Losses by Lightning in Ohio.

Losses by Lightning in Ohio.

State Fire Marshal W. S. Rogers, of Ohio, has published the following details as to the effects of lightning in that State and others:

去年夏天，在俄亥俄州闪电发射的229座建筑物中，有175个是谷仓。在297,225美元的闪电损失中，$ 223,921（超过四分之三）是谷仓。被解雇的三十五个住宅的损失为8,456美元；但是在住宅中，生命的丧失更大。当谷仓被击中时，概率是两到一，它将被完全摧毁，内容和所有内容。如果有住所，那么机会只有一到七个将被解雇的机会。消防元帅没有报道闪电袭击的大量房屋，其中烟囱被拆除，壁板撕裂，地基损坏或居住者丧生。现在使用的所有闪电棒都被证明有效。农场共同保险公司的官员，最关注雷电的人最关注的人。在几个州，这些公司拥有超过300万美元的保险，而大量的一半。 Their experience shows that the loss by lightning each summer, in States in the Mississippi valley, is front two-thirds to three fourths as great as that from all other causes added together. In Iowa in 1902 the fire loss on farm property from lightning was three times as great as from all other causes combined. In the meeting of the American Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, at Denver, the matter of reducing the assessment where the building was rodded was discussed favorably. This has been done by many companies. Other companies penalise the absence of a lightning rod by paying but 80 per cent, of the loss, if it is by lightning. Others put rodded and unrodded buildings in separate classes. Aside from this, companies have been formed to insure rodded buildings only. During a discussion at the annual convention of the mutual insurance association of Iowa, it developed that aboyt half of all farm buildings in that State are rodded. One delegate said, "In our company where more than half the buildings are rodded, it is a fact that in 15 years there isn’t a case on record of a single building with rods on it that has been struck by lightning, and a great many of them that were not rodded have been.” To quote from the report of an annual meeting of the Illinois Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, "Mr. Haitian asked, if any one could tell of an instance where a barn burned by being struck by lighting, when it was protected by lightning rods in perfect order. No one could.” “Old line” companies have been discussing the necessity of making a charge for the lightning clause in the policy, if the building is not rodded and may charge a higher rate of insurance for such structures, the fact being that, owing to the large number of lightning fires, farm barns have been a losing proposition to insurance companies for several years. The State Fire Marshal of Wisconsin says in his annual report: “From personal investigation as to the methods used by almost all the concerns in the lightning rod business today, 1 am convinced that the business is carried on in a legitimate way and lightning rods can be purchased for reasonable-prices.” The State Fire Marshal of Minnesota has said in a bulletin: “F'rom special reports received in this office of 387 lightning fires in this State during the last five years, not one of these structures reported as having been provided with a lightning rod.” In Ohio the last 883 fires from lightning have been investigated. But four of these buildings had modern rods on them. In one the stroke came from below. A number of houses having rods were struck; but investigation showed, in each, that the rod was more than twenty-five years old and was broken or rusted off.