DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0158
136
A THUNDER STORM, &C.
these clouds was occasioned by their being highly charg-
ed with a contrary electricity, which burst out a violent
explosion, as soon as the clouds came in contact ; the
vivid flashes of lightning followed each other in a quick
succession, amidst a torrent of rain and hail; at this in-
stant a ball of lire was seen to strike the top of a chimney
in Mr. Wragg’s house, * near Mansfield, in the county of
Nottingham, where it was attracted by an iron cramp,
from whence it descended to the roof, throwing down
part of the chimney, and scattering the stones to a con-
siderable distance. The lightning, after running nine
yards along the roof, penetrated the ceiling of a garret,
where it tore off a piece about seven feet in length, and
near six inches in width ; it was here attracted by another
iron cramp in a sloping beam, from which it separated a
piece near three feet in length, and about eleven inches
in circumference: from this beam it forced its way
through the floor to a gilt frame of a looking-glass in the
drawing-room, where it burst open a tea-chest, melted a
piece of lead in the inside the size of half-a-crown, and
scattered a pack of cards to the other end of the room; a
stream of the electric fluid appeared, by a black line on
the floor, to have run ten feet to an iron fender. The
lightning then took its course downwards to the parlour,
where it ran round another gilt frame of a looking-glass,
near to which Mrs. Wragg was sitting with a child in her
lap, they both received a strong shock, which in all pro-
bability would have been fatal to them, had not a bell-
wire, that hung over- the glass, conducted the electric
fluid to the bell in the passage: its course from thence
is very extraordinary, for the bell in the passage from
whence the eleciric fluid descended on the wall in a nar-
row stream to where it divided into two, was attracted by
* Mr, Curlis, grazier, now lives in the house,
the
A THUNDER STORM, &C.
these clouds was occasioned by their being highly charg-
ed with a contrary electricity, which burst out a violent
explosion, as soon as the clouds came in contact ; the
vivid flashes of lightning followed each other in a quick
succession, amidst a torrent of rain and hail; at this in-
stant a ball of lire was seen to strike the top of a chimney
in Mr. Wragg’s house, * near Mansfield, in the county of
Nottingham, where it was attracted by an iron cramp,
from whence it descended to the roof, throwing down
part of the chimney, and scattering the stones to a con-
siderable distance. The lightning, after running nine
yards along the roof, penetrated the ceiling of a garret,
where it tore off a piece about seven feet in length, and
near six inches in width ; it was here attracted by another
iron cramp in a sloping beam, from which it separated a
piece near three feet in length, and about eleven inches
in circumference: from this beam it forced its way
through the floor to a gilt frame of a looking-glass in the
drawing-room, where it burst open a tea-chest, melted a
piece of lead in the inside the size of half-a-crown, and
scattered a pack of cards to the other end of the room; a
stream of the electric fluid appeared, by a black line on
the floor, to have run ten feet to an iron fender. The
lightning then took its course downwards to the parlour,
where it ran round another gilt frame of a looking-glass,
near to which Mrs. Wragg was sitting with a child in her
lap, they both received a strong shock, which in all pro-
bability would have been fatal to them, had not a bell-
wire, that hung over- the glass, conducted the electric
fluid to the bell in the passage: its course from thence
is very extraordinary, for the bell in the passage from
whence the eleciric fluid descended on the wall in a nar-
row stream to where it divided into two, was attracted by
* Mr, Curlis, grazier, now lives in the house,
the