In the mid-18th century, Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) invented the lightning rod to catch lightning and make it harmless to buildings. Two centuries later in 1947, a northern Lake George, New York-area man did one better.
One day while working on the family farm, he “caught” lightning in a milk pail.
Norm Nadeau was a North County agriculturalist. Besides farming, he also ran a stable, located just south of Ticonderoga, New York.
It was mid-July 1947, almost two years after World War II had ended. One late afternoon about 5:30 pm, Norm Nadeau was standing near the family farm outside the milk room holding an empty milk bucket. Suddenly, a lightning bolt cracked and flashed down from the darkened sky, hitting a nearby ledge behind the farmhouse.
Nadeau, a powerfully built man in his early 40s, later said a scatter of “red balls of fire” seemed to burst from everywhere, including a ball of lightning that ricocheted into the metal-milk pail that he was holding.
Nadeau reported he was conscious for a second before being thrown to the ground by the ferocity of the lightning impact. During that initial split second, he had a difficult time letting go of the container because one of the lightning bolts reportedly hit inside the milk pail.
The jug Nadeau once gripped, suddenly flew away from his hand and slammed against the side of the wooden-milk room. Nadeau, still on the ground, crawled to the farmhouse to check to see if it had been set on fire. From his vantage point outside his residence, it looked fine.
After a short rest, the agronomist got his son, Bill, to help him finish the evening farm chores. Following the agricultural work, Norm Nadeau discovered that the lightning had shattered most of the light bulbs inside the family quarters.
His home’s lighting fixtures were not the only casualties of the lightning strike. The Ticonderoga Sentinel newspaper reported that he, too, had some ill affects from the fire bolt.
Nadeau said he was in a bit of a daze for about 30 minutes after the weather mishap. Furthermore, Nadeau noticed that the leather soles of his work shoes had been slightly burned, literally a celestial “hot foot.”
Nadeau’s experience with lightning that mid-July 1947 afternoon made him feel like a lucky man. Others might say it was an early present from heaven as the day after the lightning incident was his birthday.
Norm Nadeau probably always remembered that early birthday “gift,” the day he did one better than Ben Franklin by capturing lightning in a milk pail.
A version of this article first appeared on the Lake George Mirror, America’s oldest resort paper, covering Lake George and its surrounding environs. You can subscribe to the Mirror HERE.
Illustration: Henry S. Sadd shows Benjamin Franklin experimenting with lightning (Library of Congress).
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