reach (?)

[Joel S. Berson]

I see that the Newport Mercury of July 7 and the Georgia Gazette of
Aug. 6 of the same year of 1766 have the same story -- and quite
clearly reproduce the "peach"!  *They* must have known ... or both
had particularly robotic typesetters.

Perhaps "peak"?  "The kitchen chimneys pass up through the peaks of
their respective roofs ..."  From The Western literary messsenger
..., 1853, vols. 20-21, page 137, in an article titled "Design for a
Farm House".  [GB, Full view.]  Perhaps the light house had a kitchen
shed with a peaked roof (and a kitchen would need a chimney), and the
chimney and kitchen were a high point on the light house, so
susceptible to a lightning strike?

Joel

At 11/4/2010 05:24 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>I don't see anything in OED that explains this:
>
>         The 26th Instant, the Light House at Sandy-Hook was struck
> by Lightning, and twenty Panes of the Glass Lanthorn broke to
> Pieces; the Chimney and Peach [sic] belonging to the Kitchen, was
> broke down, and some People that were in the House received a
> little Hurt, but are since recovered.  'Tis said the Gust was
> attended with a heavy Shower of Hail.
>         New-York Mercury, June 30, 1766, p. 2, col. 3
>
>GAT
>
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
>Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org