The lightning flash is certainly th

The lightning flash is certainly the earliest manifestation of electricity known to man,
although for a long time nobody knew that lightning and atmospheric electricity are one
and the same thing. Indeed, for thousands of years people knew nothing about
thunderstorms. However, they saw long sparks falling from the dark sky and heard
thunder. They knew that these sparks could kill people or strike their houses and destroy
them. Trying to understand that dangerous phenomenon, they imagined things and
invented numerous stories.
Take the early Scandinavians as an example! They thought that thunderstorms were
produced by Thor, the god of thunder. Besides his throwing both thunder and lightning at
some people, he was a hammer-thrower. According to the story, his powerful hammer had
the property of always coming back to his hands after it had been thrown. The fifth day of
the week, that is Thursday, was named after him. A story like that invented by those early
Scandinavians could be also heard from other peoples.
However, time flies. Thunderstorms have long stopped being a problem that scientists
tried to solve. Now everybody knows that lightning is a very great flash of light resulting
from a discharge of atmospheric electricity either between a charged cloud and the earth or
between charged cloud and the earth or between charged clouds.
Even now some people do not like being out during a thunderstorm. Dark clouds cover
the sky, turning day into night. There are lightning flashes followed by thunder which can
be heard for kilometers around. Needless to say, there is always some danger in a
thunderstorm for a very high building or a man standing in the open field. Many years ago
people learned to protect their houses from thunderstorms. Coming down from a charged
cloud to the earth, lightning usually the nearest conductor. Therefore, it is necessary to
provide an easy path along which electrons are conducted to the earth. That Benjamin
Franklin invented the lightning conductor is a well - known fact. The lightning conductor, familiar to everybody at present, is a metal device protecting buildings from strokes of lightning by conducting the electrical charges to the earth.
Franklin's achivements in the fields of electricity were known to Lomonosov who, in his turn, made experiments of his own. Along with other scientific problems thar Lomonosov studied was that of atmospheric electricity. Both Lomonosov and his friend Professor Rihman took great interest in it. Both of them tried to solve the broblem in question. They made numerous experiments and observations wihtout thinking of the possible danger. The first electrical measuring device in the world was constructed by Rihman. Making experiments of that kind was dangerous and Professor Rihman was killed by a stroke of lightning while he was making one of his experiments.
As for Franklin's well-known kite experiment, you will read about it in the next lesson