One other case of more recent date may be instanced. At Cromer, in Norfolk, the church--a fine perpendicular building of flint and freestone, having a tower 159 feet high--was damaged by lightning in August 1879. During a thunderstorm the lightning struck one of the pinnacles with considerable force, although on another pinnacle, only twenty-seven feet six inches distant, a good copper conductor, having a diameter of five-eighths of an inch, was fixed. On testing the conductor by means of a galvanometer, it and the earth connection were found to be in thoroughly good order. After what has been said, comment on this last example is needless. [Illustration: Fig. 22.] The general disposition and adjustment of a lightning conductor demands the greatest care and consideration. No hard and fast rules can be laid down, for each individual case must be studied and elaborated by itself, especially in the instance of large structures, where much depends upon style, outline, and other details. The main point is that _every_ part of the building shall be placed beyond the possibility of being damaged by a disruptive discharge of electricity. It has been stated previously that the lightning invariably follows the line of least resistance, and that this line may be influenced by the presence of streams of warm vapour, columns of smoke, &c., which, escaping into the air, furnish a ready path for the electric discharge. Consequently it sometimes happens that a building or barn may be struck although it be provided with a lightning conductor. In order to explain this it must be borne in mind that the line of least resistance is not always the shortest line mathematically. The accompanying illustration (fig. 22) is an example to the point. It represents a barn furnished with a lightning conductor and filled with new-made hay, which is a better conductor of electricity than the material of which the barn is constructed. This hay is giving off the stream of warm vapour which is pouring out of the opening at the end, and forms an invisible band of conducting matter between the thunder-cloud and the barn, as marked out in the engraving by the dotted lines, the direction of the wind being shown by the arrow and the trees. Under these circumstances the discharge of lightning would naturally follow the path between _c_ and _d_ in preference to the shorter route between _a_ and _b_, because the former is the line of least resistance between the cloud and the earth. Thus the barn--although furnished with a conductor in good condition--would most likely be set on fire, or otherwise damaged. The same deflection of the lightning-stroke might be caused by a column of smoke, or by the fact of one portion of the building being moistened by the rain and the other kept dry; an occurrence that might easily happen when a strong wind is blowing during a storm.