Viewing page 50 of 63

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

fact. He says, "The lightning first struck the point of the lightning rod on a Church Spire, followed the rod (although breaking it and melting the brass connections) down to the roof of the church, said roof was tin; the fluid spread over quite a large surface, fusing the roof in some two or three places, but passing through only at one place, at which place there was an iron bolt running from the peak of the roof down to the ceiling timber, on which rested the gas pipe, and at that point touching this iron rod. The fluid ran down that iron rod to the gas pipes down that to the meter in the basement of the church, and the lead pipe connecting the meter with the pipes was fused both sides of the meter, and the meter was bursted and thrown several feet from its shelf, and the gas issuing from the disrupted pipe was set on fire. From this the fluid ran on and over six hundred feet of street main gas-pipe. The lead at the points was fused, causing the leakage of the gas. The burning at the broken pipe would have set the church on fire had it not been put out."

Here then we have three positive cases showing the large amount of iron surface necessary to dissipate the force of a single thunderbolt, even when laid in the moist ground. What peculiar