Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1885 — The Electricity of Rain. [ARTICLE]

The Electricity of Rain.

'The suggestion haring been made that the ignition of petroleum tanks may sometimes be caused by sparks from the rain of thunder clouds, some interesting results obtained with an old piece of apparatus hare been called to mind. In these experiments an electrometer showed that the drops of occasional showers are almost always more or less charged with electricity, and that At is only totally absent during foggy, moist days, and long storms. The strongest charges were obtained during thunder-storms; but the air even has given indications occasionally of an electric charge without any fall of rain.