62 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, [aNNO 1776. 



again to appear, but now, on trial, was found to be negative ; so that it was 

 plain, that its stopping was no more than a change from positive to negative, 

 which was evidently occasioned by the approach of the cloud ; part of wiiich by 

 this time had reached the zenith of the kite, and the rain also had begun to fall 

 in large drops. The cloud came further on, the rain increased, and the elec- 

 tricity keeping pace with it, the electrometer soon arrived to 15". Seeing now 

 that the electricity was pretty strong, Mr. C. took again the 2 coated phials, and 

 began again to charge them, and to give shocks to several by-standers ; but the 

 phials were not charged above 3 or 4 times, before he perceived that the elec- 

 trometer was arrived to 33", and was still increasing. The shocks now being 

 very smart, he desisted from charging the phials any longer ; and considering 

 the rapid advances of the electrometer, thought to take off the insulation of the 

 string, in case that, if the electricity should increase further, it might be 

 silently conducted to the earth, without causing any bad accident by being 

 accumulated in the insulated string. To effect this, as Mr. C. had no proper 

 apparatus at hand, he thought to take away the silk lace, and fasten the string 

 itself to the chair; accordingly he disengaged the wire tliat connected with the 

 electrometer, laid hold of the string, untied it from the silk lace, and fastened 

 it to the chair. But while he effected this, which took up less than half a 

 minute, he received about 12 or 15 very hard shocks, which he felt all along his 

 arms, his breast and legs, shaking him in such a manner, that he had hardly 

 power enough to effect his purpose, and to warn the people in the room to keep 

 their distance. As soon as he took his hand off' of the string, the electrical 

 fluid, in consequence ot the chair being a bad conductor, began to snap be- 

 tween the string and the shutter of the window, which was the nearest body to 

 it. The snappings, which were audible at a good distance out of the room, 

 seemed at first isochronous with the shock he had received ; but in about a mi- 

 nute's time they became more frequent, so that the people of the house com- 

 pared their sound to the rattling noise of a jack going when the fly is off. The 

 cloud was now just over the kite ; it was l)lack and pretty well defined, of almost 

 a circular form, its diameter appearing to be about 40''. The rain was copious, 

 but not remarkably heavy. As the cloud was going off", the electrical snappings 

 began to weaken, and in a short time became inaudible. Mr. C. then went near 

 the string, and finding the electricity weak, but still negative, he insulated it 

 again, thinking to keep the kite up some time longer ; but as another larger and 

 denser cloud was approaching apace towards the zenith, and he had then no 

 proper apparatus to prevent bad accidents, he resolved to pull the kite in. Ac- 

 cordingly a gentleman, wlio was by, began pulling it in, while Mr. C. was 

 winding up the string. The other cloud was now very nearly over the kite; and 

 the gentleman who was pulling in the string said that he had received I or 2 



