The shipBayfieldfrom Liverpool was struck by lightning November 25, 1845. Instantly the deck was seen covered with globes of fire and large sparks, which set fire to the vessel. As it threatened the powder-magazine, the captain decided to abandon the ship. A rush was made for the boats, but as only thirty pounds of bread could be saved, many perished of hunger and thirst.
Often, indeed, the explosion of the powder-magazine makes the catastrophe even more terrible. Thus, in 1798, the English vessel theResistance, was blown up in the Straits of Malacca. Only two or three of the crew were saved.
But lightning plays more tricks with the compass than with anything else when it visits a ship. The vibrating, quivering, magnetic needle is often paralyzed by the electric current; sometimes its poles are reversed, or the points, disturbed by the passage of the spark, deviate, and no longer responding to the magnetic pole, mislead and move hither and thither.
Sometimes they even lose all their magnetic properties.
These changes in the compass often lead to disastrous consequences. Many cases are known of ships being steered to destruction through the deviation of the compass. Arago tells of a Genoese ship which, about the year 1808, sailing for Marseilles, was struck a little way off Algiers. The needles of the compasses all made half a revolution, although the instruments did not appear to be injured, and the vessel was wrecked on the coast when the pilot believed he could round the cape to the north. This may account for the total disappearance of certain ships.
Some ships, like certain individuals and certain trees, appear in particular to attract the electric fluid. We have many records of vessels struck several times in the course of a single electric storm. Here are a few:—
On August 1, 1750, theMalaccawas struck repeatedly.
In 1848, theCompetitorwas struck twice within an hour.
At the beginning of December, 1770, between Mahon and Malta, the ship of a Russian admiral was struck three times in a single night.
On January 5, 1830, in the Straits of Corfu, theMadagascarreceived five destructive discharges in two hours.
We could add many others to this list. Butenough. And yet we have not said the last word on the subject. We have to discuss the interchange of sympathetic currents, and those which are the reverse, taking place between the electricity of the skies and that of the telegraph.
Lightning often comes incognito to visit the earth's surface, or even the depths of the ocean. These little excursions to our terrestrial dominions usually pass unperceived; however, in certain cases the telegraph wires commit the indiscretion of revealing them.
On the other hand, we know that the wires entrusted with carrying our thoughts round the world, are almost inconceivably sensitive. Without being conscious of the fact, they are in correspondence with the sun, 149 millions of kilometres away, and any agitation on the surface of this luminary may cause them indescribable agitation, as we witnessed at the close of the year 1903.
During the formidable magnetic tempest of the 31st October, telegraphic and telephonic communication were interrupted in many parts of the world. In fact, the phenomenon was observed all over the surface of the globe. From nine o'clock in the morning, till four in the afternoon, the old world and the new were strangers to one another. Not a word nor a thought crossed the ocean; the submarine cables were paralyzed on account of solar disturbances. InFrance, communication between the principal towns and the frontiers was interrupted. During this time the sun was in a condition of violent agitation, and its surface vibrated with intense heat. In such times the subtle fluid profits by the confusion to glide noiselessly along the paths which are open to it. But he does not always wait for these favourable opportunities.
Let a thunder-cloud pass over the telegraph wires, either noiselessly or hurling petards in all directions, the line will be affected. The fluid imprisoned in the sky will act by induction on the electricity of the wires which will result in the vibration of the latter, accompanied sometimes by a flash of lightning. These phenomena may cause grave accidents to the telegraph clerks, unless they are on their guard against the treachery of the lightning. These mute discharges happen frequently, but the spark strikes the telegraph wires often, too, as well as the apparatus in the office. All sorts of accidents result from these repeated attacks.
We know, for instance, how the birds fall victims to the lightning when they alight on the telegraph wires after a thunderstorm; they are often found dead hanging by their claws.
But the fluid acts on man also, through the medium of the wires.
Thus, on April 13, 1863, a telegraph clerk wasengaged with several other employees repairing some telegraph wires in the station at Pontarlier, when all at once they felt, at the knee-joints more particularly, a violent shock which made them bend their legs as if they had been struck with a stick; one of them was even thrown down. No doubt the fluid reached the wires, which in those remote parts was in charge of the clerks.
On September 8, 1848, during a violent thunderstorm, two telegraph poles were thrown down at Zara in Dalmatia. Two hours later, as they were being set up again, a couple of artillerymen, having seized the wire, felt slight electric shocks, then suddenly found themselves flat on the ground. Both had their hands burnt; one indeed, gave no sign of life; the other, in trying to raise himself up, fell back as soon as his arm came in contact with that of one of his comrades, who ran to his assistance on hearing him cry for help. The latter thrown down in turn, felt his nerves tingle, and giddiness seize him, with singing in his ears. When his arm was uncovered, there was a superficial burn just on the spot where he had been touched.
On May 9, 1867, lightning fell on the road from Bastogne to Houffalize (Luxembourg), attracted by the telegraph wire, which it destroyed for about a kilometre. At a certain part, and over a lengthof about twenty metres, the wire was cut in small pieces, three or four centimetres long, which were scattered over the ground, and were as black and as fragile as charcoal. The poles which supported them, and several poplars planted on the same side of the road, were more or less damaged.
It has been observed that trees planted on the same side as a telegraph line were sometimes blasted on a level with the wires. It is the same with houses near the copper threads along which human thoughts take wing. Thus, at Chateauneuf-Martignes, on August 25, 1900, lightning destroyed the telegraph poles on the outskirts of the railway-station. A severe shock, like an electrical discharge, was felt at the same moment by two people who were in bed, not far from where the wire was fixed in the wall of the house, which was a very low one. The same phenomenon had been felt there already.
In the railway-stations, as well as in the telegraph and telephone offices, curious results of the spark passing at a certain distance, or even in the immediate neighbourhood, are sometimes observed.
On May 17, 1852, towards five o'clock, the sky looking overcast, the station-master at Havre warned his colleague at Beuzeville that it would be well to put his apparatus in connection with the ground. Beuzeville is twenty-five kilometres awayfrom Havre, and at the former station the weather then did not look at all threatening. But clouds soon piled up, driven before a violent wind. Suddenly three awful peals of thunder succeeded each other in quick succession. With the last, lightning struck a farm about a kilometre from the station, and at the same moment a globe of fire of a reddish brown, and apparently about the size of a small bomb-shell, rose as if out of a clump of trees. It glided through the air like an aerolite, and leaving behind it a train of light. At a hundred metres or so from the station, it alighted like a bird on the telegraph wires, then disappeared with the rapidity of lightning, leaving no trace of its passage, either on the wires or the station. But at Beuzeville several interesting phenomena were observed. Firstly, the needles turned rapidly, with a grating noise like that of a turnspit suddenly running down, or like a grindstone sharpening iron, which emits sparks. A great number, indeed, flew out of the apparatus. One of the needles, that on the Rouen side, went out of order; all the screws on that part of the instrument were unscrewed, and on the copper dial near the axis of the needle, there was a hole through which one could pass a grain of corn.
The instruments at Havre were unaffected. The needle remained as usual, also the dial, screws, and so on.
One of our correspondents has sent me the following very interesting communication:—
"On June 26, 1901, having rung up at the central telephone-office at St. Pierre, Martinique, a harsh noise was heard, which was almost immediately succeeded by the appearance of a ball of fire, having an apparent diameter of twenty centimetres, and the brilliancy of an electric light of twenty candle power. This voluminous globe followed the telephone wire towards the instrument. Arrived near the receiver, it burst with a terrific explosion. The witness of this phenomenon felt a severe shock, and dizziness. Recovered from his stupefaction, he noted the following facts: the telephone apparatus was completely burnt, the relay of Morse's installation was slightly damaged. The electrical tension must have been enormous, for the wire of the bobbins was, to a great extent, melted."
This latter effect, however, occurs very frequently. Not only does the lightning melt and break the telegraph wires, but it injures the poles which support them.
These are sometimes broken, split, thrown down, burst, or splintered, sometimes into threads or shavings. Poles which have been blasted are often to be seen alternating with others which are uninjured. Thus, on the line from Philadelphia to New York, duringa great storm, every alternate pole up to eight was broken or thrown down; the odd numbers were uninjured. We have mentioned a similar case already.
There are several accounts, too, of lightning in pursuit of trains.
On June 1, 1903, travellers by train from Carhaix to Morlaix, between Sorignac and Le Cloistre, saw lightning follow the train over a course of six kilometres, breaking or splitting several telegraph poles.
This feat has been observed more than once. The train is escorted by lightning flashes which succeed each other almost without cessation, and the travellers seem to be whirled through an ocean of flame.
Lightning rarely strikes the carriages; only on one occasion did it actually wreck one, by breaking a wheel. The mutilated coach, however, continued to hobble along until the injury was discovered.
Generally the fluid is content to wander about the rails, to the great terror of the passengers who witness this display of rather alarming magic. It spreads itself over masses of iron, as for instance the roofs and balconies in Paris, without striking any particular point.
The danger would be greater to a cyclist on a road. In the suburbs of Brussels, on July 2, 1904, a cyclist named Jean Ollivier, aged twenty-one years, was riding during a violent storm, when suddenly he was struck and killed on the spot.
We shall end this description of the whims and caprices of lightning by a notice of the blasting of a German military balloon. It happened in June, 1902. The aeronaut, whose car was steered by a sub-lieutenant, was held captive, and soared at a height of about 500 metres above the fortifications at Lechfeld, near Ingolstadt. All at once the aerial skiff was touched by an electric spark, caught fire, and began to descend, slowly at first, then swiftly. The aeronaut had the good luck to get off with a broken thigh. The five assistants, who worked the windlass and the telephone, also received shocks transmitted through the metal wires of the cable. They fell unconscious, but were quickly restored. This phenomenon, which is excessively rare, fittingly closes this odd collection of stories, fantastically illustrated by lightning.
A communication from Berlin also mentions that the captive balloon of the battalion of aeronauts was struck by lightning on the exercise ground at Senne. Two under-officers and a private were wounded by the explosion.
Until comparatively recent times, as we have seen, all that was known about thunderstorms was that they occurred pretty well all over the world, and generally in either spring or summer.
While efforts were being made on our old continent to establish by long and ingenious dissertations the exact degrees of relationship between lightning and the sparks given out by machines, in America practical experiments were being set about towards solving the problems of electricity.
Franklin it was who hit upon the idea of extracting electricity from the clouds for the purpose of investigation.
This man of immortal genius, who by his achievements in science, his noble character, and his devotion to his country, has won the admiration and gratitude of posterity, was of humble origin.
The son of a soap manufacturer in a small way of business, Benjamin Franklin was born at Boston in1706. His parents had intended him to go in for science. He was successively an apprentice to a candle manufacturer, a journeyman printer, the head of a big printing firm in Philadelphia, deputy to Congress, an ambassador, and finally President of the Assembly of the States of Pennsylvania. His political record was a great one. No one ever rendered greater services to his country than the diplomatist who signed the peace of 1783, and insured the independence of the United States.
It was towards the age of forty that Franklin began his study of electricity. Here is his own account of the memorable experiments to which he owed the greater part of his immense fame:—
"In 1746 I met at Boston a certain Dr. Spence, who came from Scotland. He performed some electrical experiments before me. They were not very perfect, as he was not a man of great ability; but as the subject was new to me they surprised me and interested me in an equal degree. Shortly after my return to Philadelphia, our librarian received as a gift from Pierre Collinson, a member of the Royal Society of London, a tube of glass, together with certain written instructions as to the way in which it should be used for experiments. I seized eagerly on the chance of reproducing what I had seen done at Boston, and with practice I acquired a great facility in performing theexperiments indicated to us from England and in devising other ones. I say 'with practice,' because many people came to my house to witness these marvels."
After making several discoveries in regard to electricity, Franklin took it into his head to extract the fluid direct from the clouds. He had established the fact that a stem of pointed metal, placed at a great height—on the summit of a building, for instance—served as an attraction to lightning and guided it into the way prepared for it. He had been looking eagerly to the erection of a clock-tower which was being built at this time at Philadelphia; but, tired of waiting and anxious to carry out experiments which should solve all doubts, he had recourse to a more expeditious instrument, and one, as events proved, not less efficacious, for getting into touch with the region of thunder—a kite such as children play with.
He prepared two sticks in the form of a cross, with a silk handkerchief stretched upon them, and with a string attached of suitable length, and set forth on his mission the first time there was a storm. He was accompanied only by his son. Fearing the ridicule that is showered upon failure, he did not take any one else into his confidence. The kite was set flying. A cloud which looked promising passed without result. Others followed, and the excitement with which they were awaited can be imagined.
At first there was no spark and no sign of electricity. Presently some filaments of the string began to move, as though they had been pushed out, and a slight rustling could be heard. Franklin now touched the end of the string with his finger, and instantly a spark was given out, followed quickly by others. Thus for the first time the genius of man may be said to have come to grips with lightning, and begun to learn the secret of its existence.
This experiment took place in June, 1752, and made an immense sensation throughout the world, and was repeated in other countries, always with the same success.
A French magistrate, named de Romas, making use of Franklin's idea as soon as it was known in France, took it into his head to use a kite with raised cross-bars, and in June, 1753, before the full results of Franklin's experiments were made public, secured still more remarkable signs of electricity, having inserted a thread of metal throughout the whole length of the string, which was 260 metres. Later, in 1757, de Romas repeating his experiments during a storm, secured sparks of a surprising size. "Imagine before you," he said, "lances of fire nine or ten feet in length and an inch thick, and making as much noise as pistol shots. In less than an hour I had certainly thirty lances of this length, without reckoning a thousand shorter ones ofseven feet and under." Numbers of people, ladies among them, were present at these experiments. They were not without danger, as may be imagined; de Romas was once knocked over by an unusually heavy discharge, but without being seriously hurt.
Franklin was the first to turn his experiments to practical account, attaching lightning-conductors to public and private buildings for their protection, and achieving marvellous results; the lightning being caught by the metallic stem and following it obediently into the ground.
From this time, lightning-conductors came into almost universal use, and their value was not long in being generally recognized. Curiously enough, France, which had been ahead of all other countries in the study of electricity, was not one of the earliest to go in for lightning-conductors. There were, indeed, signs of strong hostility to their introduction. It was held even that they went against the designs of Providence. In 1766, the Abbé Poncelet, in his work entitled "La Nature dans la formation du tonnerre et la reproduction des êtres vivants," in which he sets out to demonstrate that the force which produces lightning is the same as that which causes the earth to fructify, makes a strong protest against the construction of lightning-conductors.
In 1782, nevertheless, at the reiterated request ofLe Roi, a member of the Academie des Sciences, and friend and admirer of Franklin, the Louvre was endowed with the first lightning-conductor put up on a public building in France. Soon afterwards they became common.
In 1784 the Academie des Sciences drew up the first set of rules for the construction of lightning-conductors. It was revised and corrected in 1823, in accordance with the various improvements that had been introduced up till then, and it has been further added to in 1854, 1867, and 1903. These instructions point out that the most important metallic portions of the building should be placed in communication with the conductor, and this should sink into a well. Conductors that are not perfectly constructed are a source of danger, instead of being a protection, for the electric current is apt, instead of running down into the earth, to make for any kind of metallic substance, and cause great havoc.
The conductor ought really to communicate with a large body of water—a body of water of greater extent than the storm cloud from which the lightning comes. When the flow is insufficient, the water itself is apt to become electrically charged. It is dangerous to bury the conductor in merely damp soil; first, because one generally does not know whether there is enough of this soil; secondly, because one cannot be sure that the humidity will be sufficient at times of great drought—the very times when storms are most to be feared. Failing a river or great pond, the conductor should be put into wells issuing or having their source in inexhaustible supplies of water deep down in the soil.
In his table of statistics showing the number of cases in which lightning has struck either lightning-conductors, or buildings, or ships furnished with conductors, Quebelet gives a hundred and sixty-eight cases in which the conductor has been struck, and in only twenty-seven instances of these (one-sixth of the whole) have the conductors, from some grave flaw in their construction, failed to fulfil their office. These results are the best proof possible of the efficacy of conductors, and the best answer to those who decry them.
The area of protection covered by the conductor is not so great as is generally supposed. It is limited to a distance about three or four times the length of the conductor above the roof. Thus a conductor standing out five yards will protect an area stretching only about fifteen or twenty yards away. This depends also to some extent upon the nature of the place and the materials of which the house is constructed.
Buildings are often struck by lightning because the number of conductors has been insufficient for the extent of the edifice to be protected.
To remedy this defect, conductors are made with a number of separate stems—veritable wire traps in which to catch the lightning. This system, the invention of a Belgian physicist, M. Melsens, decreases considerably the risks of destruction, and is much more economical than the erection of a number of separate conductors.
A conductor of this kind has been installed on the Hotel de Ville at Brussels, which has been well protected from lightning ever since, whereas previously this building had been struck by lightning several times in spite of the single conductors with which it was supplied. The metallic trellis is in communication with the sewers.
The slaughter-houses of La Villette, the Hôtel Evigné, and other buildings in Paris, are provided with similar defences.
The Eiffel Tower boasts several such multiplex conductors. It has often been struck by lightning, but no one who has happened to be up it at the time has ever suffered any damage therefrom. The lightning strikes the conductor sometimes from out the actual cloud—curious photographs have been taken of this. The Eiffel Tower is in itself a gigantic lightning-conductor.
Portable conductors have been invented from time to time—silk umbrellas without iron ribs, and clothesof indiarubber and such-like; but they have all been childish things.
Without allowing one's self to get lightning, so to speak, on the brain, it is well to take certain precautions during a storm.
The first and principal one is not to get under a tree.
The second is to give a wide berth to telegraph posts, so as to avoid contact with the sparks that may issue from them.
Movements of the air having the effect of preparing an excellent route for the fluid, it is well not to run in a storm. It is well also not to ring a bell.
It is well, also, to avoid being in the neighbourhood of animals, in view of their attraction for lightning.
In houses, doors and windows should be closed in order to avoid draughts. It is well to keep away from the chimney, too, as well as from metallic objects.
But lightning always has its caprices. It is this that makes its study so interesting.
In this last chapter I would like to group together a series of instances of pictures made by lightning, some of them very curious and attributed, it would seem, to flashes of a special character, which we may perhaps term Ceraunic Rays, fromKeraunos, lightning. These instances are of great variety, and doubtless admit of many different explanations. Here, then, is a selection worth looking into.
In this case, as in so many others, it is extremely difficult to get at the exact truth.
Generally speaking, it is from the newspapers that we get the facts—more or less accurately observed, more or less accurately recorded. I have made great efforts to inform myself personally as to the incidents whenever this has been practicable.
ThePetit Marseillaisof June 18, 1896, published the following:—
"A correspondent writes to us from Pertius, June 17:—
"'In the course of the storm here yesterday, twoday-labourers of our town, Jean Sasier and Joseph Elisson, took refuge in a cabin constructed of reeds. They were standing at the entrance when they were struck by lightning and thrown violently to the ground. Elisson, who was not much hurt, soon recovered his senses and called for help. People ran up at once and carried the two men to where they live, where all necessary attention was given to them.
"'Sasier's condition, though serious enough by reason of a burn on his right side, is not causing anxiety. The curious part of the incident is the effect the electric fluid has produced upon Elisson. The lightning cut open one of his boots and tore his trousers; but over and above this, like a tattooer making use of photography,it reproduced admirablyon the artisan's body a representation of a pine tree, of a poplar, and of the handle of his watch. It is an undoubted case of photography through opaque materials; most luckily the sensitive plate—Elisson's body—merely took the impression and received no injury.'"
On reading this narrative, I wrote to the Mayor of the Commune of Pertius to ask him for confirmation of it, and for a photograph, if possible, of the picture on Elisson's body. By a fortunate circumstance, the Mayor happened to be the doctor who had attended the victim. Here is his reply:—
"M. Joseph Elisson, of Pertius, aged about thirty-eight, was struck by lightning on June 17. Called to attend to him at about two in the afternoon, I found some superficial burns forming a trail, which began near the teat of his left breast, at the level of his waistcoat pocket, in which there was a watch (which had not stopped), and went down towards the navel, then turned boldly to the right towards the iliac spine and down the outer side of his right leg as far as the ankle, at the level of which his boot, made of strong leather, had been split open."To the right, a little outside the vertical line passing the teat, there was imprinted in vivid red—the red of the burn—a picture of a tree. The foot of it was on a level with the edge of the ribs, the top went slightly above the teat. This picture was absolutely vertical. Its outlines stood out very distinctly from the white skin. It was composed of bold, clearly defined lines, about a demimillimetre in width. Neither waistcoat nor shirt were burnt or marked in any way to correspond with it. Other representations of tree branches were reproduced higher up on the breast, but not so distinctly in the midst of a uniform redness. Not having by me my camera, I made a sketch of the tree, which was marvellously distinct, leaving the taking of a photograph until next day. Next day, when I returned with my camera, the picture was still clearly visible, but it had faded a good deal,lost in the colour of the skin, and no longer to be reproduced by photography. I regretted bitterly not having taken it the day before. I regret this all the more now that you have done me the honour of writing to me on the subject, and I am glad to be able to send you my sketch of the picture, which is correct as to dimensions, and which represents what I saw as accurately as I could make it."Dr. G. Tournatoire."
"M. Joseph Elisson, of Pertius, aged about thirty-eight, was struck by lightning on June 17. Called to attend to him at about two in the afternoon, I found some superficial burns forming a trail, which began near the teat of his left breast, at the level of his waistcoat pocket, in which there was a watch (which had not stopped), and went down towards the navel, then turned boldly to the right towards the iliac spine and down the outer side of his right leg as far as the ankle, at the level of which his boot, made of strong leather, had been split open.
"To the right, a little outside the vertical line passing the teat, there was imprinted in vivid red—the red of the burn—a picture of a tree. The foot of it was on a level with the edge of the ribs, the top went slightly above the teat. This picture was absolutely vertical. Its outlines stood out very distinctly from the white skin. It was composed of bold, clearly defined lines, about a demimillimetre in width. Neither waistcoat nor shirt were burnt or marked in any way to correspond with it. Other representations of tree branches were reproduced higher up on the breast, but not so distinctly in the midst of a uniform redness. Not having by me my camera, I made a sketch of the tree, which was marvellously distinct, leaving the taking of a photograph until next day. Next day, when I returned with my camera, the picture was still clearly visible, but it had faded a good deal,lost in the colour of the skin, and no longer to be reproduced by photography. I regretted bitterly not having taken it the day before. I regret this all the more now that you have done me the honour of writing to me on the subject, and I am glad to be able to send you my sketch of the picture, which is correct as to dimensions, and which represents what I saw as accurately as I could make it.
"Dr. G. Tournatoire."
Here is a facsimile of the sketch enclosed by the doctor.
It is somewhat like the shape of a poplar. There is nothing to suggest that we have here a case of swollen veins, or arteries made conspicuous by a flow of blood, nor of a tree-like form due to blood vessels, in which the blood has taken on a more or less marked aspect. On the other hand, it is certainly not much easier to recognize in it a photograph of a more or less distant tree. In this state of uncertainty on the subject, I wrote again to Dr. Tournatoire, and begged of him to go to the scene of the incident and to make a plan of the ground, and take a photograph of the view. Here is the doctor's reply:—
"This plan can be reproduced by a few typographical lines in such a way as to show clearly how things happened—
"The square represents the cabin in which the two workmen took refuge. They were sitting almost opposite each other on the seats marked A and B. There is a flash of lightning. One of the men is knocked over, and bears on his right side a picture of the poplar P, which stands one hundred metres away, and is visible by A through the door O, of which the width is one metre. Behind this poplar stands a big pine, a branch of which is also depicted on the man's body. By this same stroke of lightning the other worker, seated at B, is thrown out of the cabin three metres by an opening D, about forty centimetres wide. The two men are alive, and have come out of it with a few days' rest. They saw nothing, heard nothing, and can remember nothing."
In the photographs taken by Dr. Tournatoire it is not clear which is the tree, for the poplar, P, does not stand out alone. As the cabin stands under the shadeof a pine tree, one is disposed to ask whether the lightning did not strike this pine? But judging by the position of the trees relatively to the man struck, the most likely hypothesis is that the electric discharge came from the point P towards A, and that the poplar as well as the adjacent pine formed a sort of screen, and reproduced their reflection by the agency of some unknown constituent of these Ceraunic Rays, which enable them to photograph things in this way through clothes on to the human body.
This assuredly is a more extraordinary effect than those obtained by the cathodic rays or anti-cathodic rays, of which science seems equally unable to give any explanation.
Let us proceed with our studies. It is important above all never to take the newspaper narratives on trust without verification. In the month of June, 1897, the following appeared in the newspapers:—
"Photographic Lightning.—Achasseurof the 15th battalion, in barracks at Remiremont, was struck by lightning. He was standing upon a mound not far from a grove of pines, in the midst of ferns. Curious to relate, on the occasion of recording the fact of the man's being dead, it was discovered that his body was covered with punctures imprinted on it by the lightning, and representing the nature and aspect ofthe branches and plants all round him at the time when he was struck."
I wrote at once to thechef de bataillonfor a precise confirmation of this, and received the following reply:—
"M. le Commandant Joppé, commanding officer of the 15th Battalion of Chasseurs, has handed me your letter of June 14th, and asked me to reply to it."It is the case that achasseurof the battalion was struck by lightning on the afternoon of June 4, but it is quite untrue that there was found on his body a photograph of the trees adjoining the spot of the accident. The man's clothes were not affected in any way, and the only traces left by the passage of the lightning, consisted in some slight irregularly shaped burns on the upper part of the hollow of the right temple of linear formation, save for one circular burn measuring from three to four millimetres in diameter, and depressing the skin into the shape of a saucer. There was no lesion on the whole surface of the body."Mauny,"Surgeon-Major 15th Battalion of Chasseurs."
"M. le Commandant Joppé, commanding officer of the 15th Battalion of Chasseurs, has handed me your letter of June 14th, and asked me to reply to it.
"It is the case that achasseurof the battalion was struck by lightning on the afternoon of June 4, but it is quite untrue that there was found on his body a photograph of the trees adjoining the spot of the accident. The man's clothes were not affected in any way, and the only traces left by the passage of the lightning, consisted in some slight irregularly shaped burns on the upper part of the hollow of the right temple of linear formation, save for one circular burn measuring from three to four millimetres in diameter, and depressing the skin into the shape of a saucer. There was no lesion on the whole surface of the body.
"Mauny,"Surgeon-Major 15th Battalion of Chasseurs."
This reply was covered by a note which ran as follows:—
"I thought it desirable that the reply to your letter of the 14th inst. should be made by the surgeon-majorof my battalion in order that it might be the more scientifically accurate and authoritative."Joppé,"Chef de bataillon breveté,"Commanding Officer of the 15th Battalion of the Chasseurs des Vosges."
"I thought it desirable that the reply to your letter of the 14th inst. should be made by the surgeon-majorof my battalion in order that it might be the more scientifically accurate and authoritative.
"Joppé,"Chef de bataillon breveté,"Commanding Officer of the 15th Battalion of the Chasseurs des Vosges."
Clearly, the student of natural phenomena cannot take too many precautions. And yet ... an officer of high rank confided to me recently that "surgeon-majors hardly ever take the trouble to examine bodies thoroughly," and that it is possible that in this case "the examination may have been very superficial." If this be a general rule, there must have been an exception here, as also in the fifth case, to which we shall be coming just now.
The problem is far from being solved, and we can but seek to study it as set forth in a number of instances. Here is a third case:—
On Sunday, August 23, 1903, a certain number of riflemen were practising at the Charbonnières range, near the village of Le Pont, in the valley of Lalle Joux (Canton de Vaud, Suisse), five targets out of six were in use. The targets, distant 300 metres from the firing-line, are placed to the side of a grove of pines. Between stretches an undulating rock-strewn meadow-land. Only the butts are provided with a lightning-conductor,and in it are five markers.There are six telephone wires along the line of fire; they come as far as the stand and go down to within about 50 centimetres of the scorers' seats.Each target has its own telephone bell.
The weather was not stormy, though the sky was somewhat overcast. Firing was going on. At about 3.30 there was a clap of thunder, and lightning struck the electric wires. In the stand twenty-eight men, riflemen, scorers, and spectators, are thrown to the ground in every direction and in every position. Some are quite inert, apparently dead; others, looking as though they were asphyxiated, give out a painful rattling noise from their throats. At the bar, to the side of the stand, no one felt anything—it was not even noticed that there had been a violent stroke of lightning. A kilometre away the band, which had been giving a concert in front of the Hotel de la Triute on the bridge, continued to play. Presently a man reaches them with the report that twenty of the riflemen have been killed. Consternation becomes general, and relief parties are organized. Fortunately the damage done was much less than was supposed.
Let us describe the men actually engaged in firing, and placed in a line, A, B, C, D, and E, their scorers are behind them.
Let us give our attention, first, to these men and their scorers. Presently we shall come to the othersawaiting their turn, then to the spectators, and finally to the markers at the targets.
The men were firing, either kneeling or lying.
A remained in position, kneeling "like a statue," unable to move. He turned right over as soon as he was touched. Killed.
B hada pine tree depicted on his breast—upside down, its roots indicated by some outlines up at the top; the picture was of a brownish rather than a blueish shade. It was suggested that it resembled a pine, because of a pine being ten metres away from the stand, but really it was more like a branch of fern. Killed.
C felt hardly anything apart from a certain heaviness in his limbs when picking himself up.
D had some slight burns, which were healed within two or three days.
E was holding his rifle with the barrel vertically. He found himself about 2½ metres from his position on the ground, with a stone in his hands; his rifle had been bent in two below the trigger.
A's scorer held the pear-shaped handle of the electric bell between his fingers, his elbows upon the table. Saw nothing, heard nothing. Felt himself suddenly bent up double, his face buried in the gravel; lost consciousness while he was being carried away; when he came to himself again he began toramble in his speech; his pencil was broken lengthwise into four pieces. The wire of his bell had been electrified. By way of wound, he had a picture of a pine branch on his back; water issued from it as from a blister; there were no traces of blood. The picture disappeared at the end of two days. For a certain time the young man had a pain in his loins; he still limps somewhat; probably what he now suffers from is sciatic lumbago, the result of partial and temporary paralysis.
B's scorer had only some insignificant burns.
C's scorer only came to himself twenty minutes later as the result of artificial respiration. At the moment of the lightning he was pressing the electric button with his thumb in order to give the signal, "Change the target;" he had a small hole in his thumb. This burn bled later, and the wound took four weeks to heal. He had also some burns on his legs.
D's scorer was holding the handle of the bell against his left cheek, on a level with his eye. The handle, made of wood, burst. The sight of his left eye is still affected, being very weak—the retina was probably torn away. The day after the accident, the young man's face became all inflamed, especially the part round the eyes. These were quite hidden. This inflammation, of a bluish tint, is due to the dilation of the small veins or of the capillaries.
Dr. Yersin, who attended several of the victims, attributes this dilation to a paralysis of the vasomotor nerves, "which would also explain the tree-like form of the pictures seen upon the skin," and the transudation (?) of water across the small blood-vessels.
E's scorer had time to see the men on his left fall, in a green or violet light. He had heard a general death-rattle-like chorus, "Aôôô"—then, before he could make out what was happening, he found himself driven up against the wall of the stand. He had a wound under his feet; his thumb torn also, probably in trying to hold himself up against the wall.
Behind the scorers were a dozen other riflemen and some spectators. To the left the electric current left intact the rifles standing on the rack. Quite near this, a man awaiting his turn fell, clinging on to the neck of one of his comrades, also struck. Later he found his purse in the middle of the stand.
In the case of several of the spectators, the burns were to be found in separate sores. One had his hair burnt on one spot of about the size of a five franc piece; others, who had burns upon their feet and legs, are under the impression they saw a small blue flame at the tips of their shoes.
The general feeling was at first merely that of stupefaction. Terror did not come until afterwards. "Those who did not lose all consciousness were halfstunned." A young boy was noticed jammed up against the wall, incapable of moving, but bewailing his inability to get to his father, who lay dead upon the ground. Two men took flight without throwing aside their guns; another ran as far as the village, and some hours afterwards he was found asleep in a house "to which there was nothing to take him." One young spectator, a stranger to the neighbourhood, was seized with a partial paralysis of the brain; he could not keep his balance when walking, and when questioned he would recite the names of stations on a Swiss railway. He is better now.
This event will not be soon forgotten in the Joux valley. But Dr. Yersin's explanation of the Ceraunic pictures does not seem to me to be justified.
Here is a fourth instance, given me long ago by one of the most learned physicists of last century, Hoin, of the Institute.
"I am going to tell you," he wrote to me in July, 1866, "of a stroke of lightning which was very curious in its effects. It occurred at midday on June 27, at Bergheim, a village situated to the north of Logelbach at the foot of the Vosges. It struck two travellers who had taken refuge under the tree and knocked them over senseless—one of them was lifted to a height of more than a yard and thrown upon his back. It was thought they must be dead, but thanks to the attention givento them at once, they were brought to themselves, and they are now out of danger. But here is the strange feature of the accident. Both travellers have on their backs, extending down to their thighs,the imprint, as though by photography, of the leaves of a lime tree; according to the statement of the Mayor, M. Radat,the most skilful draughtsman could not have done it better."
Here is a fifth instance which I find among my records. The incident happened at Chambéry, May 29, 1868.
In the course of a violent storm, a soldier of the 47th Regiment was struck by lightning underneath a chestnut tree. In a memorandum drawn up on June 18 by a learned doctor of Chambéry, an eyewitness of the occurrence, the following facts are recorded:—
"The man who was killed had been standing in the centre of a group of eight soldiers, who had their guns in their hands, without bayonets. Struck in the region of the heart, he did not succumb for about a quarter of an hour, after saying a few words. The corpse bore an oval plate, so to speak, of about 13 to 14 centimetres in length, by 4 to 5 in width, occupying largely the precordial region, and presenting the parchment-like aspect of a vesicatory that had become rapidly dried up. The clothes were neither torn nor burnt.
"Two hours after his death an examination of thebody resulted in the discovery of a phenomenon already recorded by several observers—the reproduction of photo-electric pictures.
"On the right shoulder were three bunches of leaves of a more or less deep reddish violet hue, reproduced minutely with the most absolute photographic precision. The first, situated on the lower part of the inside of the forearm, represented a long branch of leaves like those of a chestnut tree; the second, which seemed to be formed by two or three such branches twisted together, was in the middle of the outside of the arm; and the third, in the middle of the shoulder, larger and rounder, showed only some leaves and small branches at the top and at the borders, the centre presenting a red stain diminishing towards the circumference. The body, when dissected, bore no sign of any interior lesion."
Here is a sixth instance:—
In June, 1869, a Trappist was struck by lightning at the monastery of Scourmant, near Chimay in Belgium. It was the afternoon, and the monks were busy mowing. The storm coming along obliged them to seek shelter. One of them, who was following the mowing machine worked by two horses, directed it towards an ironwork enclosure, and knelt down beside this trellis. There was a terrible thunderclap, the horses bolted in their fright, and the monk remained with his face to theground. The others, who saw him fall, ran up to his assistance, only to find him dead. The medical attendant of the monastery, sent for at once, discovered on the body two large and deep burns, identical in shape, and placed symmetrically to each side of the breast; he pointed out also to those who were present a white spot under the left armpit,presenting a very distinct picture of the trunk of a tree with branches on it.
Out of these six cases, five may be taken as fully authenticated.
Dr. Lebigne, Mayor of Nibelle (Loiret), published the following narrative in theMoniteurof September 7, 1864.
"On Sunday, September 4, 1864, at about 10.30 a.m., three men were busy gathering pears about 200 metres out of Nibelle, when the pear tree was struck by lightning, and was distorted from top to bottom in the form of a screw; the lightning carried away the bark and about a centimetre of the wood beneath; then quitting the tree, it struck the head of one of the workmen, who was eating some bread at the time, and killed him, as well as a dog by his side. The head was burnt behind from top to bottom and was impregnated with a strong smell of sulphur.
"The two other workmen who were on the tree were thrown to the ground, and remained for some timesenseless. When they came to themselves they could not move their legs. They were taken to their homes, and it was found that both had been in contact with the electric fluid. The astonishing thing about them is, thatone of them had the branches and leaves of the pear tree clearly imprinted on his breast as though by daguerreotype. The terrible photographer had been merciful, however, for that evening both the men were up again and able to walk."
TheComptes rendusof the Academie des Sciences for the year 1843 (xvi. p. 1328) records that in July, 1841, in the department of Indre-et-Loire, a magistrate and a miller's boy were struck by lightning in the vicinity of a poplar. It was found that both of them had on their breasts stains exactly like the leaves of a poplar. These marks, in the case of the magistrate, went away gradually as the blood began to circulate again. In the case of the boy, who was killed on the spot, they had faded somewhat by the day after, when decomposition had begun to set in.
A proposof this case, very similar to those preceding, Arago recalled the fact that in 1786 Leroy, a member of the Academie des Sciences, declared that Franklin had several times told him how a man who was standing at a door during a storm had seen a tree struck by lightning opposite him, and that a representation of this tree was found imprinted upon his breast. Aragorecalled, too, in this connection a report made to the old Academy in August 2, 1786, by Bossuet and Leroy, in which there was question of a man killed by lightning on May 10, 1585, in the Collegiate School of Riom in Auvergne; in this case the electric fluid had entered by the heel and gone out by the head, leaving on the body singular marks, described in the report. It was thought that the lightning on its way, through having forced the blood into all the vessels in the skin, must have made all the ramifications of these vessels sensitive to impressions from without. Extraordinary though this may appear, they go on to say, it is not new; Père Beccaria cites a similar case; and Franklin's case is cited here also as analogous. Besile, the author of the record of the Riom case, "did not hesitate," he tells us, "to attribute the effect to an eruption of the blood in the vessels of the skin, producing a result similar to that of an injection." The statement in theComptes rendusis entitled "Strange appearance of Ecchymoses formed by lightning upon the skin of two persons."
That is just the question. Was there in these pictures nothing but ecchymoses—infiltrations of the blood into the cellular tissue? Perhaps that may be so in some cases, but not in all. Photography, the photo-electric pictures produced in the laboratories of physicists, Moses'sfigures(?), the Lichtenberg flowers, cathodic rays, Rontgen rays, radiography-all thesethings open new horizons for us. And even if we do not find any explanation satisfactory, we should not be justified in accepting the first offered to us as being so, if in fact it be not.
Here are four interesting cases recorded by Poey in his "Rélation Historique des images photo-electriques de la foudre."
Mme. Morosa, of Lugano, seated near a window during a storm, experienced a shock from which she is not stated to have suffered any ill effects; but a flower, which had stood in the route of the electric current, was found perfectlydrawnon her leg, and this picture lasted the rest of her days.
In August, 1853, a young girl in the United States of America was standing at a window facing a nut tree at the moment of a dazzling flash of lightning; a complete picture of the tree was reproduced on her body.
In September, 1857, a peasant woman of Seine-et-Marne, who was minding a cow, was struck by lightning under a tree. The cow was killed, and the woman was thrown on the ground insensible. She was, however, soon revived. In loosening her clothes to attend to her, the people who came to her assistance found perfectly reproduced on her breasta picture of the cow.
On August 16, 1860, a mill at Lappion (Aisne), belonging to M. Carlier, was struck by lightning. Onthe back of a woman of forty-four, who was also struck, the lightning left a reproduction (of a reddish hue) of a tree—trunk,branches,foliage,and all. Her clothes bore no trace of the passage of the lightning.
Unless we are to suppose that all these have been inaccurately observed, it seems to me that we must admit that there is something else besides ecchymoses, something else besides the workings of veins and arteries in these pictures wrought by lightning.
Certain of these tree-like pictures resemble the patterns we get in photographing electrical discharges upon sensitized plates. Might they not be produced by this discharge upon the surface of the body—or by the emission of electricity from the body struck?
The pictures we shall now hear of, to be distinguished from those already dealt with, are easier to explain, and about their genuineness there can be no doubt.
In the summer of 1865, a doctor from the neighbourhood of Vienna, Dr. Derendinger, was returning home by train. On getting out at the station he found that he had not got his purse on him—some one probably had stolen it.
This purse was made of tortoise-shell, and had on one side of it a steel plate marked with the doctor's monogram—two D's intermingled.
Some time after, the doctor was called to attend toa stranger who had been found lying insensible under a tree, having been struck by lightning. The first thing that he noticed on examining the man's body was that on his thigh there was a reproduction, as though by photography, of his own monogram. His astonishment may be imagined. He succeeded in reviving the stranger, who was taken to a hospital. The doctor remarked that in his clothes his lost tortoise-shell purse would probably be found. So it proved. The individual struck by lightning was the thief. The electric fluid had been attracted by the steel plate, and had imprinted the monogram upon the man's body.
In this case we are set thinking of electro-metallurgy, all the more because there are a number of other instances which certainly belong to this category. Thus, for instance, on July 25, 1868, at Nantes, a stranger near the Pont de l'Erdre, on the Quai Flesselles, was enveloped by a flash of lightning, but proceeded on his way without experiencing any ill effects. He had on him a purse containing two pieces of silver in one compartment and a ten-franc piece in gold in another. On taking out his purse he found that a coating of silver taken from one of the silver pieces—a franc—had been transferred to both sides of the ten-franc piece. The franc, slightly thinner, especially over the moustache of Napoleon III., was in partsslightly bluish. This transference of the silver on to gold was made through the skin of the partition of the compartments![1]
Another case. In Gilbert's "Annalen der Physik" (1817) we read that a flash of lightning struck the tower of a chapel near Dresden and took the gilt off the framework of the clock and transferred it to the leaden runs of the window-panes in such a way as to leave no sign of how these had been gilded.
In these cases the analogy with galvano electro-metallurgy is evident. But in the earlier cases this was not so; the trees contained no metallic element. It was not a case of transference. They seem to have been photographed by the ceraunic rays.
On October 9, 1836, a young man was killed by lightning. The corpse bore in the middle of the right shoulder six rings of flesh-colour, which seemed the more distinct in that the rest of the man's own skin was very dark. These rings, overlapping each other, were of different sizes, corresponding exactly with those of the gold coins which he had on him on the right side of his belt, as the public official who examined his body and all the witnesses were able to testify.
This makes us think of radiography.
A correspondent of Poey, the astronomer, told him that he had known a Trinidad lady who had beenstruck by lightning in her youth and on whose stomach the lightning had imprinted a metallic comb which she carried in her apron.
In these instances there was some kind of contact of the objects with the persons struck. Here are others in which the objects reproduced are further removed, but still of metallic substance and still reminding us therefore of electro-metallurgy.
In September, 1825, the brigantineLe Buon-Servo, at anchor in the Bay of Armiro, was struck by lightning. A sailor seated at the foot of the mizzen-mast was killed. On his back was found a light yellow and black mark, beginning at his neck and going down to his loins, where there was discovered an exact reproduction, in facsimile, of a horseshoe nailed to the mast.
The mizzen-mast of another brigantine was struck by lightning in the roadstead of Zaube. Under the left breast of a sailor who was killed was found imprinted the number 44, which his mates all declared was not there before. These two figures, large and well formed, with a full stop between them, were identical with the same numbers in metal affixed to the rigging of the ship, and placed between the mast and the sailor's bunk, in which he was lying asleep when struck.
May it not have been a tattoo-mark in spite of what his companions declared?
M. José Maria Dau, of Havana, records that in 1838, in the province of Candaleria, in Cuba, there was found on the right ear and on the right side of the neck of a young man struck by lightning, the reproduction of a horseshoe, which had been nailed up at a short distance from him against a window.
These various records lead us to the reflection: first, that ceraunography should form a new branch of physics, well meriting study; secondly, that the facts set forth are sufficiently inverse in their nature to show us that we have before us several quite distinct specimens of phenomena.
However, these matters have been a subject for study long before our day.
A priest, P. Lamy, of the Congregation of Saint Maur, published in 1696 an excellent little work,[2]informed by the most lucid common sense upon the curious effects of lightning—then a text for the most superstitious commentaries. Voltaire could not have reasoned the thing out better. He deals with two very extraordinary cases among others.
The first had for scene the Abbey of Saint Médard, at Soissons, on April 26, 1676. A flash of lightning struck the tower of the abbey, went into the clock, penetrated a wall eight feet thick, by a hole conductingan iron rodà l'aiguille de cadran, detached two planks, four feet high, and threw them to the extreme end of the dormitory, followed a brass wire stretched along the whole length of the wall, setting fire to it and spreading it out like a ribbon painted to represent a furrow of flames. Here is the author's own description:—
"The most surprising effect, and one which has aroused the curiosity of an immense number of people, is a kind of frieze of all kinds of colours extending along the wall of the dormitory and just above the doors.
"The depth of this frieze is about two feet; its length is almost equal to that of the dormitory; the designs upon it are of flames darting up and down from a kind of wide band which occupies the centre of the frieze throughout its length.
"I have had a portion of this frieze copied, so as to give the reader an idea of it, but it must be admitted that it is difficult to suggest the variety ofnuancesin the original. Some people declare that in the midst of all the colours in the flames, faces of men may be descried as well as of marmosets and demons; but those who are less richly endowed with imagination can see nothing of all this."
On p. 274 is a copy of the design by P. Lamy.
At this period, physicists were of the belief that lightning was "an exhalation of nitre and sulphur," acting something after the fashion of powder, and able to burn up or throw over everything encountered on its route. In this girdle traced by the lightning, the author sees a scattering of all the constituents of the brass wire, transformed into all kinds of colours due to the dilation of the copper, melted and vaporized over the width of two feet, the colours, in which yellow predominates, varying according to the thickness and the inequalities of the "projection."