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This is the first complete English translation of Oratio De Meteoris ViElectrica Ortis - seminal work of the great Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov(1711-1765). It was presented at the public meeting of the St.PetersburgAcademy of Sciences in November 1753 and is traditionally listed amongLomonosov's most important scientific accomplishments. In the Discourse,Lomonosov presents an original theory of generation of electricity in the airand lightning, many elements of which are profoundly correct even by presentday understanding of the phenomenon. The theory is based on experimentalobservations and measurements and supported by some mathematical estimates. Thebasis of the Lomonosov theory is the idea of vertical air movements as the maincause of atmospheric electricity - the immersion of the cold upper strata ofthe atmosphere into the lower (warmer) layers causes mechanical friction ofminiscular particles in the air against each other, that results in generationof atmospheric electricity. Miniscular particles of two types are required:those of water (vapors) capable of accumulation of the electricity, and organiccompounds/fatty particles in the air which are involved in production of theelectricity via friction. Electrically charged droplets are assumed to bespread throughout the entire volume of the cloud. The transfer of charges fromindividual fatty particles to droplets of water in the clouds via countlesscollisions leads to formation in atmosphere, in clouds of strong electricfields, which are the cause of the appearance of lightning. At the end ofDiscourse Lomonosov suggests explanations of the Northern lights (auroraborealis) and comet tails as purely electrical phenomena originating from thedown- and updrafts in the atmospheres, like in his theory of lightning,andexpanding beyond them into the surrounding ether.

Mikhail Lomonosov. Oratio De Meteoris Vi Electrica Ortis - Discourse on  Atmospheric Phenomena Originating from Electrical Force (1753). English  translation and commentary by V.Shiltsev