that there are two clouds, one overhanging the other, the rods are no protection at all. The Professor remarked, in conclusion, that while hq did not say lightning rods were not a good thing, for they were certainly a good deal better than nothing, he did know that they could not be depended upon. He was not, however, like the Boston clergyman, who, during Frank*, lin’s time, declared it impious to pul up lightning rods, thus attempting to ward off the wrath of God. Bethought! that the development which may result from experiments now being carried on might lead to a perfection of the! mode of protection* against and assured the audience that they*, need have little fear in any event. “H I have robbed you,” said he, “of thq protecting presence of the lightning rod. I can make amends by telling you! that statistics show that only two per» eons out of a million are killed each, year by lightning, and you have no cause to worry unless you are one of those two. The lightning’s bark la the worst part of it and its bite is not nearly so severe.” Savage died in a prison at Bristol,, where he was confined for a debt pi S4U.