A thunder-storm of extraordinary violence broke out between 7 and
8 o'clock on Thursday evening. Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S., writing to yesterday's Times, reports that he himself had chronicled 667 flashes of lightning between 8 and 9 o'clock (more than 10 in each minute), and that of these 111 occurred within five minutes, or more than 20 in each minute. There had been a severe thunder-storm in the morning at about the same hour, but it was nothing compared with the thunder-storm of the evening, when the lightning and thunder were almost continuous for many consecutive minutes, and the rain fell in floods which poured into the houses. We wonder whether it will ever be possible to avert these violent storms by draining off beforehand the store of electricity which supplies them for the purposes of some useful work. If we could, by one and the same process, pre- vent deadly catastrophes and push forward useful work, we should gain a double advantage.
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