356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



went, but it was never allowed to complete even one revolution in 

 this last ellipse, for in 1886 it collided with Jupiter, as has been 

 already described, and its path was changed to the small ellipse 

 in which the justly famous comet is now moving, and in which it 

 will continue to move for a number of years to come. 



THE INVENTOR OF THE LIGHTNING-ROD. 



By JOSEPH J. KRAL. 



WHEN the newspapers lately announced the names of emi- 

 nent electricians which are to adorn the Electrical Build- 

 ing at the Columbian World's Fair in Chicago in 1893, we were 

 surprised, nay, disappointed, to find that the respective officials 

 left out the name of a man of science whose merits would fully 

 entitle him to that honor. We mean Prokop Divis, the man who, 

 before Franklin, discovered the identity of lightning and elec- 

 tricity, and the issuing of electricity from metallic points, two 

 important truths which led him to construct a lightning con- 

 ductor. But his modesty (he was a Catholic priest and a thor- 

 ough scholar), and the ignorance of others combined, caused his 

 name nearly to be forgotten. The Encyclopaedia Britannica 

 knows nothing of him, while the German Conversations Lexicon 

 of Brockhaus (Volume V, page 406) disposes of his two great 

 discoveries exactly in two sentences. The only mention of him 

 we find in English literature is a short sketch in the Historical 

 Magazine for February, 1868 (page 93, article xii), which is a 

 translation from a French periodical. As the life of Divis is of 

 itself sufficiently interesting, we hope to be justified in presenting 

 a few more details of his life to the readers of this magazine. 

 Our article is based chiefly upon a sketch in the Bohemian 

 Encyclopaedia of Rieger and Maly (Volume I, pages 209, 210, and 

 Volume III, page 941). 



Prokop Divis (Dyiv'ish) was born on the 1st of August, 1696, 

 in the town of Zamberk (its German name is Senftenberg), in 

 northeastern Bohemia, of Bohemian parents. At the gymnasium 

 of Znojmo he received the rudiments of higher education, and 

 afterward entered the Premonstratensian order at Luka. On 

 November 30, 1720, he bound himself with the three monastic 

 vows, and six years later took the holy orders. On account of his 

 high scholarship, he was soon after appointed Professor of Phi- 

 losophy in the Lyceum of Luka. A special feature of his lectures 

 were various experiments in physics, with which, contrary to all 

 precedents, he liked to illustrate the subjects discussed. It will 

 be remembered that the Church has never looked with favor 



