354 



Lightning Rods. 



Vol. IX. 



The cost at which this application can be 

 made, is computed at one pound sterling per 

 acre, and it is reckoned to last ten to fifteen 

 years, the wires being carefully taken up and 

 replaced every year. 



We may mention the result of an experi- 

 ment on a small scale, of the effect of elec- 

 tricity on vegetation. Two small parcels of 

 mustard seed were sown — to one electricity 

 was applied, the other was lefl to its usual 

 course: the result was, that while the for- 

 mer grew three inches and a half, the latter 

 grew only one inch. We shall also state, 

 that the barley produced at the rate of thir- 

 teen quarters and a half to the acre, weighed 

 nearly two lbs. more to the bushel than any 

 other in the neighbourhood. 



This discovery is certainly likely to pre- 

 sent a very full compensation for the exhaus- 

 tion of Ichaboe. The results of the further 

 experiments which are going forward, are 

 promised to be reported. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Lightning Rods No. 2.— See page 247 

 It was my intention to have continued the 

 pictorial illustrations in my future numbers 

 but the heavy expense of procuring the ne 

 cessary wood engravings, forbids my doing 

 Bo. I exceedingly regret the circumstance, 

 but can only avail myself of the figures al- 

 ready given. 

 • An apology may also be due to my readers, 

 for the delay of this number. I can only say, 

 that my time has been occupied in the dis 

 charge of more imperative duties. 



" Let the thunder teacli us." 



There are very many persons — intelligent, 

 honest-hearted and pious, who are neverthe- 

 less strangers to electrical science, and who 

 imagine that the phenomena of electricity, to 

 them so mysterious and incomprehensible, 

 differ altogether from the ordinary operations 

 of nature ; and that they are in fact, extra- 

 ordinary agents, which Providence has re- 

 served in His hands as the special instru- 

 ments of retributive justice. Ilcnce they 

 dare not employ a means of protection — even 

 if they could believe that it would avail them 

 any thing, when opposed to the power of 

 Omnipotence — which they conceive to be in 

 open defiance of Him. To such as these it 

 is bold presumption and daring impiety to 

 erect a lightning-rod. But when the scion 

 of veneration is engrafled upon the unnatural 

 stock of i<rnorance, we may reasonably look 

 for an equally unnatural growth of supersti- 

 tion, which can only be eradicated by a bet- 

 ter hnoivledge of the subject. I hope that 

 my readers will bear with me, and not call 

 this language presumptuous. What I wish 



to impress upon their minds is — that electri- 

 cal phenomena, like all other natural events, 

 are produced in accordance with established 

 principles, and governed by certain and de- 

 terminate laws. Laws too which fall within 

 our observation, and admit of being verified 

 by the clearest evidence and with as much 

 ease as any of the laws of nature. Having 

 once ascertained these laws, we can then 

 speak with as much confidence and certainty, 

 of the attraction of electricity which solicits 

 the lightning from the cloud and directs it to 

 the earth, as we can of the attraction of gra- 

 vitation which draws " the stone projected, 

 to the ground." There is no more presump- 

 tion in reasoning upon the one than the other. 

 There is no more presumption in using any 

 available means of protection against a stroke 

 of lightning than in clothingourselves against 

 the piercing blast of winter, or seeking shel- 

 ter from the violence of the passing storm. 

 There is no more presumption m raising a rod 

 over us to avert " the thunder-bolt of Jove," 

 than to step aside from being crushed by the 

 falling bough, which has been torn from the 

 parent trunk by the tempest which He has 

 raised. Neither was it presumption when 



" Led by the phosplior light with daring tread, 



Immortal Franklin sought the tiery bed. 



Where nursed in night, incumbent tempest shroudg 



His embryon thunders in circumfluent clouds ; 



Besieged with iron points their airy cell. 



And pierced the monsters slumb'ring in the s^ell." 



No! — it was the voice of that divine intelli- 

 gence which was implanted in man by the 

 Creator himself, for wise and noble purposes, 

 which 



" Bade his bold arm invade the lowering sky, 

 And seize the tiptoe lightnings e'er they fly." 



All the movements of the electric fluid 

 are in obedience to the same governing laws, 

 whether they are brought into play by the • 

 drawing of a silk stocking — b}^ stroking the 

 back of a cat — by working an electrical ma- 

 chine, or by the more grand and terrific 

 movements of a thunder storm. They occur 

 with the same regularity, whether elicited by 

 the agency of an amber bead — a silk ribband, 

 or the sable mantle of the skies, as it hurls 

 the dread artillery of heaven upon a devoted 

 world. 



The keen perceptions of a Franklin could 

 not fail to perceive the strong similitude 

 between the electricity of his machine, an 

 explosion from which had laid him sprawl- 

 ing on the floor,* and the lightning which 



* The Doctor charged his electrical battery for the 

 piirpofioof experimenting on a eobbler, when by some 

 unlucky oversight he received the wholechiirge himst'lf, 

 which threw him senseless on the floor. A friend who 

 chanced to enter the room, inquired what was the mat- 

 ter—his laconic reply was, that he had been trying to 

 kill a turkey, but he had liked lo have killed a guuse. 



