sible, be
made a part of the system of conduction. This matter is not well
understood generally. A dwelling in Boston having been struck by
lightning a few years since, a neighbor remarked that "it was fortunate
the lightning did not reach the gas-pipe, for it would then have gone
all over the house." The fact was, that the bolt did not go more than
five feet inside the house before it struck the pipe, and there all
damage ended. The idea may be novel to most people, but if the gas-or
water-pipes were carried above the roof to the usual height of
lightning-rods, they would form a very efficient system of conductors so
long as they were connected with the main pipes in the street. Knowing
the destructive character of lightning when it passes through air, wood,
brick, stone or other non-conductor, people are naturally fearful of
allowing the current to run through their houses. But the lion and the
lamb are not more different than are the disruptive discharge while
passing through a non-conductor and the same current passing through a
good conductor.

The system of lightning-conductors in use in the British navy goes
through the woodwork of the vessel, the conductors sunk in the side of
the masts connecting with the sea through the metal bolts in the hull.
After the terrible charge of electricity had fallen on the Chichester,
Captain Stewart wrote: "I examined the planks about the bolts, and found
all quite fair and water-tight." (These "bolts" formed the lower part of
the system of conduction, passing through the bottom of the vessel and
connecting with the water.) After twenty-five years' use there had not,
as we learn from the _British Nautical Magazine_ for March, 1853, been a
solitary instance of serious damage by lightning on ships fitted with
these conductors, though many had been struck by heavy discharges. In
our own navy the conductors pass from the upper part of the mast over
the side of the vessel.

It is not, however, to advocate making the gas-and water-pipes the main
lines of conduction that I have made these citations, but to remove in
some degree the dread of "having the lightning come into the house." A
better conductor would be the metal covering of the roof when such
material is used. When a good metallic connection is made between a
metal roof and metal rain-conductors, which, in their turn, are well
connected with the earth, nothing further is needed for complete
protection than a rod soldered to t