than your vessel underneath will receive.

JNO. FIELD.

* * * * *

_Effects of Lightning_.

The analogy between the electric spark, and more especially of the
explosive discharge of the Leyden jar, with atmospheric lightning
and thunder, is too obvious to have escaped notice, even in the
early periods of electrical research. It had been observed by Dr.
Wall and by Gray, and still more pointedly remarked by the Abbe
Nollet. Dr. Franklin was so impressed with the many points of
resemblance between lightning and electricity, that he was convinced
of their identity, and determined to ascertain by direct experiment
the truth of his bold conjecture. A spire which was erecting at
Philadelphia he conceived might assist him in this inquiry; but,
while waiting for its completion, the sight of a boy's kite, which
had been raised for amusement, immediately suggested to him a more
ready method of attaining his object. Having constructed a kite by
stretching a large silk handkerchief over two sticks in the form of
a cross, on the first appearance of an approaching storm, in June
1752, he went out into a field, accompanied by his son, to whom
alone he had imparted his design. Having raised his kite, and
attached a key to the lower end of the hempen string, he insulated
it by fastening it to a post, by means of silk, and waited with
intense anxiety for the result. A considerable time elapsed without
the apparatus giving any sign of electricity, even although a dense
cloud, apparently charged with lightning, had passed over the spot
on which they stood. Franklin was just beginning to despair of
success, when his attention was caught by the bristling up of some
loose fibres on the hempen cord; he immediately presented his
knuckle to the key, and received an electric spark. Overcome with
the emotion {42} inspired by this decisive evidence of the great
discovery he had achieved, he heaved a deep sigh, and conscious of
an immortal name, felt that he could have been content if that
moment had been his last. The rain now fell in torrents, and wetting
the string, rendered it conducting in its whole length; so that
electric sparks were now collected from it in great abundance.

It should be noticed, however, that about a month before Franklin
had made these successful trials, some philosophers, in particular
Dalibard and De Lors, had obtained similar results in France, by
following the plan recommended by Fra