Jacques de Romas’ electric kite (1753)

The lightning conductor

During a storm on 7 June 1753, near Nérac in Southern France, Jacques de Romas carried out in public an experiment that involved bringing lightning into contact with a kite studded with fragments of metal. 

The system followed the lightning-rod principle: while the metal conductors do not actually ‘attract’ lightning, their spiky shape makes contact more likely and thus the surrounding area is protected. The electricity was conducted to the ground along a hemp “string” more than two hundred metres long, moistened with oil and wound with copper wire. Romas then produced spectacular sparks by rubbing the string with a glass-covered tinplate exciter rod.

This heartstoppingly dangerous experiment fanned the superstition of the locals, who said of Romas – whose head was tilted at a slight angle – that “the devil in his anger twisted his neck”. In the fresco, the experiment is shown taking place under the watchful gaze of the Château de Clairac circle, which brought together the scholarly elite of the time – including Montesquieu – and of which Romas was a member.

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