Now sink in sorrow with a tolling bell;
Such happy arts attention can command,
When fancy flags and sense is at a stand.
The notion of storing lightning in a bottle for use when required
seems to have been frequently reverted to by the authors of the last
century as a means of entertaining the public. Thus a writer in "The
World," in 1754, makes no doubt "of being able to bring thunder and
lightning to market at a much cheaper price than common gunpowder,"
and describes a friend who has applied himself wholly to electrical
experiments, and discovered that "the most effectual and easy method
of making this commodity is by grinding a certain quantity of air
between a glass ball and a bag of sand, and when you have ground it
into fire your lightning is made, and then you may either bottle it
up, or put it into casks properly seasoned for that purpose, and send
it to market." The inventor, however, confesses that what he has
hitherto made is not of a sufficient degree of strength to answer all
the purposes of natural lightning; but he is confident that he will
soon be able to effect this, and has, indeed, already so far perfected
his experiments that, in the presence of several of his neighbours, he
has succeeded in producing a clap of thunder which blew out a candle,
accompanied by a flash of lightning which made an impression upon a
pat of butter standing upon the table.
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