308 PETER GUTHRIE TAIT 



"Though it rained much in time of these observations, yet the fire upon the ends of 

 the rods did not go out until it became so heavy as if it were pouring down out of funnels. 



"After this I went home for some time, resolving to come abroad again when the storm 

 was more tolerable ; but it continued to rain all night, so violently, that I was obliged, with 

 regret, to leave several experiments to the chance of some future opportunity. For example, 

 I suspected that the glass tubes had not been of great use on this occasion, and wanted to 

 have tried whether I should have had the same appearances by using the rods alone, without 

 any other apparatus. This is very probable, as also that the glasses, by being wet, allowed 

 the electrical fire to flow off as it was attracted. 



" I beg leave to add a few remarks relative to this subject. It would seem that experiments 

 of this kind may be made without danger when the thunder is at a moderate distance. The 

 lightning expands itself, as it flies, and by expansion loses its vigour. Perhaps there is one 

 simple and easy way of protecting masts and spires from thunder, viz., to fix horizontally 

 upon the highest parts of them a flat round piece of wood, of a foot diameter or more, in 

 order to prevent those blazing fires from fixing upon them, and accumulating. 



"This storm passed directly over Edinburgh, and came on from the south by west, as 

 nearly as could be estimated. There was a great deal of lightning that night, above sixty 

 miles to the westward, but no thunder heard. At Glasgow there was very much lightning, 

 and a few distant faint claps of thunder. On the road from Belford or Berwick it lightened 

 incessantly, but two claps of thunder only were heard, and those very faint, so that there is 

 reason to think that the fire of this storm spread over the breadth of 130 miles at least. 

 I wish I could also give some account where this thunder began, and how far it ran before 

 it was extinguished. 



"On September 3rd there was a great deal of streamers, which rose nearly from the 

 same point that the thunder afterwards came from, and gradually worked north till they 

 descended below the horizon. The air had a thunder-like appearance for several days before 

 this storm ; and for some nights after it the streamery vapour appeared equally diffused, muddy, 

 inert, and languid, and not vibrating any variety of colours, as if the more volatile parts had 

 been consumed. It is highly probable that lightning and the aurora borealis are of the same 

 materials. In hot countries streamers are not seen, or but rarely, because they are kindled 

 into thunder and flashes of lightning. In cold countries streamers abound, and it seldom 

 thunders. The streamers have served to predict thunder to follow next day, in summer, and 

 they have been also seen to break out into flashes of lightning. Thunder disturbs the motion 

 of the magnetic needle, and it has been lately found in Sweden that streamers do the same. 

 Thus thunder, electricity, magnetism, and the aurora borealis, appear all wonderfully related ; 

 and many things remain undiscovered in this vast field, which is but just newly opened. 



"As it is probable that the height which some philosophers have assigned for the streamers 

 in the atmosphere is by several hundreds of miles too much, it were to be wished that people 

 in various latitudes would carefully observe their altitude at different times of the night, that 

 by comparing simultaneous observations this matter may be determined with more certainty." 



At first reading one is inclined to regard this as a joke, but there is nothing 

 whatever to justify the notion. That Dr McFait was not killed on this occasion 

 was certainly not due to any want of precautions on his part, well calculated to make 

 such an event all but certain. He wanted only a knob on the blunt end of his 

 short rod. We are reminded of the remark made by one of the seconds in a well- 

 known duel about his principal, " To come on horseback to a fight with pistols ! and 

 in a white waistcoat, too! Couldn't he have got a bull's eye painted on it, just 



