All Europe soon rang with the report of the marvellous discovery verified at Marly-la-Ville. But before the news of the experiment made at the village near Paris had reached America, Benjamin Franklin had made another, which, if not more conclusive, was at least more original. Ever since he had arrived at his great conclusion regarding the sameness of electricity and lightning, and the possibility of conducting the latter to the ground harmlessly, by means of pointed rods, the discerning citizen of Philadelphia had tried hard to find some means for putting his ideas to a practical test, but met with apparently insurmountable difficulties. His first plan was to set up simply a tall iron rod near his house; but he abandoned this on ascertaining, by measurement, that nearly all stormclouds passed over Philadelphia, which was situated in a plain, at a height of several hundred feet. In his then state of knowledge, he fancied that it was impossible for him to reach the clouds in this manner. He next resolved to await the building of an intended steeple for the principal ecclesiastical edifice, and highest building of Philadelphia, Christ Church. At that time not a steeple pierced the sky in all the extent of the ‘Quaker city;’ nor was there a single one in the whole State of Pennsylvania. But though Franklin made immense efforts to get the steeple erected, starting a lottery for the purpose, and subscribing largely to the funds, the work made little or no progress, many of the principal inhabitants of the city being, from their religious opinions, averse to the project. At last, getting impatient, Franklin’s ingenuity hit upon the simplest of all means for verifying his great discovery.