416 Mr. Snow Harris on the Electrical Dischay^ge 



undercharged surface (according to Franklin's hypothesis) 

 will be always attended by a whizzing noise. 



50. The protection which continuous conductors would af- 

 ford if well and efficiently applied to ships is, I think, apparent 

 in all the preceding cases, and when we consider that the masts 

 are themselves conductors of electricity, and that by their 

 position alone they determine the course of the discharge 

 into the body of the hull, it becomes the more requisite to affix 

 to them good conductors, which quickly disperse and reduce 

 the electrical action to a state of quiescence. 



We have I think fair, evidence of this in the trials hitherto 

 made with the continuous fixed conductors applied to certain 

 ships of the British navy. 



51. These ships have been exposed more or less in all points 

 of the world. Lightning has not fallen upon them oftener 

 than other vessels not so fitted ; and 'when it has done so no 

 damage has arisen in any way, or has any destructive lateral 

 effect, such as that contended for by Mr. Sturgeon, taken place. 

 His comparison, therefore, of the effi^cts of lightning on the 

 Rodney with the " probable effects " (as he terms it) on my 

 conductors, although he can find no instance of such probable 

 effects, is therefore purely hypothetical. If Mr. Sturgeon has 

 no good authenticated fact to oppose to the mass of evidence 

 I have adduced, of what avail is any hypothetical or loose 

 opinion he may find it convenient to advance? 



52. Before concluding this communication, I cannot re- 

 frain from pointing out the apparent inconsistencies of his 

 views on this point. Having described my conductors as 

 dangerous and objectionable in every possible way, as cal- 

 culated to induce oblique flashes of lightning to strike the 

 ship to the destruction of the sailors' lives, the sails, rigging, 

 &c. &c., he says, sect. 221, on discovering that he could not 

 conveniently apply his own rods above the top-mast head, 

 "as hoivever every chance of danger to the men and every- 

 species of damage to the vessel ought strictly to be avoided, it 

 still appears desirable to furnish the top-gallant rigging with 

 conductors ; and perhaps those which would give the least 

 trouble to the men, would be strips oi' copper let into grooves 

 in the masts accordijig to the plan proposed by Mr. Harris." 

 Now, 1 think, it must be clear to any one, that if my system 

 be so objectionable as he would have it believed, on the 

 grounds above stated, it must be equally objectionable on the 

 top-gallant masts; the lives of the sailors are just as much 

 exposed there as at any other point, perhaps more so. Mr. 

 Sturgeon himself admits that two men were killed there in 



