lil.t N PS AND I'OINTS 49 



seven others, of whom W. WaUou, the father, was 

 one. In 1762, Dr. Wataon in a 1. he Fimt Lord 



of tli.- Admiralty ! recommended that the navy should 

 be supplied with lightning-conductors of a pattern 

 he devised. The ships were furnished with them, 

 hm they were not a success, and sixty years elapsed 

 before conductors of a suitable const i were 



fastened to the masU Long before th. n tho danger 

 magazines on land from lightning had 

 been recognised ani <1 for, but not without 



something like civil war among the Fellows <: 

 Royal S' A committee, of which Franklin and 



Yateon were members, reported strongly in favour 

 >inUd conductors for the powder magazines at 

 I'm lloet One member not only dissent*" nned 



a party, who wrote and acted in favour of blunt and 

 against pointed conductors. Again a committee was 

 appointed, of which Dr \\ 



the matter to the test of experiment '1 

 usion was the same as before. Unfortunately, 

 this was in 1777, at the height of the war witli th* 

 lean colonies. Party politics were at once 

 dragged in to decide a purely scientific question. 

 xlia was in favour of the lightning-rods ending 

 in points. Philadelphia also had been provided 

 them, and "not a single instance" of mischief from 

 the severe thunderstorms experienced in that 

 had happened That was enough with foolish people 

 to condemn points and favour The Royal 



Society deci-i points; all who voted on that 



side were counted friends of the American rebels, as 

 the phra>.- tli.-n w.-nt. Kin- C.Mr-,- in. took th- Ml- 



1 Lord Anon (Mil. Tram., Dee. 16, 1768). 

 4 



