Stream Lightning

Abstract

IF a candle-flame is put between the poles of an electrical machine, while it is giving rough angular sparks, the discharge at once changes into a smooth single line of very easy curvature: it suggests the difference between sinuous and stream lightning: it is not merely that the spark is as if shortened by the conducting flame; the whole nature of the discharge is changed. If the flame is held two inches beneath the poles, the spark will godown to it.