WISLIZENUS — ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY. 7 



city had been attempted, only within the last twenty years, in 

 but a few places in Europe (in Brussels, in Munich, in Kreuz- 

 nach and in Kew), and not at all, as yet, in any other part of 

 our globe, I felt encouraged again, and determined to follow 

 the slow but sure course of daily observations continued for 

 years, and thus add my mite to this neglected but important 

 branch of meteorology. 



The principal difficulties to be overcome in such observa- 

 tions are, first, the subtle, imponderable, as it were, spiritual 

 essence of electricity. This wonderful creation of nature, 

 having itself no material substance, but filling heaven and 

 earth ; inherent in all earthly bodies, but rushing through 

 some with proverbial velocity and clinging to others with 

 partial affection ; sometimes invigorating our nerves and giv- 

 ing a delightful tension to our whole system, sometimes de- 

 pressing our body and mind ; or, in its fury, finishing our 

 human existence more speedily than any other natural phe- 

 nomenon, or mortal power, could do ; now at perfect rest, 

 slumbering like an innocent child, and now suddenly aroused, 

 rent into its two polar elements and pouring streams of fire 

 upon an affrighted world — such a mysterious, ubiquitous, all- 

 powerful, and, nevertheless, super-delicate agent, cannot be 

 handled and explored as easily as matters that present them- 

 selves to all our senses at once ; and still it has been con- 

 trolled to some degree by human ingenuity. It has been 

 drawn down from heaven ; its course has been directed ; its 

 fiery fluid has been bottled and its wrath been chained, and 

 more yet may be accomplished in course of time. The day 

 may even appear, when electricity, with its twin brother mag- 

 netism, will be chained to the air car, to steer it speedily and 

 safely through higher regions. 



A second difficulty in these researches has been, heretofore, 

 the want of proper instruments for collecting quickly and 

 measuring accurately the collected atmospheric electricity. 

 When I began paying attention to the subject, I first tried, 

 as collecting apparatus, movable iron rods, then fixed isola- 

 ted copper wires, erected along the wall of my house, ending 

 at the top with metallic points or balls; and as measuring 

 instruments, I used, at first, balls of elder pith moving over 

 a graduated scale, then the goldleaf electrometer, then a 

 zambonic column with goldleaf electrometer (Fechner's in- 

 strument) alone, or with a condensator ; but, finding none of 

 them satisfactory, I thought of constructing a rheometer, 

 when I fortunately heard of Prof. Dellmann's excellent in- 

 strument. I tried, at once, to procure one, but as the instru- 

 ment is little known, and Prof. Dellmann had to attend him- 

 self to its construction, it was a couple of years, before I re- 

 ceived one. He forwarded, at the same time, two of his in- 

 struments to this country, one for the Smithsonian Institution 



