Daguerreotypes by Lightning

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A country woman recently arrived in Paris frorh the department of Seine-et-Marne, who was, a short time since, watching a cow in an open field, when a violent storm arose. She took refuge under a tree, which, at the instant, was struck by lightning ; the cow was killed, and the woman was felled to the earth senseless, where she was soon after found, the storm having, ceased with the flash which felled her. Upon removing her clothing, the exact image of the cow killed by her side was found distinctly impressed upon her bosom. This curious phenomenon is not without precedent. Dr. Franklin mentions the case of a man who was standing in the door of a house in a thunderstorm, and was looking at a tree directly before him when it was struck by lightning. On the man's breast was left a perfect daguerreotype of the tree. In September, 1825, the brigantine II Bum-Servo was anchored in the Armiro bay, at the entrance of the Adriatic sea, where she was struck by lightning. In obedience to a superstition, the Ionian sailors had attached a horseshoe to the mizzen-mast, as a charm against evil. When the vessel was struck, a sailor who was seated by this mast was instantly killed. There were no .marks or bruises upon his person, but the horse-shoe was perfectly pictured upon his back. In 1841, a magistrate and a miller's Iwy were struck by lightning near a poplar tree, in one of the provinces of France ; and upon the breast of each were found spots exactly resembling the leaves of the poplar. At a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences, January 25, 1847, it was stated that a woman of Lugano, seated at a window during a stgrm, was suddenly shaken by some invisible power. She experienced no inconvenience from this, but afterwards discovered that a blossom, apparently torn from a tree by a lightning stroke, was completely imaged upon one of her limbs, and it remained there until her death. A great many more similarly wonderful instances have occurred, and they are generally recorded among the curiosities of science. New York Post.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 13 Issue 11This article was published with the title “Daguerreotypes by Lightning” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 13 No. 11 (), p. 88
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican11211857-88c

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