Some more Lightning

Didn't want to steal another's post but my mother had some ideas about lightning. If a storm was approaching she would pour a pail of water
on the lighning rod cable where it entered the ground , this making a better connection. We were to stay away from the telephone, never take
a bath if a storm was approaching and to stay away from the windows. Never seek shelter under a tree.Now there is method in this madness. Our
local golf course tells us to lay our clubs down and wait until they come for you with a cart, they will get your clubs later, unless of
course you are driving a cart , you are to immediately go to the club house. I remember having three cows killed by lightning over the years
and the globes on the lightning rods on the barn roof blown to bits. Scary at times for sure

She said a lot of stuff that makes sense. In the old days when pipes were metal it was real easy for lightening to follow them into the house. Maybe not such a problem today with all the plastic piping used. Concerning using the phone, lightening hit our phone when I was a kid. Also had lightening hit the transformer on the pole outside our house. You definitely don't want to be the tallest object around during a storm.

Sounds like she had good advice. Found this in the Larned KS newspaper from June 5, 1903 (from newspapers.com):

"Harvey Converse, of Pawnee Rock. was killed by lightning last Thursday afternoon, while working in the new Unruh barn one mile west of Pawnee Rock, the lightning ran down a 2x4 which he was leaning against. His uncle, who was in the barn with him was unhurt. Mr. Converse was twenty-seven years old and came bere from Clay counnty."

Neighbor had a herd of registered Herfords that were eating next to a fence. Lightning hit the fence killed five of them. Went down after the storm was over they were all lined up next to the fence facing it one had a black mark on its face all the others not a mark.

The following is a 1890 newspaper clipping about my great grandpa and my grandma being hit by lightening

During the storm on Monday, lightning came down the stovepipe in the residence of Mr. Dewitt Melvin, about two miles west and a little north of this village and struck Mr. Wm. Dickinson, of near Ithaca, and two little girls who were visiting at Mr. Melvin's, as they lay upon the floor. Mr. Dickinson lay near the stove, and as the fluid left the stove, it struck him on the left shoulder and run down his side and down his leg, ripping off his pants and tearing open his boot leg and tearing off a part of the sole. A current from the other stove leg ran across his knees and out through the opposite side of the house. It struck one of the children, Francis Dickinson, in the back of the neck and ran down her spine and left leg to her foot, rendering her unconscious for about 20 minutes. Arvilla Gott was struck just at the edge of the hair and it ran down her left side and across her stomach down the left leg. Mr. Dickinson was unconscious for some time and his limbs were very badly swollen and he is still in a rather precarious condition. Dr. C.H. Lamoreaux was called and reduced the swelling by the application of a battery and the patient is doing as well as possible.

Your right neighbor lost almost the whole herd of beef cows they went under a tree only the meanest impossible cow to handle plus the calves survived.My farm is over a copper deposit my dad has been knocked out and cows in the barn all knocked down but vacuum pump still was left running. I've had a bucket that i was pouring milk into the cooler blown out of my hand fusebox blew up in front of me and people wonder why I'm jumpy in a storm

About 1970 lightning traveled into our farm house on the phone wire.
The junction box was blown off the joist in the basement and left a smokey haze in the basement.

We had the same thing in about 66, blew the lightning arrestor off the wall, danced around the kitchen from the gas stove to the meat grinder!

Grandmas house was hit, you could follow the burn mark along the wall. Went from an outside wall, turned with the wiring behind the drywall to an inside wall. Went about 12 ft up and over a door. Went another 4 ft the jumped to a phone wire inside the wall. Tv was plugged in just below a phone hanging 3 ft above. Both the tv and phone exploded. Burnt up the well pump too. That was 3 yrs after a tornado took the barn and the 4 cows. It left the chickens though, go figure. Only lost 1 hen.

In the late 60's when I was very young, lightning hit our metal TV antenna pole attached to the side of the house (pole from the ground up to the roof). it traveled down the pole and just above ground level it jumped out and blew about 1 foot hole through a 8" concrete basement foundation wall and jumped on the metal duct work in the basement, ran to the opposite side of the house and jumped from the register to the telephone box and blew it out. The antenna pole still has a split in it where the lightning jumped to the foundation. Dad ended up making an outside entrance to basement and concrete stairs where the foundation was damaged.

In the 70's, the antenna pole was struck again after we were all in bed and it blew up the UHF splitter on the back of the TV and started a small fire on the nearby curtain and the carpet on the floor behind the TV. Luckily we all got up to see what happened and put the fire out immediately. Mike

A tree about 50 ft. from the house got hit and the lightning followed the 2 underground dog fence wires to the corner of the house and taking out the well pump on the way by. the first pic shows the top of the well,the second shows the 2 ditches about 10" deep,the third and fourth show dirt and damage to the house and finally the pump control panel and a wall outlet. we lost the Tvs VCRs Cd player,Microwave, Computer and all Comcast equipment. $4,000 damage in all but Ins. paid all.

Those journalists sure had a way with words back then!

The "battery" treatment sounds interesting...

When I was about 14 I was milking cows, leaning against one, when lightning hit nearby. Felt it in my head, and saw most of the 27 cows in the barn go down to their knees. Sickening sight. Finished milking with a hose hooked to the intake manifold of the WC.

In 1997 we built a new house, had some temporary quarters in a trailer house. Lightning hit a power pole a few hundred feet away...burned out the microwave, an electric fencer, and the control panel on a 1000g bulk milk tank. I was in the basement of the new house- the flash was tremendous.

I was curious about the battery treatment...

My sister the golfer says if you're out in a storm,take your 1 iron and hold it just as high as you can,says "even God can't hit a 1 iron"

(quoted from post at 14:05:38 05/15/18) My sister the golfer says if you're out in a storm,take your 1 iron and hold it just as high as you can,says "even God can't hit a 1 iron"

Click to expand...

In my case that's an 8 iron.

First hit John Deere G with me planting corn. Killed tractor. it restarted. it . I was sore for a few days. Second time in barn. Jumped from me to iron table. Month later having trouble passing out. Pacemaker installed. Doctors all said my nature pacemaker was burnt out. Friends will not stand close to me in foul weather.

We had two lightening strikes when I was a kid. One hit an upstairs bedroom, traced the electric al the way around the room, burning a line in the sheetrock and across the bedspread.

The second hit a tree near the well house. Blew tree roots out of the ground, left several two feet deep holes in the ground, and followed the well pump wire back into the house. From there it burned out every breaker in the breaker box and burned out most of the power outlets in the house.

Lee Trevino