Chapter I: Front Matter

LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS

LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET

LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS

THEIR
HISTORY, NATURE, AND MODE OF APPLICATION

BY
RICHARD ANDERSON, F.C.S. F.G.S.

MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS
ASSOC. INST. C. E.

_WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS_

LONDON
E. & F. N. SPON, 46 CHARING CROSS

NEW YORK
446 BROOME STREET
1880

_PREFACE._

The want in England of a good practical work on Lightning Conductors, accessible to both the professional and non-professional reader, has long been a subject of remark. That there are English works bearing more or less on Lightning Protection will be seen at once on reference to the Bibliography contained in the Appendix, pp. 231–248. But it will be found these books are either obsolete and out of print, or are written in a purely popular style that conveys little or no ‘usable’ information whereby may be obtained a trustworthy account of the growth and application of the LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR.

It is with a view of meeting this need that the present work has been written. It contains not only a history of the various methods that have been used to this end, but also a thoroughly practical exposition of the systems employed by the best authorities in various countries.

To Architects, Clergymen, Municipal Officials, and all those in charge of large and lofty buildings, it would be impossible to over-estimate the importance of this subject. Year by year an enormous amount of property is destroyed merely because the simplest precautions have not been taken to guard churches and other large buildings from the effects of thunder storms.

The Author of this work can at all events claim a large practical acquaintance with its subject. He feels convinced that those concerned in the preservation of buildings, whether they be houses, churches, or public offices, need only to learn the simple methods that can be used to render the action of lightning innocuous, in order to adopt them.

R. A.

NEW MALDEN, SURREY:
_October 1879_.

_CONTENTS._

CHAPTER PAGE

LIST OF BOOKS REFERRED TO, OR CONSULTED, RELATING TO
LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS xi

I. ELECTRICITY AND LIGHTNING 1

II. DISCOVERY OF THE LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR 17

III. EARLY EXPERIMENTS WITH LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS 25

IV. GRADUAL SPREAD OF LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS IN EUROPE 34

V. METALS AS CONDUCTORS OF ELECTRICITY 49

VI. CHARACTER OF LIGHTNING AND OF THUNDERSTORMS 62

VII. INQUIRIES INTO LIGHTNING PROTECTION 73

VIII. SIR WILLIAM SNOW HARRIS 85

IX. THE BEST MATERIAL FOR CONDUCTORS 100

X. HÔTEL DE VILLE, BRUSSELS, AND WESTMINSTER PALACE 111

XI. WEATHERCOCKS 121

XII. LIGHTNING PROTECTION IN FRANCE AND AMERICA 125

XIII. LIGHTNING PROTECTION IN ENGLAND 140

XIV. ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES FROM LIGHTNING 169

XV. THE EARTH CONNECTION 198

XVI. INSPECTION OF LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS 218