Name/Title
Newspaper clipping Lightning and RodsEntry/Object ID
000734Tags
Unknown NewspaperScope and Content
Lightning and Rods.
An interesting note on the efficacious ? tion of a house by lightning-protector, during a recent storm at Colmar, has been brought before the French Academy of Sciences by M. G. A. Hirn. The conductor was by no means a good one, and terminated in a piece of iron lying in a water cistern or trough standing in the corner of a court. In spite of a terrific thunder-storm which shook the rod, no part of the current left the rod, but all was discharged into the earth. The brass points were, however, fused. Experiments by M. Hird fully confirm the views of M. Melson that lightning-rods should end in metal masses, such as pipes, and not in so poor a conductor as water. When there is a flaming discharge seen at the point of a lightning-rod, it is a proof that the rod is not a good one, for M. Hirn has proved that these rods act busily during a thunder-storm in giving off a silent discharge. By means of an electromagnet in a derived circuit from the rod, he has demonstrated this fact. When the storm passes the zenith the bars become magnetized. The same effect is shown by connecting a galvanometer in the circuit of the rod; and ? may mention here, says Engineering, th? Plan was recently patented for charging ?ary batteries in this way.