96 HISTORY OF [1775—80.

are, in my opinion, less safe than those which are notpointed.

“ Every point, as such, I consider as soliciting thelightning, and by that means not only contributing toincrease the quantity of every actual discharge, but alsofrequently occasioning a discharge, when it might nototherwise have happened.

“ If, therefore, we invite the lightning, while we areignorant what the quantity or the effects of it may be,we may be promoting the very mischief we mean toprevent.

“ Whereas if, instead of pointed, we make use ofblunted conductors, those will as effectually answer thepurpose of conveying away the lightning safely, withoutthat tendency to increase or invite it.”

Mr. Wilson was not satisfied with this protestalone : he published a long Paper in the Transactions,in favour of blunt conductors, although the soundnessof his judgment was refuted in the strongest manner,by Franklin, Nairne, Henley, Swift, and other elec-tricians. But Wilson did not stand alone in thisopinion; Franklin, writing to a friend in America atthis period, says, “ Here are some electricians thatrecommend knobs instead of points on the upper endsof the rods, from a supposition that the points invitethe stroke. It is true that points draw electricity atgreater distances in the gradual, silent way; butknobs will draw at the greatest distance a stroke 13 .”The Meetings of the Society were occupied by con-troversies upon conductors, and a variety of Papersin support of opinions, on both sides, appeared inthe Philosophical Transactions .

13 Works, Yol. viii. p. 364.