NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. CCXXVII-APRIL, 1869.-VOL. XXXVIII. THE FREAKS OF LIGHTNING. ELECTRIC CORUSCATIONS AT SEA. the cause of the phenomena was a subtle fluid substance: but there was a fierce war waged between two great parties on the question whether this substance was single or dual in its character; that is, whether there were two fluids or only one. This dispute was finally settled, or rather was made to melt away and disappear, by the discovery of a truth now universally acknowledged, that there is no fluid at all in the case. How many of the fierce and angry disputes that are now raging among mankind will disappear in a way analogous to this as soon as the human mind has advanced far enough to see a little more clearly the true state of the case in respect to the subject of discussion! The universal opinion among philosophers at the present day is, that electricity is a subtle motion of the elementary particles of bodies. What theory this opinion will give place to in the next generation it is impossible to say. While the opinions of the philosophers in respect to the essential nature of this principle are so uncertain and so unsatisfactory, the notions floating in the popular mind in respect to the most obvious laws of its action are utter HE real nature of the mysterious agency | ly confused, not to say absurd. This is shown which we call electricity is very little un- by the tendency so prevalent among persons derstood even by the wisest philosophers. Ev- well informed on most subjects to attribute the ery succeeding generation seems to have a new movements of Planchette to electricity; when theory on the subject. Thirty years ago the the fact is, that of the numerous and well-known scientific world were agreed in believing that phenomena manifested by this principle there Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by Harper and Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. VOL. XXXVIII.-No. 227.-37 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. are none that bear the slightest analogy, in re- | determined, by the contact of the tips of the spect to the conditions under which they arise, fingers with the board. with those exhibited in the gyrations of this knowledged electrical action, as verified experilittle practical joker. As if any real and acIt is curious to observe the confusion of ideas without an equivalent expenditure, either of submentally by scientific men, could be produced which those who attribute the motions of Plan- stance or of force. They tell you finally, in anchette to electricity betray in their attempts to swer to these reasonings, that the electricity explain the operation. At one time they will which acts in Planchette is governed by differsay that the oracle can give no response, except-ent laws and manifests different properties from ing to record what is already in the mind of one of the operators: as if electricity could take cognizance of what is passing in the human mind! Then in a few minutes they will attempt to confound the skeptic by relating a well-authenticated case of an answer revealing an occurrence taking place at the time in another town, an occurrence of which none of those present could by any possibility have known any thing: as if the electric condition of a substance in one place could be affected by simple occurrences in the affairs of life many miles away! They will say sometimes that the two operators must be of different sexes: as if there was any known property of electricity that could distinguish between the sexes; and that the electricity is excited, and the flow of it THE PHILOSOPHER ON THE PYRAMID. that known to chemists and philosophers; without considering that where a new principle manifests not a single one of the properties of the old, nor any property in the least degree analogous to them, but on the contrary exhibits, according to their ideas of it, another and new set of properties and modes of action entirely diverse, there can be no sense or meaning in pretending to give it the same name. mind an idea that the name "Electricity," The truth is, that there runs in the popular sometimes "Magnetism," is to be given to the latent cause of any thing mysterious and unaccountable, even if the mystery and unaccountableness exist only in their imaginations. nomena really result from this principle, are The phenomena of electricity, when any phe strongly marked and very definite in their character, either by being palpable to the senses or producing marked and special effects. Some of these, as the flash of lightning and the glow and coruscation of the northern aurora, have been continually manifested in every age in the view of all mankind. There is a second class of these phenomena which are more seldom manifested, and yet which have been occasionally seen and noted in every age. Among these are the appearance of bright stars, or luminous pencils of light, which are often to be observed on prominent and elevated points in a highly excited electrical condition of the atmosphere. One of the earliest and fullest accounts that we have of this phenomenon in modern times represents it as observed at sea, one wild night in the Mediterranean, by Admiral Forbin, a distinguished naval officer of the French, in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The night was dark and tempestuous. Flashes of lightning were seen, and thunder was heard resounding from various quarters of men to take off the iron point which formed the termination of one of the illumined points; but the bright pencil of light continued to beam from the wood, as it had done before from the iron. the heavens. All at once the Admiral, who was | ship should be set on fire, and he sent up his watching anxiously for the safety of his vessel, perceived a bright light blazing, as it were, from the pinnacle of the main-mast; and soon afterward a number of similar coruscations were seen arising from the tops of the other masts, from the ends of the yards, and from many other projecting points along the spars and rigging. It seems that the Admiral was alarmed lest his The engraving at the head of this article represents this phenomenon as observed in an iron vessel in the English Channel in the year THE MELTED BRACELET. natural appearances, and they insisted on returning at once to the ground. A great many accounts have come down to us from ancient times of similar appearances observed, under various circumstances, in those early days. Sometimes large bodies of soldiers found the points of their spears tipped with fire, as they marched at night on some secret expedition, or advanced to the field of battle in the morning before day. In some cases the effect of the apparition was very disastrous, by exciting the superstitious fears of the soldiers, and leading them to consider the phenomenon as a warning to them from Heaven to proceed no farther in their undertaking; while at other times it was adroitly turned by the commander into an omen of success, and made the means of greatly encouraging the men. In all these cases of luminous emanations making their appearance on elevated or projecting points the effect is supposed to be due to a gradual and gentle flow, as it were, of the electric principle from or to the points. It is only in such cases that the heat which is developed is small. In other cases, when the electricity accumulates in large with great concentration of power, as it often does in the clouds, in connection in some way with the condensation of the moisture by which the clouds are formed, it darts to the earth with an intensity of heat sufficient to light up at once the fiercest conflagrations. 1866. The captain in this case was not alarmed, | quantities, or, perhaps more properly speaking, it seems, for the safety of his vessel, but he had the curiosity to examine the phenomenon a little more closely; and so he climbed out upon the bowsprit, and cautiously putting his hand to the luminous pencil, found that it gave no sensation of heat. It proved to be little more than a phantom after all. There is an account of a German philosopher who was visiting the pyramids of Egypt, and having ascended to the summit of the Pyramid of Gizeh, he was astonished to observe that the ends of his fingers, when he raised them into the air, became invested with a luminous halo. He also observed that a gourd mounted in metal, which one of his Arab guides carried, gave out from a metallic button which was attached to the cover scintillations of light, and even sparks, whenever he approached his finger toward it. The guides were thrown into consternation at observing these, to them, super Electricity is often, if not always, developed by the condensation of aqueous vapors. When small clouds are formed in a summer's sky, the amount thus developed is too small to produce any visible effects; and when the whole sky becomes gradually filled, as in slow-gathering and widely-extended storms, the development of electricity, though perhaps vast in amount, is so slow in its progress that the power is dissipated as fast as it is produced, so as to prevent any accumulation. But when clouds form with great rapidity, as they often do on a summer afternoon when the weather has been very warm for many days, so as to raise the quan tity of water held in solution by the air to a maximum, then the electric element or agency, whatever its nature may be, is developed with extraordinary rapidity and in enormous amounts, and the irruption of the power from one cloud to another, or from a cloud to the earth, constitutes the lightning, which is often so intense and so vivid at such times. Each discharge is accompanied by a sharp and instantaneous detonation, the echoes and reverberations of which from the different masses of cloud form the rolling thunder which follows every flash. Water is often condensed in the same manner, with great rapidity and in vast quantities, from the immense volumes of invisible vapor thrown up from a volcano in time of eruption. The clouds thus formed emit flashes of lightning precisely like those formed by the ordinary evening condensations from the summer air. Electric discharges of this nature always develop a very intense heat in traversing any substance or medium which offers any resistance to their passage. The calorific effect which such discharges produce can be shown, on a moderate scale, by the apparatus of the electrician in the lecture-room, where, by means of it, metals can be fused and dissipated, and combustible substances can be set on fire. The effects are infinitely more powerful, of course, in the case of natural discharges from the clouds. Not only are buildings set on fire, but metals are melted when portions of metal come in their course which have not conductive capacity enough to afford free transmission for them. A story is related in some of the books, of a young lady in full dress at an evening party, who, when a heavy cloud was passing, went to the window and put out her hand to ascertain whether rain was falling, when the lightning, striking the house, came down by the window, and taking her golden bracelet in its track, melted it and threw it off her arm. While not prepared to declare that such an incident as this is impossible, we should be very unwilling to vouch for the truth of the story, but prefer ARAGO'S PARAGRÊLES. leaving each reader to judge of its probability or improbability for himself. These sudden and violent discharges of large accumulations of the electric agency or force, resulting usually from the rapid condensation of vapors in the air, are far more frequent, or rather are far more frequently observed by mankind, than those faint and gentle illuminations which arise from the gradual flow of the electric force to or from projecting points. For certain reasons a projecting point tends to draw off the electric force quietly, or convey it away as fast as it is developed, and so to prevent any great accumulation. But the light which is emitted in such cases is of so mild a character that, except under peculiar circumstances, it is seldom observed. The light is too faint to be seen in the midst of other lights; and when it is dark there is seldom any observer at hand. It is probable that if the eye of an observer could be |