The regular inspection of lightning conductors, as yet unknown or all but unknown in England, has been for a long time in practice in several States of Continental Europe, among them Germany and France. The origin of such inspection may be traced to Northern Germany. It has been mentioned before (Chap. IV., page 43) that the first lightning conductor set up over a public building in Europe was erected on the steeple of the Church of St. Jacob, Hamburg, and that the extension of conductors in the city and neighbourhood was so rapid, that before five years had gone by there were over seven hundred conductors. ‘To this day they are comparatively more numerous in this district than anywhere else in Europe.’ To this day, too, the scientific aspect of the question of lightning protection, and the statistics connected with it, are more appreciated here, and have been more closely investigated, than in any other part of Europe. In recent years, this has been more particularly the case in the territories to the north of the city of Hamburg, the German province of Schleswig-Holstein. Not even in the country of their origin, and the one which, as yet, has the greatest number of them in use, have the ‘Franklin rods’ given rise to so much serious study as in that part of Germany.
Thunderstorms are more numerous, on the average, in Schleswig-Holstein than in any other part of Central and Northern Europe--due, probably, to the fact of the province not only being a narrow peninsula, with the Baltic on the east, and the German Ocean on the west, but intersected by rivers and canals, producing a generally moist atmosphere. Almost all public edifices in the province, and the great majority of private buildings above the rank of mere cottages, are protected by lightning conductors; and to aid in their extension there are special laws under which damages by lightning are not made good, except to a limited extent, by fire insurance companies, unless it is proved that the edifices struck had been provided previously with efficient conductors. These laws gave rise to a curious investigation some three or four years ago. It was found that the principal fire insurance office--an institution under the patronage of the Government, called the ‘Landesbrandkasse,’ or ‘County Fire Insurance Office’--had been called upon a number of times to pay for damage caused by lightning in cases where the buildings were provided with lightning conductors of the best kind, in apparently perfect condition. Though the cases were very few indeed--namely, but four out of 552 claims for damages from lightning which had been made in the course of eight years--still, the interest taken in the subject was so great, that the managers of the institution appointed a special commissioner to inquire thoroughly into the matter as to how it could happen that buildings provided with proper conductors could ever be struck by lightning. The gentleman chosen to undertake this task was Dr. W. Holtz, of Greifswald, well known as having given much time to the study of the phenomena of electricity, as well as the construction of lightning conductors. Dr. Holtz in due course made his report, which was afterwards published in a scientific journal called ‘Nachrichten des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins für Neuvorpommern und Rügen,’ being the organ of a society under the latter title. The report--which must be completely unknown in this country--is full of interest, and well deserves being extracted from in several notable particulars.