Abstract
III. THE name thunderbolt, which is still in use, even by good, writers, seems to have been introduced in consequence of the singular effects produced when lightning strikes a sandhill or sandy soil. It bores a hole often many feet in length, which is found lined throughout with vitrified sand. The old notion was that an intensely hot, solid mass, whose path was the flash of lightning, had buried itself out of sight, melting the sand as it went down. It is quite possible that this notion may have been strengthened by the occasional observation of the fall of aerolites, which are sometimes found, in the holes they have made, still exceedingly hot. And at least many of the cases in which lightning is said to have been seen in a perfectly clear sky are to be explained in the same way. Every one knows Horace's lines—
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Thunderstorms 1 . Nature 22, 408–410 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/022408d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/022408d0