He is also confident that in
warm weather he can shake all the pewters upon his shelf, and fully
expects, when his thermometer is at sixty-two degrees and a half, to
be able to sour all the small beer in his cellar, and to break his
largest pier-glass. This paper in "The World," apart from its humorous
intention, is curious as a record of early dabblings in electrical
experiments. It may be mentioned that in one of Franklin's letters,
written apparently before the year 1750, the points of resemblance
between lightning and the spark obtained by friction from an
electrical apparatus are distinctly stated. It is but some thirty-five
years ago that Andrew Crosse, the famous amateur electrician, was
asked by an elderly gentleman, who came to witness his experiments
with two enormous Leyden jars charged by means of wires stretched for
miles among the forest trees near Taunton: "Mr. Crosse, don't you
think it is rather impious to bottle the lightning?"
"Let me answer your question by asking another," said Crosse,
laughing. "Don't you think it might be considered rather impious to
bottle the rain-water?"
Further, it may be remembered that curious reference to this part of
our subject is made by "the gentleman in the small clothes" who lived
next door to Mrs.
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