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Bible Encyclopedias
Lightning
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or the visible flash that accompanies an electric discharge in the sky. In certain electrical conditions of the atmosphere a cloud becomes highly charged by the coalescence of drops of vapour. A large drop formed by the fusion of many smaller ones contains the same amount of electricity upon a smaller superficial area, and the electric potential of each drop, and of the whole cloud, rises. When the cloud passes near another cloud stratum or near a hilltop, tower or tree, a discharge takes place from the cloud in the form of lightning. The discharge sometimes takes place from the earth to the cloud, or from a lower to a higher stratum, and sometimes from conductors silently. Rain discharges the electricity quietly to earth, and lightning frequently ceases with rain (see Atmospheric Electricity).
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Lightning'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/l/lightning.html. 1910.
