The Virginia Gazette

B O S T O N, June 15.

Extract of a letter from Falmouth, Cacko Bay, June 5.

"Yesterday afternoon we had here a violent thunder storm, attended with rain. The fore part of the day was extreme hot, with a light breeze of wind from the N. W. which continued until one o'clock, when it shifted to the S. W. and blew quick. At half after five a cloud came up from the north (which had been rising greatest part of the day) attended with a violent gust of wind at N. W. and very severe thunder and lightning, which continued about an hour. A house near the water (in the garret of which was a ship's large iron stove) was struck, and much tore. It is observable that the lightning entered the garret window where the stove stood, and tore that to pieces; thence fell in a perpendicular direction, ripping the clapboarding and plastering as it fell, and entered a lower room in which a number of persons were, two of which were sitting together under the place it first entered, and one of them instantly killed, the other not hurt; several persons in the room were also struck, but not hurt. A man at the outside door was killed at the same time. In the corner of the next room was a gun charged; the lightning entered the top of the room over it, and burnt the joists and some English goods."
and melted some sealing wax in its way to the gun, upon which it continued to the end of the guard iron, when it split the stock, and went into the ground. It is said a blacksmith, at work on the opposite side of the street, was so sensibly affected by the shock as to be turned round; and the hand, in which was a piece of iron, so numbed as not to recover for some hours. Some physicians, being near, attempted to bleed both the persons killed, immediately after the stroke; but the few drops that were drawn were observed to be thick and black, although there was not the least hurt visible on either of the bodies. This instance may afford matter for the curious to conjecture whether the attraction of the iron stove in the garret might not be the natural cause of the lightning's falling on the house, as undoubtedly the effect that the blacksmith felt at a very little distance proceeded from the iron in his hand; which seems to prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, the force of attraction in metals, and the expedience of placing electric points on houses, to preserve from the fatal effects of lightning.