An account of the death of a person destroyed by lightning in the chapel in Tottenham-Court-Road, and its effects on the building, as observed by Mr. William Henly, Mr. Edward Nairne, and Mr. William Jones / the account written by Mr. Henly.
- William Henly
- Date:
- 1773
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An account of the death of a person destroyed by lightning in the chapel in Tottenham-Court-Road, and its effects on the building, as observed by Mr. William Henly, Mr. Edward Nairne, and Mr. William Jones / the account written by Mr. Henly. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![a few inches of air to the ftriking rod of the clock, in which, near the end, it melted a large fpot, whence it was conduced by the work of the clock to the upper part of the pendulum, in the axis of which it melted another large fpot, and defcended by the rod palling over the ball, which it melted in a mod; remarkable manner in fix or feven places (per¬ haps upon the ball it might accumulate, and, for want of a proper conveyance, break out in different parts of it) and quitted it at the bottom of the nut,, which is melted in three places, and will accom¬ pany this paper. Here the eledlricity leaped through, eight inches of air, or paffed in conductors of the; word: kind, dry brick and wood (with a confiderable. cavity between them), till it reached the frame of a. window, over the doors, where it broke the ceiling,, and burnt the wood to a coal. Here it met with the point of a nail, driven upward into the window frame as a fecurity to the center bar. The point of this nail is melted off,, I fuppofe, full half an inch; it. was aifo melted in two large fpots on the oppofite fides near the head.. My friend Mr. Jones drew it. from the bar, &c. This gentleman was aifo fo obliging as to take down a fketch of the window, and an out¬ line of the parts affedled of the building. [See Plate.] The nail is now in the cuftody of Mr. Nairne. The lightning paffed down the aforementioned bar, and by a bent iron (in contadl with both), into another bar,, whofe point (which was greatly melted) came much, nearer the upper bolt of the door. The lead-work,, from the point of the bar was melted, and a board, nearly in contadt with the ftaple of the bolt much blacked by the palling of the eledricity. Here](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30361631_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
