BLUNTS AND POINTS 49 



seven others, of whom W. Watson, the father, was 

 one. In 1762, Dr. Watson in a letter to the First Lord 

 of the Admiralty l recommended that the navy should 

 be supplied with lightning-conductors of a pattern 

 he devised. The ships were furnished with them, 

 but they were not a success, and sixty years elapsed 

 before conductors of a suitable construction were 

 fastened to the masts. Long before then the danger 

 of powder magazines on land from lightning had 

 been recognised and provided for, but not without 

 something like civil war among the Fellows of the 

 Royal Society. A committee, of which Franklin and 

 Dr. Watson were members, reported strongly in favour 

 of pointed conductors for the powder magazines at 

 Purneet. One member not only dissented, but formed 

 a party, who wrote and acted in favour of blunt and 

 against pointed conductors. Again a committee was 

 appointed, of which Dr. Watson was a member, to 

 put the matter to the test of experiment. Their 

 conclusion was the same as before. Unfortunately, 

 this was in 1777, at the height of the war with the 

 American colonies. Party politics were at once 

 dragged in to decide a purely scientific question. 

 Franklin was in favour of the lightning-rods ending 

 in points. Philadelphia also had been provided with 

 them, and "not a single instance" of mischief from 

 the severe thunderstorms experienced in that city 

 had happened. That was enough with foolish people 

 to condemn points and favour blunts. The Koyal 

 Society decided for points; all who voted on that 

 side were counted friends of the American rebels, as 

 the phrase then went. King George in. took the side 



1 Lord Anson (Phil. Trans., Dec. 16, 1762). 

 4 



