number, height, or conductivity, bad points or bad earth connections; . . . and there was no authentic case on record where a properly constructed conductor failed to do its duty. . . . He personally had under his supervision at that present moment 500,000 lightning conductors, and, fixed throughout the offices (post-office
Lightning Clouds, Multiple Flash.
and telegraph), had apparatus, protected by about 30,000 or 40,000 lightning protectors."
Dr. Lodge said that "if his views were correct, very few buildings are effectively and thoroughly protected at the present time. . . . He had read carefully the Conference Report, and found a large number of entire failures; . . . one noteworthy one, a brass rod an inch thick on a steeple which was smashed to pieces and the spire destroyed. Again, the best protected building in the world, the Hôtel de Ville at Brussels, on which M. Melsens had
