Show ELECTRIC EVENTS Curious Facts Concerning the Electric Bolt Bol YOU CA BE REASONABLY SAFE The Philosophers Not Yet Certain What Electricity Elec-tricity IsIt Has Laws and Lightning Obeys Them Tho summer of 1830 opens with storms floods and lightning strokes which show that man despite h science is still the sport of the elements It is therefore worth element i wrth our while to collectEomo facts on the most alarm ingot these phenomena namely thunder and lightning and inquire if science con give us any assurance At the beginning th anxIous ones may b at two There is not whit ease on points Ther i one more lightning in America than there always was and there a ways to greatly lessen its danger On these tw points w have absolute ab-solute certainty though of nearly a others wo a still in ignorance We a for instance in-stance a yet uncertain as to just what lightning light-ning isthat is in a wider sense what electricity elec-tricity isend a very amusing catalogue might be made of the theories put forth It i found that there i an entirely new theory about tho once in thirty years or about three to century THE LAWS oS UGHTMTiB We do know 1 bonover a great deal about tho methods in which tho force operates and it is a very curious feature of the case that these methods a often of a sort which heightens the superstitious fears of the uneducated t uned-ucated It is also to b noted that while lightning obeys tolerably well known 1 laws it yet operates occasionally in I way that seems anomalous which i only another way of saying that though the force is subject to law it is subject to all tho laws of nature and very often the most powerful law then and there in operation u unknown to u Hence the anomaly hence th apparent mentioned miracle Two oft cited instances may b mentone A stroke of lightning completely split one end of I Mexican church shattered every ornament or-nament above and below a large image of the Blessed Virgin and passed down the upright to which the imago was attached leaving tins unharmed Of the Mexicans imago unhae course Mexcns were satisfied as to the cause but the skeptical said it was the delicate robes of tho image and the metal upright behind it No one can b certain that they were correct At an evening even-ing party I young lady stepped t a window and reached out her hand to s if the rain was falling A bolt of lightning passed down the front of the house knocked the gold bracelet from her wrist and melted it doing her no injury except a slight scorching of the wrist No satisfactory explanation has ever been offered CONNECTION OF JIOISTUEE AXD LIGHTATNG A bit of human nature comes into play just her I i very difficult to prove a miracle but ono of the easiest things in tho world to prove a semi miraculous or I very marvelous event I terror i a largo element tho proof i still easier get a man badly scared and ho will see anything Now few i any phenomena arc so generally alarming as vivid lightning and crashing thunder when they seem very near the spec tator So alarming are they that tho interjection inter-jection Thunderaud lightning1 has ain m many languages to express the sudden and dangerous Therefore all stones of the freaks of lightning must be taken with caution There are enough however very clearly prove Lightning ha it favorite localities and for this wo know the reasons at least p tially Electricity is developed most often by the condensation of aqueous vapors When clouds form slowly in a summer sky he development is so slow that the force i dissipated in small amounts without dn rand r-and often without noise audible beiou so the people ay there is no thunder But when tho clouds rush together rapidly then tho moisture of the air is rid to a maximum and the electric force i develop so rapidly that it flies from cloud to cloud till all are equalized and from the clouds to the earth in those vivid fiery bolts which often make the stoutest m turn pale It i the same when a volcano throws up invisible vapor lightning and thunder ore frequent whero tho ascending column joins the clouds I other regions clouds cannot form thus suddenly sud-denly or gather thus rapidly and s In popular pop-ular language these sections are said to b free from thunder LOCAL LIGnTTOiG CEME2S California for instance has no rain clouds during half the year and in winter the con clitions are not favorable to sudden storms s California fears no lightning strokes I some of the valleys of West Virginia on the other hand the lightning i terrible and all tho Ohio is familiar with its valley famil it phenomena phenom-ena Paterson N J was once thought to be the very play house of lightning Twenty buildings there were once struck during a single srm New York city too was for years peculiarly liable to destructive bolt and at one time there was a standing order that whenever a vivid stroke was noted tho firemen should at once hasten to their engines and make ready to answer the district c They might take it for granted that there was fire in tho city somewhere It i believed by many that tho network of wires since stretched over the city has caused ho electricity to dissipate by slow degrees and therefore harmlessly but the late storms indicate that the old condition may return When the lightning some days since struck the Church cf the Immaculate Conception on East Fourteenth street its course was wit ned by many intelligent observers They that the stroke slant from the said came in a s1nt trm tbl east zigzagging but apparently aiming a ho church and a it struck an immense blue haze flashed upout of which two blinding down the base aid side ball of lire ran spire b ald of tho church to the ground Instantly two immense coping stones one weighing fifty pounds and the other iOO rolled down the sloping roof and the other stones of the tel fry tho part strucki rattled down in frag meats on the roof A HPAE COtGHEGATIOf About 110 persons were in the immense church mostly ladies who bad gathered for I society meeting and Father John Edwards and two assistants were hearing confession Thc bearing of tho people was remarkably cooL There vns a faint cry and shrinking at the terrible shock alnvering murmur oaths stones rattled upon the roof then perfect I till the dismissed the quiet tll priest di congregation congrega-tion and they went out a orderly as on a quiet Sabbath morning Almostat the same instant several places in neighboring cities were struck and in Jersey City a large oil tank was set on fire I Newark sis places were struck pc Very little i known of the essential nature of what I called electricity For a generation gener-ation the books spoke of it a 1 fluid and there were long disputes at whether It was single or double one fluid or two This was settled by discovering that it IP i not i t fluid at alt After many year discussion philosophers have agreed o this definition Electricity i a subtle motion of th ole mentary particles of bodies If a man dont like th he can get up ono of h owe ts no compulsion on the subject It I however how-ever absolutely certain that lightning i ilectnclty for they can produce it n flcially good killing quantities of it too Dr Franklin got on such intimate terms with it that he calculated the amount of lightning different creatures could stand Once in aiming to kill a rooster by sending a bolt through him he accidentally mao th wrong turn with the machine got the whole discharge himself and was laid out stiff for La tea mInutes which caused him t Diets I aatly remark tfiat Instead of Tolling oTrooster he had very near killed a g HILLING CBUtnfALS BY LIGhTNING I They have even reduced it to mathematical mathemati-cal certainty and measure it by units of force exiled volts They have shown how many volts it takes to kill a man and New York h adopted that method of killing murder and if her court does not declaro e he supreme cut dos dela tho law unconstitutional William Kemmler will soon secure immortal fame by being the first man legally electrified to death He does not crave the reputation however and implores the courts to let him b hanged in the good old fashioned war And this leads to the final and important questions Con the paralyzing fear of lightning be overcome by minimum tho will and can the danger be educed to a mu To the first question emphatically Nol Tote To-te second Ye The dread of lightning i physical not moral the bract u subject to it just a they ore to neuralgia or toothache I tooth-ache Some people suffer such agony that they ought to sell out and go to California at once METHODS OP AVOIDAACK As to avoidance first consider how large a majority of tho lulled actually put themselves in the way of the lightning Count the casualties alties summer after summer and it i the person sitting by the open window or on a porch or under a tree the woman cooking over a hot stove or running a machine by a window or some careless lad leaning against a mantel with a mirror on it who receives the stroke Lightning chooses the best conductors con-ductors always A human being i one of these and out doors stands the fairest chIc of drawing the discharge so long as he remains mains upright Let him carry a gun scythe or crowbar over his shoulder or hold a u brella and ho increases the chance of bin struck a hundred fold Driving on a stage or load of hay he offers himself to fate The i only prudent thing t do on the npproach of I I storm i to get inside a hou e wilh I good lightning rod upon it and sty there with j I door and windows shut till the shower is I wholly over The column of hot a rising from chimney chim-ney I stove pipe tho lining on the back of a largo mirror and met generally In I house conductors to draw the are just good enough cnductor to lightningbut there i no connection between them and the ground And here again should b noted the mysterious connection between moisture and electricity The lightning rod must zo fn enough into the ground t strike permanently moist earth And it must b largo enough A poor lightning rod i worse than none it may just servo to attract and not to discharge With a good large lightning light-ning rod and no metal hanging directly above you put out the stove fire or dampen it down when the storm draws near sit in the middle of the room and if there was one chance in a million of your getting hit you will reduce it to one in fifty millions and thats worth something just that little |