Paragreles, or Hail-Protectors. 161 



dally attended to, because, being nearer the source of the 

 storm cloud, they might gradually disarm it on its approach. 



It may be well now to give a specimen of the logic employed 

 by the antagonists to the paragreles : — " Quel efFet peut-on 

 attendre de pointes de laiton d'une ligne epaisseur a l'extre- 

 mite de perches de 35 a 40 pieds, tandis que la barre de fer 

 3a plus forte et la mieux armee n'agit que dans un rayon de 

 50 pieds environ ? Les forets arretent les nuages et soutient 

 le fluide electrique avec plus force, et en plus grande quantite, 

 que ne pourraient le faire des milliers de pointes de laiton. 

 Paragreles, au contraire, doivent empecher le fluide de s'ac- 

 cumuler dans les nuages ! !" In reply to the preceding mys- 

 tical sophisms, it may be sufficient to say : 1. That an imperfect 

 conductor, such as a bar of rusty iron, may be thick enough, 

 and infinitely inferior to a slender wire, formed of a perfect 

 conducting material, such as brass or copper. I have repeat- 

 edly passed an electric dicharge through my own person, by 

 means of a fine cambric needle, that would have killed a sheep, 

 and without the slightest electric effect. Besides all this, com- 

 mon iron conductors, as generally constructed, are worse than 

 useless ; yet it is granted by the writer that such a conductor 

 is sufficient in a radius of fifty feet : but the paragreles are 

 planted much nearer together, and are each armed with supe- 

 rior conductors. 2. In the woods of America, the thunders 

 are arrested by the spiny apices of the pines, and there dis- 

 charge their explosive fires, while in the clear and cultivated 

 lands it thunders but rarely, and lightnings are seldom de- 

 structive. In this case the thunders are arrested by a series 

 of infinitely multiplied conductors of the most imperfect 

 kind, and the " gnarled and unwedgeable oak " is often 

 riven. Perfect conductors, numerous and extended, change 

 the electric character of the cloud even on its approach, and 

 while yet distant, and thus modify the coming storm ; and 

 these, too, are as opposed in their relations as the ball and 

 point in the discharge of accumulated artificial electricity. I 

 might say much more, but it is enough. Ignorance will always 

 prate as long as she can, and, having too frequently the majority 

 on her side, the power of numbers leads captive for a while ; 

 at length the blaze of truth becomes too brilliant for Ignorance 

 to withstand and combat, while Science stamps her statements 

 with the seal of powerful and resistless authority. 



The practical tendency of this communication is to recom- 

 mend the employment of paragreles in Great Britain. I mean 

 to make the experiment myself. Hail storms often do tremen- 

 dous mischief even in these happier climes. In 1 824, during my 



Vol. III. — No. 10. m 



