TOL. XLVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 523 



within a foot of it. Now if there was no wire that went from that iron rod, or 

 from any part of the wire above it, into the earth, it is no great wonder that the 

 professor was killed. I should be extremely glad to be informed, whether the 

 iron rod on his house, at the time the experiment was made, had any comnmni- 

 cation, by means of metal, with the earth. For if it had, there is then more 

 danger attending these experiments than I imagined. It is likewise said in the 

 account, that from the electrical needle, which he observed, there was no danger. 

 I am at a loss to know what that electrical needle was, and should be glad to be 

 informed. I know that a magnetic needle placed on a sharp point on the prime 

 conductor, as soon as the conductor is sufficiently electrified, will move round 

 with so great rapidity, that in the dark the electricity, thrown off from both 

 poles of the needle, will appear like a circle of fire. 



Answers of Dr. Lining to the Queries sent to him. 



Query 1. In what manner, and of what materials, was your kite, and the 

 string by which you flew it, made? and to what height did it rise above the 

 earth ? 



Answer. The kite, which I used, was made in the common way; only, instead 

 of paper, I covered it with a silk, called alamode. The line was a common small 

 hempen one of 3 strands. A silk line, except it had been kept continually wet, 

 would not conduct the electricity; and a wire, besides other inconveniencies, 

 would have been too heavy. I had not any instrument, to take the height 

 of the kite; but believe it was at least 250 feet high. It was flown in the 

 day-time. 



Query 1. — You say also, " All the electrical fluid, or lightning, was drawn 

 from the cloud, and discharged in the air; and a greater degree of serenity suc- 

 ceeded, and no more of the awful noise of thunder, before expected, was heard." 

 Now I should be glad you would inform us, whether the serenity in the air was 

 such, as generally follows, after the clouds in the summer thunder-storms have 

 discharged several loud thunder-claps ; and whether any flashes of lightning ap- 

 peared in the skies, after you had discharged the cloud of its lightning by the 

 kite, as commonly do after a thunder-storm is over in a summer's night ? for if 

 there were no appearance of such flashes, then I think your assertion, that all 

 the electric fluid or, lightning, was drawn from the cloud, stands fully proved ; 

 but if there were such flashes after, I conceive there must have been some of the 

 electrical matter left behind. 



Answer. — During the time of my drawing the lightning from the cloud, and 

 for some little time afterwards, it rained; by which means, the body of the cloud 

 being diminished, a greater degree of serenity necessarily succeeded ; and the 

 quantity of lightning extracted from the cloud, or rather its atmosplicre, proveri 



3x2 



