‘It so happened that four years after the erection of the conductor a line of pipes was laid down to carry water to the towns of Alatri and Ferentino, passing at a short distance from the belfry of the cathedral. The lightning conductor was not placed in communication with the pipes, because it seemed established, from previous experiments and observations, that it was needless to do so, the ground containing apparently sufficient moisture, the head of the waterworks being close, and there existing also a running fountain. I was not asked at the time whether it was necessary to establish this communication, but, had the question been put to me, I should probably have answered it in the negative, considering, from what I then knew, the work as superfluous. That I was in error then as to the necessities of a perfect underground connection is shown by what happened during the great storm in the early morning of October 2. The heavy flash of lightning before referred to did not go its appointed path underground, but passed off into the waterworks, with the following results:— ‘1. It made in the earth a perfectly rectilinear excavation, which, from the lower part of the conductor, went to the tube of the waterworks running to Ferentino, and in traversing the wall destroyed the angle of that structure. The earth of the ditch thus dug was disposed regularly to right and left with great symmetry. The length of the ditch was about 10 metres, the depth about 70 centimetres [28 inches]. ‘2. The lightning struck the water-pipe of Ferentino, broke it completely, throwing the pieces to a distance of about 80 centimetres [32 inches]. The lead which soldered the joint of the broken tube with the tube beyond was found melted. In consequence of this rupture the water ceased flowing to Ferentino, and poured into the waterworks. ‘3. Another part of the discharge spread itself by the pipe which goes to Alatri, and traversing the reservoir threw to a great distance some wooden plugs which stopped up the discharging tubes, the plugs being forcibly hammered in. It arrived at the town in a tank, where it damaged and twisted in a strange manner a leaden slab which was in the tank, made some other little injuries, and finally left the trace of its passage at the spouts of the public fountain.