The Royal Society 205 



Dr. Hales on behalf of the Society recommended the use 

 of ventilators, and these being introduced, the number of 

 deaths in Newgate was reduced from seven or eight a week 

 to about two in a month. 



In March 1769, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's 

 requested the Society's advice as to the most effectual 

 method of fixing electrical conductors on the cathedral to 

 protect it against the dangers of lightning. A committee was 

 appointed, including John Canton and Benjamin Franklin, 

 and reported on the subject; among the recommendations 

 adopted by the authorities was that of using the waterpipes 

 to serve as conductors between the roof and the ground. 

 Three years later a similar request was received from the 

 Government to protect powder magazines, and in 1820 the 

 Society advised the Admiralty on a system of lightning 

 conductors for use on ships which had been proposed by 

 Sir Snow Harris. In May 1824 the Council of the Society 

 appointed a Committee " for the improvement of glass for 

 optical purposes." Valuable results were obtained with glasses 

 prepared under the direction of Faraday, and examined by 

 John Dollond and Sir John Herschel. Unfortunately, owing 

 to the important electrical experiments which then engaged 

 the attention of Faraday, the Committee did not proceed 

 with the further proposal to organize the manufacture of 

 optical glass for general sale. 



The indefatigable first curator of the Society had, a 

 few years after its foundation, formed the nucleus of a 

 collection of " natural rarities," and this gradually grew 

 into an important collection or " repository," enriched by 

 contributions from distant countries. Ultimately, the greater 

 part of it was handed to the British Museum, but the follow- 

 ing letter, addressed by three Fellows of the Society to the 

 Hudson Bay Company in 1777, shows that the specimens 

 presented were examined with a view to their general 

 utility : 



" Having endeavoured to find out whether some of 

 the natural productions which you have been so obliging 

 as to present to the Royal Society may not furnish 

 materials for our manufactures, we take the liberty of 

 stating to you the result of our enquiry. We have put some 



