t
being good ones, that is, not conveying the fluid freely, they are
often damaged.

Buildings that have their roofs covered with lead, or other metal, and
spouts of metal continued from the roof into the ground to carry off
the water, are never hurt by lightning, as, whenever it falls on such
a building, it passes in the metals and not in the walls.

When other buildings happen to be within the striking distance from
such clouds, the fluid passes in the walls, whether of wood, brick, or
stone, quitting the wall only when it can find better conductors near
them, as metal rods, bolts, and hinges of windows or doors, gilding on
wainscot, or frames of pictures, the silvering on the backs of
looking-glasses, the wires for bells, and the bodies of animals, so
containing watery fluids. And in passing through the house it follows
the direction of these conductors, taking as many in its way as can
assist in its passage, whether in a straight or crooked line, leaping
from one to the other, if not far distant from each other, only
rending the wall in the spaces where these partial good conductors are
too distant from each other.

An iron rod being placed on the outside of a building, from the
highest part continued down into the moist earth, in any direction,
straight or crooked, following the form of the roof or other parts of
the building, will receive the lightning at its upper end, attracting
it so as to prevent its striking any other part; and, affording it a
good conveyance into the earth, will prevent its damaging any part of
the building.

A small quantity of metal is found able to conduct a quantity of this
fluid. A wire no higher than a goose-quill has been known to conduct
(with safety to the building, as far as the wire was continued) a
quantity of lightning that did prodigious damage both above and below
it; and probably larger rods are not necessary, though it is common in
America to make them of half an inch, some three-quarters, or an inch,
diameter.

The rod may be fastened to the wall, chimney, &c., with staples of
iron. The lightning will not leave the rod (a good conductor) to pass
into the wall (a bad conductor) through those staples. It would
rather, if any were in the wall, pass out of it into the rod, to get
more readily by that conductor into the earth.

If the building be very large and extensive, two or more rods may be
placed in different parts, for greater security.

Small ragged parts of cl