74 CLASSICS OF MODERN SCIENCE 

 electrical globe. Let it be charged, and then present the point at 

 the same distance, and it will suddenly be discharged. In the dark 

 you may see the light on the point, when the experiment is made. 

 And if the person holding the point stands upon wax, he will be 

 electrified by receiving the fire at that distance. Attempt to draw 

 off the electricity with a blunt body, as a bolt of iron round at the 

 end, and smooth, (a silversmith's iron punch, inch thick, is what I 

 use,) and you must bring it within the distance of three inches before 

 you can do it, and then it is done with a stroke and crack. As the 

 pasteboard tube hangs loose on silk lines, when you approach it with 

 the punch-iron, it likewise will move towards the punch, being at- 

 tracted while it is charged, but if, at the same instant, a point be 

 presented as before, it retires again, for the point discharges it. Take 

 a pair of large brass scales, of two or more feet beam, the cords of 

 the scales being silk. Suspend the beam by a pack-thread from the 

 ceiling, so that the bottom of the scales may be about a foot from the 

 floor ; the scales will move round in a circle by the untwisting of the 

 pack-thread. Set the iron punch on the end upon the floor, in such 

 a place as that the scales may pass over it in making their circle ; 

 then electrify one scale by applying the wire of a charged phial to it. 

 As they move round, you see that scale draw nigher to the floor, 

 and dip more when it comes over the punch; and, if that be placed 

 at a proper distance, the scale will snap and discharge its fire into it. 

 But, if a needle be stuck on the end of the punch, its point upward, 

 the scale, instead of drawing nigh to the punch, and snapping, dis- 

 charges its fire silently through the point, and rises higher from the 

 punch. Nay, even if the needle be placed upon the floor near the 

 punch, its point upward, the end of the punch, though so much 

 higher than the needle, will not attract the scale and receive its fire, 

 for the needle will get it and convey it away, before it comes nigh 

 enough for the punch to act. And this is constantly observable in 

 these experiments, that the greater quantity of electricity on the 

 pasteboard tube, the farther it strikes or discharges its fire, and the 

 point likewise will draw it off at a still greater distance. 



Now if the fire of electricity and that of lightning be the same, as 

 I have endeavoured to show at large in a former paper, this pasteboard 

 tube and these scales may represent electrified clouds. If a tube of 

 only ten feet long will strike and discharge its fire on the punch at 



