280 



F A R M E R S ' REGISTER. 



[No. 5 



metal vancp ! To be sure— but metal vanes are 

 not coiuluciors ; ami condiu'tors should not be 

 Jbrined of a wire scarcely biirirer than a bell wire. 

 In my above quoieJ ariicle, I have stated, that a 

 lube is better for a conductor tiian a sohd rod, 

 because it is to the surlace of bodies that electrici- 

 ty adheres. Nothing could be fitter lor the purpose 

 than iron gas pipes: but tlieir connexions and at- 

 tachments, down the buildin;: must be of stone, or 

 other non-conducting materials. 



Previously to the church of St. Peter's, at 

 Rome, being protected by numerous conductors, by 

 the French government, damage was continually 

 being done to the upper part of that stupendous 

 edifice; but never was the least injury inflicted af- 

 ter the application. 



It must be borne in mind, that an elevated and 

 efficient conductor will give its protection morefre- 

 (|uently in perfect silence, and unobserved, than 

 by conduclinir into the ground, or water, a posi- 

 tive discharge of electric matter, accompanied by 

 a flash and thunder. The many-pointed conductors 

 will silently draw off the electricity from a passing 

 cloud, without any discharge, properly so called, 

 so that the blow has been parried ii" ii be not a 

 bull to say so, belbre it is struck. 



During my several sojourns at I'ome, I have 

 made particular inquiries into the effects of light- 

 ning on St. Peter's church. Afler the numerous 

 substantial, many-pointed conductors were affixed 

 to the summit, and n\ost substantial, and most 

 prominent angles, by the French in 1808, an elec- 

 tric discharge was not known to have fallen upon 

 it more than three limes, and then it did no injury. 

 It appears that the clouds, in passing over the 

 clmrch, are deprived of their plus electricity by the 

 conductors, just as a Leyden jar is silently equili- 

 brized by the presentation of a metallic, pointed 

 conductor. How many ships would be saved from 

 ilainage, conflagration, and, perhaps, instant sub- 

 mersion, by properly constructed vehicles li)r con- 

 veying the electric fluid over the sides into the 

 water? What inconvenence could be felt, fi-om 

 a branched rod and a chain from the mast-head, 

 hanging along the shrouds into the water 1 All 

 the iiiilures of conductors arise from their want of 

 suflicient mass of metal. A zinc chain, or tube, 

 would be far less liable to oxidation than iron ; 

 and, as I have before remarked in the case of a 

 powder magazine, &c., the metal might easily be 

 kept with a clear surlace, by an occasional rub- 

 bing with a brick-bat. About London we see 

 conductors not thicker than a quill, applied to shot 

 towers, tall chimneys, &c., whereas they ought to 

 be gas tubes of at least an inch in diameter. The 

 lop ought to be formed in the manner of a branch 

 of a tree, with five or six pomts nf copper gilt, the 

 extreme points being of |)ure gold or silver, as are 

 those at Rome. 



In some volcanic districts, over which it would 

 appear that the solidified crust of our globe, which 

 covers the yet incandescent mass, is thinner or 

 more porous, than at other points, the electrical ex- 

 change of compliments between the earth and 

 atmosphere, are almost as frequently directed up- 

 wards from the earth to the clouds as in the con- 

 trary direction. Even against such upward dis- 

 charges, the conductors inserted in the earth and 

 ascending to the summit of the building, will pre- 

 serve them from injury. I have witnessed a i2;reat 

 many instances of ascendingstreams of electricity, 



some of which I have remarked upon in 3'our 

 pages, particidarly in Nos. 401 and 402; and I 

 am induced to tliink that we should see many 

 more exhibitions of the process, were it not lor 

 the trees which act as silern, conductors, both up- 

 wards and downwards. Electricity is the real 

 food of plants which they absorb through the in- 

 numerable points of their leaves and branches. 

 On the same principle should a lightning-conduct- 

 or be constructed wiih as many points as con- 

 venient. 



Lieut Green says, "seventy-nine churches in 

 Great Britain have in a few years been struck, 

 some of iliem destroyed; many, afier being flir- 

 nished with from one to four conductors. All of 

 of those struck had metal vanes." How '• many 

 out of the seventy-nine churches, were furnished 

 with conductors, this opponeiitto Benjamin Frank- 

 lin does not tell us. He only shows the danger 

 of metal vanes inviting the lightning, without a 

 conductor to lake it away. A bit of wire attached 

 to the walls by iron eye bolts, or staples, is certain- 

 1}' more likely to cause mischief than to give pro- 

 tection. A proper and elevated conductor will 

 generally. carry oH' the electricity silently, without 

 any apparent discharge.* 



From the Farmer's Cabinet. 

 1N.ICIRY FROM DESTROYING BIRDS. 



The culture of the earth is the most primitive, 

 natural and extensive employment of civilizeil 

 life. It brings wnh it cheerfulness and alliuence, 

 and fosters them under its broad wing; never 

 deserting nor weaning them from its parent pro- 

 tection. Every wise observer of cause and effect 

 can tell that its increase in honor as an employ- 

 ment, and in profit as a support and source of in- 

 dividual and national prosperity, is a great result 

 and criterion of refinement. A vagrant life and 

 subsistence, like beasts of prey, by the uncertain 

 toils of the chase, are the untaught evidences of 

 ignorance aiul barbarity; hunting and fishing, but 

 the instinctive resorts of human nature in its wild- 

 ness. 



The teeming dust from which Omnipotence 

 framed the v.'onders of our animal economy is a 

 fitting and proximate source, whence we might 

 hope to derive its nourishment. The savage of the 

 wilderness permits the land over which he roams 

 to lie fallow; only because ignorance has sealed to 

 him the letter and effect of that revelation which 

 declares, "God formed man out of the dust of the 

 ground." The unlbldings of that revelation, its 

 difiusion, and the gradually increasing light of its 

 expanding beams, have been ever the heralds, 

 and cause of civilization, and with this agricul- 

 ture goes hand in hand. The past, in all its ma- 

 nilbld views and bearings, gives the proof of ex- 

 perience to the remark; futurity will sustain it by 

 bringing to pass the prophecy concerning Christi- 

 anity and the effects of its spread; "they shall 

 beat, their swords into ploughshares, and their 

 spears into pruning-hooks." 



* Note. The above article -is inserted because the 

 tact stated res]inctin;;- St. Peter's Church is deemed 

 itoportant; it otherwise assumes as facts what requires 

 to be verified. — Ed. 



