In 1793, Maximilien de Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety in Paris. It was from this platform that he orchestrated the worst excesses of the revolution, and became the architect of the infamous reign of terror of which, in the end, he himself became a victim; he went to the guillotine 303 years ago today on July 28th, 1794. Some years previously, however, as a young and promising provincial lawyer, Robespierre had played a cameo role in the development of meteorology.
Controversy had arisen at the time about a gadget, newly invented in the United States by Benjamin Franklin, called a "lightning rod". It was said that if a pointed rod were mounted on a building and connected to the ground, it would afford protection from a lightning strike. Some, however, felt that the apparatus actually attracted lightning, and had the effect of causing lightning discharges which might not otherwise have happened.
In France, the controversy reached the courts of law. Vissery de Bois had put a lightning conductor on his house at St Ouen, but he immediately encountered objections from his neighbours; to them it seemed to threaten the sky in a sacrilegious way. Some of them wanted to blow up the house, but in the end a delegation fetched the local bailiff who ordered the owner to take down his "engine". Vissery tried to explain to the bailiff the latest theories about electricity and lightning - to no avail; the lightning conductor had to go, but Vissery brought an appeal against the bailiff's order to the council of Artois, and there his interests were represented by none other than "the sea-green Incorruptible" himself.
"The arts and sciences are the most noble gifts from heaven to humanity," young Robespierre began when the case opened in May, 1783. He went on to describe the persecution of Galileo and others who had been men ahead of their times, and gave a detailed description of the scientific experiments of Benjamin Franklin which had led to the development of lightning rods.
"A man," he declared, "has appeared in our time who has dared to arm men against the fire from heaven; he has said to lightning `you shall go no further". All in all, as a senior colleague commented admiringly, "M de Robespierre deployed in this matter an eloquence and wisdom which gave the highest indication of his knowledge".
The case was won. Vissery de Bois was authorised to have the lightning conductor reinstated on his roof - a pleasant chore which he lost no time at all in carrying out.