"Robert F. Young - The Second Philadelphia Experiment" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

In our own story, KING'S EVIL (F&SF, Oct. 1956), mention was made of of the first
"Philadelphia experiment"—of which every school-child knows—kites, keys, thunder and
lightning. Up till now, however, that this experiment had not been the last, efcap'd the publick
Knowledge. We will say no more, but allow the reader to read on . . . perhaps rueful and regretful
that the subject of the knowledge was ever discovered at all.

The Second Philadelphia Experiment

Robert F. Young
(NOTE: WITH THE EXCEPTION of the opening paragraph, which is included to indicate the
probable chronological point in the Autobiography at which the pages dealing with the second
Philadelphia experiment originally occurred, the following document has never before been
published. Why, after removing the pages from the rest of, his manuscript, Dr. Franklin did not
burn them in keeping with his intention, is anybody's guess, and how they could have gone
undiscovered for so many years is a mystery which will probably never be resolved. In any event,
the account of the second Philadelphia experiment has finally come to light, happily providing us
with an instance of the Greco-Overby Audio-Temporal Throwback Principle in action—an
instance that predates the discovery of the principle by over three hundred years.)

What gave my book * (* A pamphlet on the sameness of lightning and electricity, published in
England circa 1752.) the more sudden and general celebrity was the success of one of its proposed
experiments, made by Messrs. Dalibard and De Lor at Marly, for drawing lightning from the clouds. This
engag'd the public attention every where. M. de Lor, who had an apparatus for experimental philosophy,
and lectur'd in that branch of science, undertook to repeat what he called the Philadelphia Experiments;
and, after they were performed before the king and court, all the curious of Paris flocked to see them. I
will not swell this narrative with an account of that capital experiment, nor of the infinite pleasure I
receiv'd in the success of a similar one I made soon after with a kite at Philadelphia, as both are to be
found in the histories of electricity.
I would like, however, to make some mention of a second experiment which I conduct'd not long
after that time in the privacy of my home and which result'd in a most singular phenomenon. In
anticipation of the noble uses to which electricity will some day be put, I had for some time been seeking
to improve upon the Leyden jar in the hope of applying my discovery toward some practical purpose,
and to this end I had devis'd a sort of super-jar from a large and thick-walled demijohn, which I had
previously stripp'd of its wicker casing. The intervening years have dimm'd my memory insofar as the
exact arrangement of the apparatus which I then assembl'd is concern'd, but I do recall that in addition to
the Leyden jar it consist'd among other things of a glass lamp chimney, a quartz paperweight, a brass
doorkey, a kite, a tuning fork, an iron wille, and two pewter plates. I had sent the kite and key aloft
earlier in the evening, having first ascertain'd that there was a good likelihood of a thunderstorm, and I
purpos'd to convert the electrical fluid which would drench the immediate area once the key procur'd
lightning from the clouds, into light.
The apparatus assembl'd to my satisfaction, I sat down before my work table to wait. Distant
rumblings of thunder sound'd, and occasionally the darkness beyond the windows leap'd into brief and
blinding brightness. Not wishing to jeopardize the safety of any of the members of my family, I had
arrang'd matters so that none of them would be present during the experiment, and hence I had the entire
house to myself.
The rumbling grew in volume, and the brightnesses increas'd both in frequency and in intensity. I had
to proceed on the assumption that the kite was still aloft, since were I to leave the apparatus the moment
for which I eagerly wait'd might come and go during my absence, leaving me no more enlighten'd than I
had been before. The thought that I might be playing with forces the true nature of which I could not even
guess at cross'd my mind, but I did not let it dissuade me from my purpose, having come to the