Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 054.pdf/299

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the rail AB to B, and from thence by the baluster BC to C, struck off the corner of the stone step at C, without any discolouring of the step; the piece struck off might be three or four pounds weight. Part of the lightning, conducted farther from B to D along the iron rail was carried by the baluster DE to E, and a large piece was struck off from the corner E of the stone step; there was no discolouring of the step. The piece, which I took up in my hand, might be three or four pounds weight, and fitted the broken corner of the step exactly. This iron rail is within three feet of a leaden pipe, which comes down from the top of the house, and is not continued to the ground.

The lightning went up the east side of the street without any effect, till, at about the distance of 70 yards from the bottom house, it struck the flag pavement near the iron rails of the adjoining house, and broke off a piece of the flag stone, weighing, perhaps, two pounds; there was no discolouring here, but, as in the stone steps before mentioned, the appearance was as if the stone had been broken by the blow of a sledge hammer. One continued leaden gutter runs over the eves of these houses on the east side as well as on the west sde.

The effects of the shock were very particular on some persons. A lady in the bottom house on the east side, who had left the room which looks over the river, to avoid the lightning, and sat near a window which looks directly up the street towards the north, fell from her chair; but her surprize was so great that she cannot say whether she was thrown down by the concussion of the air, or fell by the

fright.