F.C.S. Richard Anderson

“ There can be no doubt, from thousands of observations made, that it is one of the characteristics of the electric force to seek its way towards water—to be, as it were, dissolved by it, or, as perhaps it might be said more truly, to be equalised by it. A very remarkable electrical phenomenon, and one which is often attended with fatal results to men and animals, is what is known as the ‘return stroke’ of a lightning discharge. ”

“ However, the question being in reality less a scientific controversy than a dispute arising from the fiery heat of political passions, it was by no means set at rest by the Pantheon trials. ‘Franklin rods’ were more than ever abhorred by a multitude of persons, learned and unlearned, after the great citizen of Philadelphia had set his hand, on July 4, 1776, to the declaration of independence of the ‘United States of America,’ and more than a quarter of a century had to elapse, a new generation of men growing up, before there arose clear and unimpassioned views about lightning conductors. ”

“ It is lamentable to think that while the regular inspection of lightning conductors has been admitted long ago to be a necessity in many countries on the Continent of Europe, we as yet have taken no steps whatever to realise it. There is, probably, not a single public building in England which has conductors systematically tested from time to time. While there are tens of thousands of edifices, private and public, that are entirely without protection against lightning, there are many thousands of others which, nominally protected, are in reality in the same position. ”

“ The fact has already been dwelt upon, that trees are more liable to be struck by lightning than any other natural objects, the reason of it being unknown, except in the very probable surmise that the moisture in them forms the natural cause why the electric force seeks its path through them to the earth. Whatever the cause or causes, there can be no doubt that trees are incessantly struck by lightning, and that they are the more exposed to be struck the higher they are and the wider the extent of their branches. ”

“ It is much to be regretted that not only professors and amateurs studying the manifestations of the electric force, but even learned societies, such as the French ‘Académie des Sciences,’ should have spread so many imaginative theories about this ‘reception rod.’ At the bottom of all was the fancy, not often declared, but still visible in its expression, of the metallic conductor possessing some occult power of attracting lightning. ”

“ An iron-built vessel, metal-rigged, is a conductor by itself, while as to armour-clad ships of latest design, they are more absolutely protected against lightning even than the famous gilded temple of Solomon at Jerusalem. ”

“ Though one of the most brilliant discoveries in the annals of mankind, the lightning conductor, by itself, is one of the simplest of things. Franklin found by experiments, that the mysterious so-called ‘electric fluid’ had a tendency to make its way in preference through metals, and so he recommended the laying-down of a metallic line from the clouds to the earth to prevent damage to surrounding objects, such as buildings and the human beings within them. ”

“ The convent lies, like the town of Admont, in a valley, and above it, some three hundred feet higher, stands a castle, in which resided at the time a German professor, specially interested in the phenomena of thunderstorms. He watched assiduously the coming storm, and saw the lightning fall upon the great convent, noticing all the while that the gilded cross placed on the belfry of the edifice, about 115 feet from the ground, remained standing out clear above the electric cloud, which appeared to come close to the earth’s surface. ”

“ What is beyond controversy is, that a good conductor, in proper condition, is absolutely harmless to surrounding objects, including human beings. A man, even with a ‘fowling-piece’ in his hands, might lean full length against half-an-inch copper rod carrying off a heavy stroke of lightning into ‘good earth’ without so much as becoming aware of the passing of the electric discharge. ”

“ Speaking of the death of the unfortunate Professor Richman, of St. Petersburg, killed while experimenting with electric discharges from the clouds, Voltaire remarked, ‘There are some great lords whom one should only approach with extreme precaution: lightning is such a one.’ A mere jocular exclamation, it would have had no great force except in France, where a bon mot may cause the fall of a king and the dethronement of a dynasty. ”

“ Without casting the least slur upon the character of the artisans who execute these, bricklayers, plasterers, painters, plumbers, and others, it may be fairly asserted that they are densely ignorant as to the nature of lightning conductors. It is not at all a wonder that this should be so, since they share their ignorance with many persons of far higher education, who know no more of the action of the electric force in seeking its way from the clouds into moist earth than they do of that of a voltaic apparatus, or of a condensing steam-engine. ”

“ In the history of human inventions and discoveries, the idea of the lightning conductor is almost the sole one which sprang, all but perfect, from one brain, like Minerva, in Greek mythology, from Jupiter’s head. Benjamin Franklin discovered the lightning conductor, and, except some important improvements in its manufacture, due to the progress of the metallurgical arts, the conductor remains the same, in essence, as designed by the world-famous citizen of Philadelphia. ”

“ What the microscope is to the student of the inner secrets of animal and vegetable life, the galvanometer is to the investigator of the phenomena of electricity, in their practical applications. Until its invention, there existed no means of practically testing the strength of the electric force, or the ‘current,’ as it is usually called, and it was not possible, therefore, to ascertain, in any given case, whether lightning conductors, among others, were really efficient or not. ”

“ It is not often that many thousands of pounds are spent for protection against lightning, even if intended for great cathedrals and splendid royal palaces; but King Solomon disbursed, by the most trustworthy calculations, no less than thirty-eight millions sterling in covering the temple with one of the best of conductors—including the pointed and gilded lancets along the roof, as perfect ‘Franklin rods’ as were ever designed by any architect. ”

“ Public buildings fare little better than private houses. Even some of the first cathedrals of England have no lightning conductors whatever, while others, supplied with them, are insufficiently protected, as is apparent to any competent observer. A glaring instance of the absence of protection against lightning is to be found at Windsor Castle. It is a fact that several portions of this splendid palace, among them St. George’s chapel, and the adjoining Belfry Tower, are entirely unprovided with lightning conductors. ”

“ The function of a lightning conductor is twofold. In the first instance, it operates as a medium by which explosions of lightning, or, to speak more accurately, disruptive discharges of electricity, are led to the earth freely, and without the risk of their acting with mechanical force, as they invariably do when compelled to pass on their way to the earth through so-called non-conductors, that is to say, bodies possessed of low conductivity, such as the atmosphere, wood, stone, &c. ”

“ The greatest of French electricians, Abbé Nollet, a man of acknowledged merit, but inordinately vain, was mystified in believing that the pamphlet which caused such an immense stir at court and among the public was not the production of the obscure man Franklin of Philadelphia, but got up among his enemies in England and France, to rob him of his reputation. With this belief fixed in his mind, he sat down at his desk to write a series of letters intended to demolish the man of Philadelphia, and proving, entirely to his own satisfaction, first, that Franklin did not exist at all ”

“ The identity of the electric force and lightning, vaguely surmised by previous inquirers, and expressed at times in hints, was not only firmly asserted by Benjamin Franklin, but at a comparatively early part of his investigations proved by him in experiments. His broad practical way of looking at facts succeeded in grasping a truth which all the learned men before him, who had busied themselves with electrical experiments, had not been able to lay hold of, simply because they lost themselves in philosophical abstractions. ”

“ It is not always easy to find the reason why the lightning takes any particular path, but one thing is certain, that is, it acts under certain fixed principles, and does not take any particular route by chance, but always because it is the line of least resistance. What the lightning conductor really does is to prevent the possibility of an electric discharge within a certain district, for instance, in the interior of a house or other building. ”

“ Watson conclusively proved, the beautiful steeple of St. Bride was wilfully made over to ruin for want of a few hundred yards of iron, or other metal, which would lead the electric force harmlessly from the weathercock on the summit into the earth. He finished by telling in the plainest terms, to all on whom devolved the duty of taking care of churches, that it was neglectful, even to criminality, not to protect them by conductors against the always imminent danger of being struck by lightning. ”

“ These artisans, then, in whose hands the repairs of houses are left, naturally treat the narrow strip of metal running from the top of houses to the bottom with great indifference, not having the slightest idea of its being one of the most marvellous conceptions of the human mind. ”

“ Snow Harris went into the practical part of the business of protecting buildings, and, more especially, powder magazines and others containing explosive materials, against the effects of lightning. ‘It follows,’ he remarked,’from these established facts, that if a building were metallic in all its parts, an iron magazine for example, then no damage could possibly arise to it from any stroke of lightning which has come within the experience of mankind. A man in armour is safe from damage by lightning. ”

“ It is not very easy to give exact prescriptions as to the best manner in which the underground connection should be effected. The means vary entirely with the circumstances, and the matter should in all cases be intrusted to an expert. Simple as is the whole theory of lightning protection, consisting in nothing else but laying a good metallic path from the top of a building down into moist earth, as an unfailing path for the electric force, the practical execution of it is not the less often very complicated. ”

“ In various treatises and articles published in learned papers, Abbé Nollet sought to prove that the person called Benjamin Franklin—in whose very existence he formerly refused to believe, but which he now grudgingly acknowledged—was an individual unacquainted even with the first principles of the science of electricity, and that his proposal for protecting houses against lightning was so absurd as not to be worth engaging the attention of any thinking man. ”

“ He established the identity between the electric force and lightning, and upon it based one of the noblest inventions of all ages, that of the lightning conductor. And perhaps there never was any invention acknowledged more deeply by mankind. ”

“ We build huge iron ships, armed with cannon of ponderous weight; we throw iron bridges across rivers and arms of the sea; we lay metallic cables through the ocean and over the earth, encircling the globe. ”

“ One not infrequent accident causing them is a change in the soil from moisture to dryness, which may be brought about either by altered drainage or long absence of rain. The dangers which threaten a break in the earth connection by altered or improved drainage are of the most serious kind, and likely to become more so from year to year. Not only the soil of our towns and cities, but even that of our villages, and the fields themselves, is getting ever more honeycombed by drain-pipes, until almost every drop of moisture is sucked out of the ground. ”

“ Height was sought where nothing but depth was required, and the same unsightly rods, towering high above buildings, would have very effectually carried off the electric forces if brought from the top to the bottom of the conductor, being taken out of the air and stuck into the earth. Still, there were not wanting philosophical minds impressed with the truth that no lightning conductor can discharge its functions unless rooted in moisture, and who not only knew it, but did their best to spread this knowledge in all directions. ”

“ To make the use of lightning conductors as general as possible, Dr. Hemmer not only wrote a number of little books, which he liberally distributed, but travelled about through many parts of Germany, instigating the authorities to place conductors on all public buildings, and the people to set them up over their own houses. Holding that the earth connection was everything, he advocated simply to dig a hole in the ground till water or very moist earth was reached, and to stick a small iron bar, wrapped in lead to prevent rust, into it, running up the roof. ”

“ Perhaps, had it been only for this purpose, the galvanometer would have waited long in being constructed, but what brought it into existence, and led it to its present perfection, was that greatest of practical uses of electricity, the telegraph. As it arose from small beginnings to gradually more extended employment, embracing ultimately some of the highest interests of civilised mankind, there came the necessity of having instruments for gauging accurately the effects of the mysterious force thus put in harness at the bidding of science. ”