I commonly used to do, and which I might safely enough have done if I had not held the chain in the other hand. I then felt what I know not how well to describe; a universal blow throughout my whole body from head to foot, which seemed within as well as without; after which the first thing I took notice of was a violent quick shaking of my body, which

FRANKLIN AND THE KITE
After a bronze tablet on the pedestal of the Greenough statue

gradually remitting, my sense as gradually returned, and then I thought the bottles must be discharged, but could not conceive how, till at last I perceived the chain in my hand, and recollected what I had been about to do. That part of my hand and fingers, which held the chain, was left white, as though the blood had been driven out, and remained so eight or ten minutes after, feeling like dead flesh; and I had a numbness in my arms and the back of my neck, which con

tinued till the next morning, but wore off. Nothing remains now of this shock, but a soreness in my breast-bone, which feels as if it had been bruised. I did not fall, but suppose I should have been knocked down if I had received the stroke in my head. The whole was over in less than a minute."

This caused Franklin to realize the danger to the operator of electrical experiments and he was much distressed when he learned that Professor Richman had come to his death by repeating experiments he had suggested.

The second stroke received by Franklin came about in this way. It became the fashion to expect that electricity would prove the long-hoped-for cure for many diseases hitherto beyond the physician's skill. The most learned doctors of Europe corresponded with Franklin on this subject and he treated with electricity from his batteries paralytic, or epileptic patients who came to him for this service. He had, one day, a paralytic patient brought by friends. He formed a circle of persons joining hands, intending to send the electricity through all. In arranging the circle, he inadvertently took his own place under an iron hook depending from the ceiling to within two inches of the top of his head. A wire connected this hook with the outside of the jars. He writes, "I attempted to discharge them (the jars), and in fact did so; but I did not perceive it, tho' the charge went through me and not through the Persons I intended it for. I neither saw the Flash, heard the Report, nor felt the Stroke. When my senses returned I found myself on the Floor. I got up not knowing how that had happened. I then again attempted to discharge the jars, but one of the company told me they were already discharged, which I could not at first believe, but on Trial found it true. They told me they had not felt it, but they saw I was knocked down by it, which had greatly surprised them. On recollecting myself and examining my Situation, I found the Case

clear. A small swelling rose on the top of my head, which continued sore for some days; but I do not remember any other effect good or bad." 1

The "Philadelphia experiments" as tried in France were reported in England and, soon after, tried there. The curious thing is that Franklin had written about his experiments first, to friends in England, but the account having come from the provinces was not thought worthy of serious attention, until now when Franklin's name had become famous on the continent, his experiments were taken up by members of the Royal Society, London. They were successful there, as elsewhere, and soon an account of them was read before the Society and afterwards printed. Then, the American philosopher came into the honor that was his due. Meantime, in Philadelphia, Franklin and his son had performed the famous kite experiment, the description of which may be found in his writings.2

The First Lightning Rod.

The idea of using a pointed rod to protect buildings from lightning had come to Franklin's mind almost as soon as he had proved that points will receive and convey the electric fluid silently and safely. He often referred to this idea and, at length, in 1753, he made a formal statement of this method of protecting tall buildings, ships, etc., and discussed the particulars of arrangement. The lightning rod came into use first in America where the danger of bolts from the clouds is much greater than in Europe. Strange prejudices sometimes prevented the use of this means of safety. A pastor in Moravia who had erected a rod was obliged to remove it because the peasants believed that it had caused the extreme drouth of that season. Robespierre, he who later became infamous and thus

1 From a letter to Jan Ingenhousz, written in 1785. S. IX. 308.

2 S. III. p. 99.

known to all the world, had for his first case the defense of a client whose neighbors were alarmed by the lightning conductor he had erected on his property. The young lawyer afterwards sent a copy of his argument to Franklin, naming him "the most illustrious savant in the world."

For a time, few conductors were erected in England, but, at length, while Franklin was himself resident in that country, an incident occurred which called attention to this invention. A powder magazine in Italy was exploded by a stroke of lightning. This alarmed the British Board of Ordnance and they consulted Franklin in regard to the protection of their magazines. Franklin made an examination of the buildings and situation, after which he submitted a report containing his recommendation. In the powder magazine he found an arrangement which even a boy, to-day, would understand the danger of; the roof was capped from end to end with a coping of lead twenty-two inches wide. The barrels containing the powder were piled one above another, often as high as the spring of the arches; each barrel had four copper hoops and down the arches to the place where the powder was stored passed a number of perpendicular iron rods. This arrangement formed, with the hoops, a broken conductor, which, as Franklin pointed out, is, in a powder magazine, the most dangerous of all. In the twentieth century such an arrangement would seem expressly designed to tempt the bolts of heaven.

Franklin's report was referred to the Royal Society which concurred in the recommendation. One member, however, dissented from a part of the report. To his mind the use of pointed rods would invite the lightning and bring down a greater amount than if blunt rods were used. This gave rise to many amusing incidents, for the dissenting gentleman was not friendly to the American colonies and when war broke out the question of blunt rods or pointed ones got into politics.