74 MR. J. P. JOULE ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS 



so that if the # strata in which the kites are immersed are at 

 altitudes corresponding to the series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, their relative 

 charges of positive electricity would be conveniently repre- 

 sented by those numbers. He also revived copper and silver 

 from their solutions, and decomposed water by atmospheric 

 electricity. I cannot forbear describing, in his own words, 

 one of the many extraordinary electrical displays, of which 

 Mr. Sturgeon was a witness. On June 14th, 1834, he writes : 

 M The rain fell so heavily that it was with some difficulty I 

 got the kite afloat; and when up, its greatest altitude did 

 not exceed fifty yards. The silken cord also, which had been 

 intended for the insulator, soon became so completely wet that 

 it was no insulator at all. Notwithstanding all these impedi- 

 ments, I was much gratified with the display of the electric 

 matter issuing from the end of the string to a wire, one end 

 of which was laid on the ground and the other attached to the 

 silk, at about four inches distance from the reel of the kite 

 string. An uninterrupted play of the fluid was seen over the 

 four inches of wet silken cord, not in sparks, but in a bundle 

 of quivering purple ramifications, producing a noise similar to 

 that produced by springing a watchman's rattle. The display 

 was beautiful beyond description. The reel was occasionally 

 enveloped in a blaze of purple arborized electrical fire, whose 

 numberless branches ramified over the silken cord, and through 

 the air to the blades of grass, which also became luminous on 

 their points and edges, over a surface of some yards in cir- 

 cumference. We also saw a complete globe of fire pass over 

 the silken cord between the wire and reel of the kite string. 

 It was exceedingly brilliant, and about the size of a musket 

 ball." 



Having on another occasion elevated an electrical kite 

 during a thunderstorm, he noticed that a shower of sparks 

 was discharged from the string at the moment of each flash 

 of lightning, a phenomenon which he accounted for by sup- 

 posing that every flash of lightning disturbs all the electric 



