112 
house, he fastened three needles with some wire; a tin cover being 
soldered to the lower end to keep the rain from the glass tube, 
which was set upright in a block of wood. No electrification ap- 
peared upon this apparatus during “the storm until after the third 
thunder-clap. Then, on applying his knuckle to the edge of the 
cover, Canton felt and heard an electrical spark, the length of 
which was about half an inch; the experiment being repeated four 
or five times in the space of a minute. 
On August 12, Mr. Wilson, of Chelmsford, in Essex, during a 
thunder-storm, about noon, observed several electrical snaps from 
an iron curtain rod, one end of which he had put into the neck of 
a glass phial held in the hand, and to the other end of which he 
had fastened three needles. The sparks were taken from the rod to 
the finger of one hand, the other hand supporting the rod. 
In communicating these experiments of Canton and Wilson to 
the Royal Society,* Watson says: ‘‘ After the communications which 
we have received from several of our correspondents in different 
parts of the continent, acquainting us with the success of their ex- 
periments last summer in endeavoring to extract the electricity from 
the atmosphere during a thunder-storm, in consequence of Mr. 
Franklin’s hypothesis, it may be thought extraordinary that no 
accounts have been yet laid before you of our success here from the 
same experiments.’’ And he then proceeds to state that, ‘‘ though 
several members of the Royal Society, as well as myself, did, upon 
the first advices from /vrance, prepare and set up the necessary ap- 
paratus for this purpose,’’ they were defeated in their expectations 
because of the uncommon coolness and dampness of the air in 
London ; only one thunder-storm, that of July 20, having occurred 
during the season. 
The celebrated kite experiment was made during the summer of 
1752, in Philadelphia. Dr. Franklin, himself, thus describes it: 
** Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arms so long 
as to reach to the four corners of a large, thin silk handkerchief 
when extended ; tie the corners of the handkerchief to the extremi- 
ties of the cross, so you have the body of the kite; which, being 
properly accommodated with a tail, loop and string, will rise in 
the air like those made of paper; but this, being of silk, is fitter 
to bear the wet and wind of a thunder gust without tearing. To 
* Phil. Trans., xlyii, 1752. See also New Experiments and Observations on Electricity, 
p. 109. 
