288  Papers  relative  to  an  Accident 
nearer  before  any  light  could  be  perceived  at  all ; and 
even  then  it  was  fo  faint  and  inconfiderable  in  its  diame- 
ter (rather  lefs  than  one  tenth  of  an  inch)  compared  with 
the  other  light  produced  by  the  influence  of  the  point, 
that  it  manifeftly  confirmed  the  truth  of  the  lait  obfer- 
vation. 
Thefe  facts  being  in  my  opinion  fo  clear  and  fatisfac- 
tory  in  regard  to  the  great  object  we  have  had  in  view, 
I think  that  any  farther  experiments  refpeCting  the  na- 
ture and  ufe  of  conductors  are  unneceffary.  I fhall 
therefore  proceed  to  make  fome  general  deductions  from 
what  has  been  already  related. 
It  feems  to  be  clear,  that  in  all  experiments  made  with 
pointed  and  rounded  conductors  (provided  the  circum- 
ftances  be  the  fame  in  both)  the  rounded  ones  are  by  far 
the  fafer  of  the  two,  whether  the  lightning  proceed 
from  one  or  more  clouds ; that  thofe  are  ftill  more  fafe, 
which  (inftead  of  being,  as  Dr.  franklin  recommends, 
ten  feet  high)  are  very  little,  if  at  all,  above  the  higheft 
part  of  the  building  itfelf ; and  that  this  fafety  arifes  from 
the  greater  refiltance  exerted  at  the  larger  furface. 
The  luminous  appearance  at  the  end  of  the  brafs  ball, 
occafioned  by  the  point  in  the  thirty-fourth  experiment, 
manifeftly  fhewed  that  there  was  an  accumulation  of  the 
fluid  within  that  part  of  the  ball,  in  confequence  of  fome 
refiftance: 
