224 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



EXTRACTS 



FROM THE 



SCIENTIFIC CORRESrONDENCE 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 



On Mr. John Wise's ohservations and inferences respecting the fhcnomena of 

 a thunder storm-, to wliich he was exposed during an (Erial voyage, made by 

 means of a balloon, June 3, 1852, from Portsmouth, Ohio. 



BY DR. ROBERT HARE. 



1. I have read with great interest the account published by Mr. 

 Wise, a well known a?ronaut, ot" his balloon ascension during a thun- 

 der storm. This heroic excursion should awaken much attention in 

 the scientific wcjtld, as opening a new and fiuitful avenue to meteor- 

 ological research in the immediate theatre of the stormy commotions of 

 the atmosphere. The query " Cui bono?^^ can no longer be reasonably 

 put to those who, like Wise, have been thought unwisely to have sub- 

 jected themselves to risk in the sterile field of aeronautic adventure. ! 



2. The fact that this aerial voyage is the one hundred and thirty-first 

 of those of which this veteran a^onaut has survived the perils, indi- ! 

 cales that they have not been so perilous in reality as in appearance ; 

 nor, so far as can be judged from the facts furnished by Wise's letter, 

 does the unusual circumstance of a cotemporaneous thunder storm 

 appear to add to the danger. Moreover, this practically safe result is 

 just such as an attentive consultation of the well ascertained laws of 

 electricity would justify. It is quite consistent with those laws that j 

 the aeronaut, sealed in his car, suspended by silken cords Ij-om a silken ' 

 globe, should be more secure than persons simultaneously situated on 

 terra firma beneath the clouds by which the balloon is surrounded. 

 Supported as described, in the non-conducting air, by a non-conducting 

 apparatus, an animal must be too well insulated to become the means ; 

 oi' an electrical discharge, whether from the clouds to the earth, or f 



