[pct-l] Fwd: Lightning: Pre-strike sounds and sensations, Franklin Rhoda on

[Tortoise]

Jeez.  they were early candidates for the Darwin award even though the 
award had not yet been established.

----------
Tortoise

<> He who finishes last, wins! <>

I switched to Mac OSX rather than fight Windows
Using Mozilla Thunderbird  http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

Brick Robbins wrote:
> 
> [This event took place on 13,967' Sunshine Peak, next to Red Cloud Peak, on
> August 13, 1874]
> 
> "We had scarcely got started to work when we both began to feel a 
> particular
> tickling sensation along the roots of our hair, just at the edge of our
> hats, caused by the electricity in the air.  At first this sensation was
> only perceptible and not at all troublesome; still its strength surprised
> us, since the cloud causing it was yet several miles distant to the
> southwest of us.  In the early part of the storm the tension of the
> electricity increased quite slowly, as indicated by the effect on our hair.
> By holding up our hands above our heads a tickling sound was produced, 
> which
> was still louder if we held a hammer or other instrument in our hand.  The
> tickling sensation above was accompanied by a peculiar sound almost exactly
> like that produced by the frying of bacon.   This latter phenomenon, when
> continued for any length of time, becomes highly monotonous and
> disagreeable.  Although the clouds were yet distant, we saw that they were
> fast spreading and already veiled many degrees of the horizon.  As they
> approached nearer, the tension of the electricity increased more rapidly,
> and the extent of our horizon obscured by them increased in nearly the same
> ratio; so that the rapid increase in the electric tension marked also an
> increased velocity in recording angles and making sketches.  We felt 
> that we
> could not stop, though the frying of our hair became louder and more
> disagreeable, for certain parts of the drainage of this region could not be
> seen from any other peak, and we did not want to ascend this one a second
> time.
> 
> As the force of the electricity increased, and the rate of increase became
> greater and greater, the instrument on the tripod began to click like a
> telegraph machine when it is made to work rapidly; at the same time we
> noticed that the pencils in our fingers made a similar but finer sound
> whenever we let them lie back so as to touch the flesh of the hand between
> the thumb and forefinger.  This sound is at first nothing but a continuous
> series of clicks, distinctly separable one from the other, but the 
> intervals
> becoming less and less, till finally a musical sound results.  The 
> effect on
> our hair became more and more marked, till, ten or fifteen minutes after 
> its
> first appearance, there was sudden and instantaneous relief, as if all the
> electricity had been suddenly drawn from us.  After the lapse of a few
> seconds the cause became apparent, as a peal of thunder reached our ears.
> The lightning had struck a neighboring peak, and the electricity in the air
> had been discharged.  Almost before the sound reaches us the tickling and
> frying in our hair began again, and the same series of phenomena were
> repeated, but in quicker succession, at the same time the sounds becoming
> louder...
> 
> The clouds soon began to rise up and approach us.  As they did so, the
> electricity became stronger and stronger, till another stroke of lightning
> afforded instantaneous relief; but now the relief was only for an instant,
> and the tension increased faster and faster until the next stroke.  By this
> time the work was getting exciting.  We were electrified, and our notes 
> were
> taken and recorded with lightning speed, in keeping with the terrible
> tension of the stormcloud's electricity.  The cloud reached us, coming on
> like a fog, looking thin and light near us, but densely white at a short
> distance.  All the phenomena before mentioned increased in force after each
> succeeding stroke of lightning, while the intervals between strokes became
> less and less.  When we raised our hats our hair stood on end, the sharp
> points of the hundreds of stones about us each emitted a continuous sound,
> while the instrument outsang everything else, and even at this high
> elevation could be heard distinctly at the distance of fifty yards.  The
> points of the angular stones being of different degrees of sharpness, each
> produced a sound peculiar to itself.  The general effect of all was as if a
> heavy breeze were blowing across the mountain.  The air was quite still, so
> that the wind could have played no part in this strange natural concert, 
> nor
> was the intervention of a mythological Orpheus necessary to give to these
> trachytic stones a voice.
> 
> Having completed a rough sketch of as much of the surrounding country as 
> was
> not obscured by clouds, I hastily took up the mercurial barometer, 
> hoping to
> get a reading before we should be compelled to leave the summit; but, alas!
> too late for success.  The lightning-strokes were now coming thicker and
> faster, being separated by not more than two or three minutes of time, and
> we knew that our peak would soon be struck.  As I took the barometer out of
> its leather case, and held it vertically, a terrible humming commenced from
> the brass ring at the end, and increased in loudness so rapidly that I
> considered it best to crawl hastily down the side of the peak to a point a
> few feet below the top, where, by lying low between the rocks, I could
> return the instrument to its case with comparative safety.  At the same
> time, Wilson was driven from his instrument, and we both crouched down 
> among
> the rocks to await the relief to be given by the next stroke, which, for
> aught we knew, might strike the instrument which now stood alone on the
> summit.  At this time, it was producing a terrible humming, which, with the
> noises emitted by the thousands of angular blocks of stone, and the sounds
> produced by our hair, made such a din that we could scarcely think.  The
> fast-increasing electricity was suddenly discharged, as we had anticipated,
> by another stroke of lightning, which, luckily for us, struck a point some
> distance away.
> 
> The instant he felt the relief, Wilson made a sudden dash for the
> instrument, on his hands and knees, seized the legs of the tripod, and
> flinging the instrument over his shoulder dashed back.  Although all this
> occupied only a few seconds, the tension was so great that he received a
> strong electric shock, accompanied by a pain as if a sharp-pointed
> instrument had pierced his shoulder, where the tripod came in contact with
> it.  In his haste he dropped the small brass cap which protected the
> object-glass of the telescope; but, as the excitement and danger had now
> grown so great, he did not trouble himself to go back after it, and it 
> still
> remains there in place of the monument we could not build to testify to the
> strange experiences on this our station 12.  We started as fast as we could
> walk over the loose rock, down the southeast side of the peak, but had
> scarcely got more than 30 feet [he must have meant yards] from the top when
> it was struck.  We had only just missed it, and felt thankful for our 
> narrow
> escape."
> 
> 
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