Johann Georg Estor - Discovery of The Sprites (lightning)

Discovery of The Sprites (lightning)

In the second volume of his "neue kleine Schriften", pages 195/6, there is a little note, in which Estor says that he had explored the landscapes of Hessen-Darmstadt on horseback or walking to accomplish a book about the national geography of this county. This was in the years around 1730. His teachers Verdrieß and Johann Jakob Scheuchzer had given him a hint, to make observations "coelo tristi" (in a sad sky).

So, following this hint, he one day went uphill one of the highest mountains in the Vogelsberg near Burgharts, called "the saddle", through a thundercloud. In the middle of the cloud he felt little water droplets on his skin like dew. And as he had reached the top of the mountain, he saw the blue sky above him and the cloud beneath like a white sea, from which flashes mounted as well directly up into the sky (sprite (lightning)) and shot down to the earth.