CH. xxix. FRANKLIN'S KITE. 257 



succeeded ; he put his finger to the key and drew out a 

 strong bright spark, and before long he had a rapid current 

 of electricity passing from the key to his finger. The wise 

 men of London might now laugh if they pleased, for the dis- 

 covery was made; he had drawn lightning from the sky, and 

 proved that it was electricity ! Soon after this he made an 

 apparatus in his own house for collecting electricity from the 

 clouds, which rang a peal of bells when it was sufficiently 

 charged for him to make experiments with it. He also 

 invented lightning conductors, or iron rods placed near 

 high buildings, to act as constant conductors between the 

 clouds and the earth, and so prevent those sudden dis- 

 charges called lightning. 



Franklin had now earned a great name ; he was made a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society, and many honours were paid 

 to him by all the countries of Europe. He made many 

 other very valuable experiments, and was besides an active 

 citizen and politician. He died in 1790, in his eighty-fifth 

 year, after a life of hard labour and toil, for which, however, 

 he was well repaid by success. 



Discovery of Animal Electricity by Galvani, and of 

 Chemical or Voltaic Electricity by Volta, 1789-1800. 

 Only a few months before Franklin died, a new fact had 

 been discovered about electricity, which would have given 

 the old man great delight if he could have lived to see the 

 results. This discovery was made by Galvani, Professor of 

 Anatomy at Bologna, or perhaps we ought to say by Madame 

 Galvani, for it was her observation which first led her hus- 

 band to study the subject. 



Aloysius Galvani was born at Bologna in 1737, and we 

 know little of his early life except that, instead of becom- 

 ing a monk as he first intended, he married a professor's 

 daughter, and became the Lecturer on Anatomy in the 

 University of Bologna. He had in his house an electrical 



