A cropped photograph of page 50 of the book "Thunder and Lightning" from the Illustrated Library of Wonders, published in 1875. The page is slightly yellowed from age, and the photographer's hand can be seen on the edge of the photograph holding the book open.

The text on the page reads:

"VIII.
SHEET LIGHTNING

When the electric fire lights up the surface of our atmosphere, at the boundaries which separate us from the ethereal ocean, it is not in a disorderly manner; the apparition is replete with harmony, grace, and measure. Shining through an immense thickness of the respirable medium, the aurora borealis causes us involuntarily to dream of the splendors of Olympia.

A high arch of iridescent light, a majestic vault of more than twenty leagues span, shows itself effectively to our astonished eyes. It is an admirable cupola, a fairy canopy, which entirely surrounds the spherical cap, on which is found the magnetic pole of the earth. Long streamers, equally woven in this subtle matter, spread out from the marvellous canopy.

Nevertheless these divine fires are the brother of our most violent and most abrupt lightning; it is the same lightning that spreads itself out above and produces these marvels, which, nearer to us, condenses itself into sharp darts and whirlwinds of flame. It is—who would imagine it?—the same substance which is in motion under the influence of the same mysterious forces. If ordinary lightning has lost this harmonious character it is because it has approached nearer to us. Either it has assimilated some of our imperfections, or the harmony, in too close proximity, escapes our feeble reasoning powers..."