112 
Annual Repoet of the 
the ridges above, no marks are to be seen, and I never have known 
in 20 years that the high land has been touched, while on the low 
land almost every shower, it is struck. 
Professor Sterling. The low land is moist and the tall trees at¬ 
tract the electricity. If the conducting material is the same, the 
high ground is the most prominent, but if the hill is dry and the 
low land is moist and covered with tall trees, that changes the con¬ 
ditions entirely. I think it is owing to the fact that the induction 
takes place in the trees more on account of the moist soil in which 
they grow, than upon the hill. I am sorry to hear the expression 
that lightning-rods are played out. I must acknowledge that rods 
as they are ordinarily put up are, or ought to be played out, but at 
the same time I think the principles that I have advanced in this 
paper can be asserted, and that a building can be protected. And I 
think it will pay to go to the expense of the rod, put up in the 
proper way on a building. 
Mr. Stilson. I wish to ask the Professor this question. In the 
case of the discharge, and to save human life where a person may 
be struck, what are the remedies always at hand, to be used tem¬ 
porarily by other persons present? 
Professor Sterling. I don’t feel hardly competent to answer 
that question. I have not looked at it specially; I am not posted: 
know the common remedies are cold >vater, etc., but I cannot speak 
with authority on that subject. 
Mr. Cheever, of Rock county. There is no dwelling house in 
Wisconsin where there is not always a moist spot about it; there is 
always a place where the slops of the kitchen are deposited, and 
that is always moist. 
Mr. Whiting, of Fox Lake. 1 would enquire if there is any 
such form in existence that can be cheaply procured. I am aware 
that a tubular form can be procured in the form of gas pipe at an 
expense that far exceeds the ordinary rods. The Professor said it 
was also important that they .should be intimately connected, and 
that the surface should be large. I would like to ask if a tube of 
sheet iron could be made to answer the purpose. Would it answer 
to make a tubular rod of sheet iron, and have it connected by 
clinching in the ordinary way? Would the connection be suffi¬ 
ciently close ? And then again, would it be necessary that the rod 
