630 JAMAICA. 



ment, which ufcd to be fo tremendous when left to its own iingo- 

 verned rage, fubmitted to his controul, and fuffered itfelf to be con- 

 duced with as much facility along his rods, as water through a pipe. 

 He eftablifiied the invention upon this corollary ; viz. That iron being 

 the kibftance in nature which kerns moft readily to attra£l the eledtric 

 fluid, or matter of lightning, therefore an eledric or thunder-cloud, 

 palling over an iron conduftor properly difpofed, will be difarmed of 

 its ammunition. At fuch a time the rod will vibrate, and upon the 

 appulfe of a finger emit fparks, with a noife, or fmall explofion. 



Profeflbr Richmann at Petersburgh was deflroyed by an apparatus, 

 in which the conduclor was carried no lower than the table in his 

 ftudy. Whilft he was attentively obferving it during the paflage of a 

 thunder-cloud over the houfe, a ball of fire fhot from the conductor to 

 his forehead, killed him infiantly, and damaged the room. The rea- 

 fon afligned for this accident is, that his body was at that very time the 

 nearefl: to the earth, and therefore flood in place of a conductor; and it 

 is therefore juftly to be concluded, that if the iron chain, inftead of 

 topping at the table, had been continued down quite into the earth, 

 this misfortune would not have befallen him. But I do not know if 

 we are to call it unfortunate; it was only the facrifice of one life, per- 

 haps, to effedl the prefervation of many ; and it fuggefted a hint for 

 the more fecure method of fixing conduttors on houfes, for the better 

 protedion of their inhabitants. 



When this fluid is poffeiled of a metallic condudor, it is found to go 

 in quefl of none other ; and is never known to deviate, if luch a con- 

 dudor is of fufficient diameter or lubitance to carry off the whole that 

 may happen to fall upon it at any one time. If luch an apparatus, of 

 due folidity, was fixed on lofty church fpircs, it would probably refcue 

 them from a fate that is now become too common. At prelent, the 

 tall rod, on which their vanes revolve, fcrves as a ready attrador to 

 draw the lightning down upon them, and conduds it as far as it beds 

 into the fl:one or wood-work. But, in confequcnce of an obftinate 

 and infatuated adherence to old culloms, we hear of infinite devafta- 

 tions committed by lightning on fome or other of thele venerable fa- 

 brics every year, in England, and other countries; ftones are difplaced 

 and whirled away to a great diftance, lead melted, bells thrown down, 

 walls Iplit, and timbers fired or fhivered into atoms. A pradice 

 equally wrong flill prevails among maritime people, of fixing iron 

 Ipindlcs on the top gallant marts of fliips, which by their power of at- 

 tradion have often produced the molt fatal confequences, as well to 

 luch veflcls, as to the perfons on board. A few years ago, two vellels 

 failed from a port on the North fide of Jamaica, bound to North Ame- 

 rica, 



