Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-04-11
WHAT IS THE LIGHTNING.

Then, though the sky should fall,
sun. moon, and stars. and all,
, Heaven would show through.
Il Alice Cary.
WHAT Is THE LIGHTNING.
| Who has not heard of the seven wise
men of Greece" The name of one of them
was Thales. One of the wonderful things
he did was to rub a piece of amber briskly,
and in that way gave it the power of pull
ing toward itself all light bodies, like balls
of pith or bits of wood, that might happen
! to be near it. More than two thousand
years ago he did this, and it was very
| wonderful thing at that time, because no
one had ever done anything of the kind
before. 1t seems to be very simple thing
| now, because it has been done so often and
| men had learned how to do so many things
more wonderful. What only the wisest
| men could find out how to do at that time,
may be done now by almost any little boy
or girl. If you will put some small bits of
! cotton on Il sheet of paper, then take
long stick of sealing wax and rub it with
dry silk or wooden cloth, you will find that
! the wax, held just little above the bits of
cotton, will pull them all up to itself. A
little thing like this is what astonished all
the wise men in the world two thousand
years ago.
Another very pretty little thing you can
easily do is this.
Hang a long dry silk ribbon over the first
finger of the left hand SO that the two ends
shall fall together below. Then put one
branch of the ribbon between the thumb
and first finger of the other hand, and the
second branch between the first and second
fingers press them tightly and pull them
quickly out from between the fingers, The
ends of the ribbon will no longer fall
tO hn of
as far away from each other as possible
Move them about as you will, they refuse
to touch each other, and you cannot easily
make them come together if you try. But
while they show strong aversion to each
other, they will quickly fly toward any
third body which may be held near them.
Put the hand between them, and both will
fly toward it; or bring it above either one
and that one will rise little way to meet
it.
That force that lifts the bits of cotton up
to the sealing wax and that moves the
branches of the ribbon in these curious
ways, is electricity. 1t is brought into
action by simply rubbing the wax or the
ribbon.
When you rub kitty's back in the dark
electricity is also brought into action, but
it shows itself in very different way.
Little white flashes of light, and little
swapping sounds, tell you OF its presence
then Is it not little strange that the
same force which sparkles and crackles so
lively on Tiny's fur will keep itself SO out
of sight and be so still while playing with
the ribbon?
does many wonderful and some terrible
things. Men have learned how to make it
act with such violence that you can scarce
ly believe it to be the same thing that acts
so gently upon the ribbon, and flashes so
PRETTY in the fur. They have made ma
chimes from which the sparks leap through
a distance of many inches and sometimes
more than two feet, going with an almost
binding light and noise like the report of
pistol, and yet it is the same kind of force
that moves the ribbon. The only difference
is in its power.
And now for a story Once upon time
but not many years ago, very wise man
who loved to play with electricity because
he wanted to learn more about its curious
pranks, seeing some little sparks going a
little way through the air, fancied that they
looked like little flashes OF lightning. And
when he heard the little swapping sounds
he asked himself, " Is not each of these
sounds little peal of thunder" And so
he went to thinking of what the terrible
lightning and thunder could be. No man
knew anything about 1t, so whom could he
ask? He saw that they were in the clouds,
but he could not fly to them. How c1uld
he find out the secret of their light and
noise?
No man ever before thought of doing
the curious thing he did. He determined
to send messenger up TO the next thunder
cloud that should come along to ask ii if it
would not send a little of its lightning and
its thunder-just little-he did not want
much of the terrible shutdown to him.
So he went to work at once and made
kite. Ii was made very much as boys
make kites, only that it was covered with
silk instead of paper. The kite was to be
his messenger. And not long afterward
when fine full thunder cloud came
over, he sent the kite up to it. He
was very wise and knew Just
how to fix it. l have not time
now to tell you why he put a large
key at the lower end of the kite string, nor
why he tied the key to post with silk
cord, but that is what he did, and then he
waited to see what news would come of 1t.
Pretty soon he saw some of the threads of
the kite string moving, much as the silk
ribbon moved when rubbed between the
fingers. He quickly brought his hand near
to the key, and-wonderful to tell, but true
as can be-a bright spark leapcd from the
from an electric machine, and with the
same noise.
How astoniShed was all the world when
Benjamin Franklin told how he had asked
the clouds for some of their lightning and
thunder, and that the clouds had actually
sent little down TO him-iust little, to
tell him that the lightning is nothing but
electricity after all
This is not the only thing that Benjamin
Franklin did showing him to-be very wise
man. And what was better yet, he did a
great many things to show that he was
good as well as wise.-[ Leroy c. Cooley,
Phi. d.
HUMOROUS POINTS.
The keynote of good breeding is B
natural.
How many man became four-handed?
By doubling his fists.
There is one thing which can always be
found, and that's fault.
A prudent man is like pin. His head
prevents him from going too far.
"Are you fond of tongue, sir?' " was
always fond of tongue, madam, and like
it still"
Why is river the LATEST thing in the
world? Because ii isn't out of its bed once
in year.
90, yes, said Uncle PEBBLES, who was
describing a comedy he had seen, 80, yes,
it was funny enough to make donkey
laugh. laughed till l cried.
You may speak" said fond mother,
1" about people having strength of mind,
but when it comes to strength OF don't
mind, my son William surpasses everybody
l ever knew
% The boy at the head of the class will