Professor Pouillet also laid it down that lightning conductors, to be efficient, must be regularly inspected, he, with his colleagues on the committee, having come to the conclusion that such examination should take place at least once every year. So much stress was laid upon the importance of an annual inspection, that a strong recommendation was made to the Government to have a _procès-verbal_, or special report, drawn up on each occasion in the case of all public buildings, so that it might be known by the central authorities whether the examination had taken place at the specified time, and what had been the declaration of the examiners. The advice was judiciously followed, with the result that at this moment the public buildings of France have the most complete protection against lightning--greatly in contrast with the public buildings in England.
In singular contrast with what took place in France, the importance of lightning conductors never created any but the most languid interest in England. Neither the Government, nor any of the scientific bodies of the country, at any time occupied themselves seriously with the question as to how public and private buildings might be best protected against the dangers of thunderstorms; and from the time, a century ago, when the Royal Society half patronised and half spurned the merits of Franklin’s discovery, to this day, the battle of science against ignorance in the matter had to be fought by individuals. With one exception, that of Sir William Snow Harris, it proved no profitable battle to any man; and in his case even, it was only so by accident. Born at Plymouth, in 1792, and educated for the medical profession, he early turned his attention to the subject of electricity and lightning conductors, and more particularly to the use of them in the Royal Navy. Owing to his early surroundings, leading to connection with naval officers, he learnt that the damages caused by lightning to ships of war were very numerous, and most expensive to repair; and having got once hold of these facts, he gave them to the public in the ‘Nautical Magazine,’ but chiefly in pamphlet form, insisting upon the simple remedy of lightning conductors. As usual, the Government lent a deaf ear to the proposal as long as it was possible, and it was only when at length, in 1839, the outcry upon the subject became overwhelming, that a naval commission was appointed ‘to investigate the best method of applying lightning conductors to Her Majesty ships.’ The commission drew up an immense report, filling eighty folio pages of a blue-book, the kernel of which was that, though such protectors in thunderstorms were rather new-fangled things, they might be tried without special harm coming to anybody. Thereupon most of the vessels received lightning conductors, made after designs by Mr. Snow Harris. The indefatigable advocate of conductors had his reward. He was knighted in 1847; he had, at various times, considerable grants from the Government; and he had the final satisfaction of being allowed to design lightning conductors for the new Houses of Parliament. The latter remain the most enduring monument of the only man in this country who ever succeeded in drawing the attention of the public and the Government to the grave subject of lightning conductors. He could not have done so, at least not in the line he took up, had he lived half a century later. With the gradual disappearance of the old wooden ships disappeared also the necessity of lightning conductors for men-of-war. An iron-built vessel, metal-rigged, is a conductor by itself, while as to armour-clad ships of latest design, they are more absolutely protected against lightning even than the famous gilded temple of Solomon at Jerusalem.