GUN-COTTON SET ON FIRE BY ELECTRIC SPARK.
Destruction of Life.—The last effect of lightning to which I shall refer, and which, perhaps, more than any other, strikes us with terror, is the sudden and utter extinction of life, when the lightning flash descends on man or on beast. So swift is this effect, in most cases, that death is, in all probability, absolutely painless, and the victim is dead before he can feel that he is struck. I cannot give you, with any degree of exactness, the number of people killed every year by lightning, because the record of such deaths has been hitherto very imperfectly kept, in almost all countries, and is, beyond doubt, very incomplete. But perhaps you will be surprised to learn that the number of deaths by lightning actually recorded is, on an average, in England about 22 every year, in France 80, in Prussia 110, in Austria 212, in European Russia 440.[25]
So far as can be gathered from the existing sources of information, it would seem that the number of persons killed by lightning is, on the whole, about one in three of those who are struck. The rest are sometimes only stunned, sometimes more or less burned, sometimes made deaf for a time, sometimes partially paralyzed. On particular occasions, however, especially when the lightning falls on a large assembly of people, the number of persons struck down and slightly injured, in proportion to the number killed, is very much increased.
An interesting case of this kind is reported by Mr. Tomlinson. “On the twenty-ninth of August, 1847, at the parish church of Welton, Lincolnshire, while the congregation were engaged in singing the hymn before the sermon, and the Rev. Mr. Williamson had just ascended the pulpit, the lightning was seen to enter the church from the belfry, and instantly an explosion occurred in the centre of the edifice. All that could move made for the door, and Mr. Williamson descended from the pulpit, endeavoring to allay the fears of the people. But attention was now called to the fact that several of the congregation were lying in different parts of the church, apparently dead, some of whom had their clothing on fire. Five women were found injured, and having their faces blackened and burned, and a boy had his clothes almost entirely consumed. A respected old parishioner, Mr. Brownlow, aged sixty-eight, was discovered lying at the bottom of his pew, immediately beneath one of the chandeliers, quite dead. There were no marks on the body, but the buttons of his waistcoat were melted, the right leg of his trousers torn down, and his coat literally burnt off. His wife in the same pew received no injury.”[26]
VOLTA’S PISTOL; EXPLOSION CAUSED BY ELECTRIC SPARK.
Not less striking is the story told by Dr. Plummer, surgeon of the Illinois Volunteers, in the Medical and Surgical Reporter of June 19, 1865: “Our regiment was yesterday the scene of one of the most terrible calamities which it has been my lot to witness. About two o’clock a violent thunderstorm visited us. While the old guard was being turned out to receive the new, a blinding flash of lightning was seen, accompanied instantly by a terrific peal of thunder. The whole of the old guard, together with part of the new, were thrown violently to the earth. The shock was so severe and sudden that, in most cases, the rear rank men were thrown across the front rank men. One man was instantly killed, and thirty-two men were more or less severely burned by the electric fluid. In some instances the men’s boots and shoes were rent from their feet and torn to pieces, and, strange as it may appear, the men were injured but little in the feet. In all cases the burns appear as if they had been caused by scalding-hot water, in many instances the skin being shriveled and torn off. The men all seem to be doing well, and a part of them will be able to resume their duties in a few days.”
The Return Shock.—It sometimes happens that people are struck down and even killed at the moment a discharge of lightning takes place between a cloud and the earth, though they are very far from the point where the flash is actually seen to pass; while others, who are situated between them and the lightning, suffer very little, or perhaps not at all. This curious phenomenon was first carefully investigated by Lord Mahon in the year 1779, and was called by him the “return shock.” His theory, which is now commonly accepted, may be easily understood with the aid of the sketch before you.
