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National Geographic : 1950 Jun
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Lightning in Action National Geographic Photographer Willard R. Culver Lightning Striking a Golf Green's Flagstaff Left Its Imprint on the Grass Golf courses and other open areas are dangerous during electrical storms (page 815). This weird mark was made on the grounds of the Chevy Chase Club near Washington, D. C. water pipes also make good pathways for light ning that strikes a house; so avoid the radio and electric-light switches, keep away from radiators, and don't take a bath or shower. All telephone lines entering buildings are equipped with lightning arresters, which re duce but do not eliminate the danger of using the phone during a lightning storm. It is better to postpone a call until the storm has passed, especially in rural areas. If you do get caught away from shelter, out in the open, take refuge in a ditch or cave or under an overhanging cliff, rather than stay in an exposed place. If there is no shelter of any kind, it's safer to lie on the ground than to stand up. Getting wet is better than being struck by lightning. Wearing rubbers, in cidentally, will not protect you from a light ning strike. A newspaperman in Ohio who was struck by lightning lived to write about it in his paper. He was standing in a barn door when a bolt knocked him unconscious. When he came to, he first felt that he wanted to die; then this feeling was replaced by a great desire to live. He couldn't move or speak, and felt numb all over. When feeling returned, he suffered severe pain, which persisted for a long time in his bones, muscles, and ligaments. He had burns on his face and body. His sports shirt was torn to shreds and the buttons ripped off. In a national forest in Utah lightning struck in the midst of a herd of sheep and killed 835. The herder was knocked unconscious for two hours. In this case the sheep probably were killed by the stroke traveling from the ground up one leg, through the body, and down an other leg. This was because the ground offered more resistance to the passage of the current than the sheep's bodies. Cows often are killed the same way. Little Danger to Airplane Travelers Lightning is not a serious danger to air planes, because, if they are struck, the metal skin conducts the current away from the pilots and passengers (opposite page). Daring pilots participating in the "thunder storm project" operated by the U. S. Weather Bureau, Navy, and Air Force flew planes 1,363 times into the centers of thunderstorms to see what would happen. The planes were struck by lightning 20 different times, but the only damage was radio antennas burned off, small holes up to dime size drilled in wing tips, rudders, and elevators, and the head of one airspeed indicator slightly bent. 819
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