Benjamin Wilson

“ On which account, it is apprehended, pointed bars, or rods of metal, ought always to be avoided.
And as the lightening must visit us, some way or other, from necessity, to restore the equilibrium, there can be no reason to invite it at all: but, on the contrary, when it happens to attack our buildings, we ought only so to contrive our apparatus, as to be able to carry the lightening away again by such suitable conductors, properly fixed, as will very little, if at all, promote any encrease of it's quantity. ”

“ Bars of metal, of a proper thickness, and conveniently disposed, seem therefore necessary for the securily of such buildings.
It is to be noted, that the mischiefs caused by lightening are not always owing to its direction from the clouds to the buildings or other eminences, and thence to the earth; but sometimes, on the contrary, from the earth, buildings, and other eminences, to the clouds. For the principle upon which its direction depends, appears to arise from the restoration of a certain equilibrium, in a subtile and elastic fluid, previously disturbed by various causes. ”

“ Franklin, has now established a truth amongst philosophers, that lightening, like the electric fluid, passes more freely through iron, copper, and other metals, than through dry wood, stone, or marble. ”