1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lightning

LIGHTNING, 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).