Lightning Conductors. F.C.S. Richard Anderson
as he believed, already his own residence from being struck by lightning, and of having been found, likewise, universally efficacious in the same manner in ‘the English colonies of North America.’ The citizens of Geneva, much given to reasoning, earnestly read and studied the ‘manifesto’ of Professor de Saussure, and the consequence was, not only that he was spared further attacks and reproaches, but that there arose soon over the churches and houses of the town some hundreds of lightning conductors.
In Italy the progress in the erection of conductors was accompanied by some very curious incidents. The priests here, as in other Roman Catholic countries, actively opposed their introduction, and to do so more effectively, they craftily attached to them a stinging name, calling them ‘heretical rods.’ As a consequence, the mob fiercely opposed the putting-up of any such accursed pieces of metal, and whenever the attempt was made to fasten them to houses, it met with forcible opposition. However, some of the highly accomplished professors of the universities of Italy, enthusiastic in their reception of Franklin’s discovery, proved themselves victorious over both priests and mob. They got the Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany—subsequently German Emperor, under the title of Leopold I.—a man of high scientific acquirements, to place lightning conductors over his own palace, as well as over all the powder magazines in his dominions. Here the mob and priest rule ceased, and only silent curses could be levelled against the ‘heretical rods.’ Another still more important step in advance was made by the influence of the Abbé Giuseppe Toaldo, a warm admirer of Franklin, in correspondence with him, and author of various scientific works, among them one on lightning conductors. He had some influence with the ecclesiastical authorities at Siena, in Tuscany, and brought it to bear upon them by getting them to consent to make trial, in a manner so as not to excite public attention, of one of the ‘heretical rods,’ over the cathedral. This was only permitted on account of the extreme danger in which the edifice stood, having been struck several times by lightning, and greatly damaged. Placed on the summit of the highest of the three hills on which stands the ancient city of Siena, the cathedral was opposed to the dangers brought in the womb of every passing thunderstorm, and they were all the greater as the building, erected by Pisano in the thirteenth century, was deemed to be priceless, being one of the most magnificent structures of the kind in Italy, of red and white marble, filled with the choicest specimens of art, statues, pictures, gold and jewelry. It seemed well worth risking a little heresy to guard such treasures.
Very silently, in the dark of night, the priests of the Siena cathedral, directed by Abbé Toaldo, laid their iron rods along the walls of the building, but inside, planting them deep into the ground, and with the pointed summit only a few feet above the highest point of the steeple, so as to be scarcely perceptible from below by the naked eye. Still the secret of what had been done could not be entirely kept from the multitude. Some of the workmen, engaged in the operation of fixing the iron rods to the inner walls and steeple of the cathedral, whispered about what they had been doing, trembling at the evil consequences of their work, notwithstanding having received full absolution from their employers. Murmurs were now heard everywhere, and there were signs of a popular outbreak, just when one of the many thunderstorms regularly visiting the mountain city crept over it on April 18, 1777. Portentously the black clouds laid themselves thicker and thicker over the high cathedral, till all the people of Siena crept forth from their houses, awaiting in breathless expectation the terrors to come. Then the dark masses discharged their fiery streams; flash followed flash, till one, a long hissing tongue of flame, fell down upon the cathedral steeple, distinctly visible to thousands of beholders. A few minutes after, a ray of sunshine pierced the dark clouds, and to the bewildering astonishment of the masses, the cathedral was standing there absolutely unhurt. As if to exhibit its wonderful power, the gilded point of the lightning conductor stood out brilliantly in the sun, pointing in radiant silence up to heaven. ‘Maraviglia, maraviglia!’ cried people and priests in chorus. High mass was held forthwith in the wonderfully preserved cathedral, and on the same day the magistrates of Siena went into the town hall and had a record made in the book containing the annals of the city, to make known to all posterity that their noble cathedral had just been preserved from destruction by the astounding influence of an ‘heretical rod.’ Though not in the least intended to be sarcastic, the irony could not have been more complete.
There was a most remarkable historical concurrence between the gradual introduction of lightning conductors into Europe and that of the art of vaccination. Both the great scientific discoveries had the same end in view for the benefit of mankind, the one teaching the art of drawing the dangerous electric fire of the clouds harmlessly into the earth, and the other that of extracting the poisonous seed of disease from the human body. Both were brought forward with the noblest intentions; and both encountered the most violent opposition from religious fanatics, the same in substance, as interfering with the decrees of Providence, and the ordained wrath of heaven. Both triumphed in the end, and almost exactly at the same time, though the battle of the great medical discovery lasted longer, and was more fiercely fought than that of Franklin’s invention. To make the analogy between the progress of lightning conductors and of vaccination complete, it so happened that in at least one conspicuous instance the same man was an important agent in forwarding the success of both discoveries. The person in question was Dr. Johan Ingenhousz, a native of Breda, in the Netherlands, born in 1730. A man of great natural gifts, he came to England when about thirty years of age, practising as a physician, and attending specially to the so-called Suttonian method of inoculation against the small-pox, then an entirely new branch of medical science. At the same time he eagerly embarked in electrical experiments, got into correspondence with Benjamin Franklin, and, having made many friends, was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1769. Recommended to the king, Dr. Ingenhousz became a favourite at court, owing chiefly to his perfect knowledge of German, which resulted in his being recommended to a highly profitable as well as distinguished mission. The famous Imperial lady, the Elizabeth of her age, Maria Theresa of Austria, had read of the benefits of vaccination, then chiefly known in England, and wishing to confer them on her own family and friends, she asked King George the Third to recommend to her some able physician, who could come to Vienna for the purpose. His Majesty at once named Dr. Johan Ingenhousz, a recommendation warmly supported by the President of the Royal Society, Sir John Pringle, who had taken an affection for the young Dutch physician on account of his electrical researches, which had resulted in the invention of a novel apparatus, subsequently known as the plate electrical machine.
Dr. Ingenhousz set out for Vienna in 1772, was received with marked honours by the great Empress, and having done his work, and wishing to visit Italy, received an autograph letter of Maria Theresa to her son, Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany. At the court of this enlightened prince, Dr. Ingenhousz resided for some time, practising vaccination, but also engaged in electrical experiments, which created the greatest interest. It was partly by his advice that the Grand Duke consented, in the teeth of desperate priestly opposition, to erect one of Franklin’s lightning conductors over his own palace, and to set them up likewise for the protection of all the powder magazines in Tuscany. This done, Dr. Ingenhousz went forward to Padua, invited by some of the professors of the university, and by the famous senator of Venice, Angelo Querini, who had a magnificent palace in the neighbourhood of the city. In this palace, bearing the name of Altichiera, the ‘English doctor,’ as he was called, was made to reside, practising vaccination, the same as at the court of Florence, but following as a favourite occupation the setting-up of ‘heretical rods.’ Altichiera itself had the first erected in May 1774, and soon after Dr. Ingenhousz had the satisfaction of planting another over the astronomical observatory of the university of Padua, in the presence of an enormous crowd of students who lustily applauded, and of an angry multitude, kept in the background less by persuasion than the strong arms of the young men. As at Siena, so at Padua, the mob became pacified not long after by seeing the lightning fall upon the observatory, much exposed by its situation, and which had often been struck before, without doing the least damage. From Padua, Dr. Ingenhousz went to Venice, in company of his friend and patron, Senator Angelo Querini. Here his efforts to spread the knowledge of lightning conductors, together with vaccination, had the best results. The church of St. Mark and other public buildings were surmounted before long by the awe-striking ‘heretical rods,’ and on May 9, 1778, the Senate of Venice issued a decree ordering the erection of lightning conductors throughout the republic. It was the first recognition of the value of conductors by any government