Dollar Weekly Mirror

From the Daily Mirror of Wednesday

LIGHTNING.—Lightning is said to be the result of electrical discharges from the clouds. When the earth is charged with a different electricity to that which is in the clouds, the lightning will pass upward from the earth; but this is not often the case. Persons should not stand under trees, sit near fire-places, or remain near water, during a thunder shower, because the tree being a better conductor than the air, and the smoke of the chimney, and water being good conductors, the electricity might be conveyed from those objects to them.

Iron houses and iron bedsteads are safe, because they have great capacity as conductors and would keep the fluid away from the body. Feathers, hair, wool, cotton, &c., when dry, are good insulators or non-conductors.

The safest situation, during a thunder-storm, is considered to be the centre of a room, isolated as far as possible from surrounding objects; sitting on a chair, and not handling any of the conducting substances. The windows and doors should be closed to prevent drafts of air.

If out in the open air, keep as far as possible aloof from elevated structures; regard the rain as a protection against the lightning stroke, for wet clothes would supply so good a conductor, that a large amount of electricity would pass over a man's body, through them that he would be quite unconscious of it.

A writer on lightning-rods urges the necessity of closing the windows of a house after the outside has become wet with a shower. The outside is then a good conductor, and the dry air of the interior a non-conductor, and the chances are small that the electricity will enter the house.