He did, however, discover what are now called ``Lichtenberg figures'' in 1777. These are radial patterns formed when sharp, pointed conducting bodies at high voltage get near enough to insulators to discharge electrically. They look a bit like pressed basket-fish, and are now of some interest because they are fractals, whose dimension is usually somewhere between 1.7 and 1.9. See Manfred Schroeder, Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws, pp. 215--6, or, more technically, R. C. Ball, ``DLA in the Real World'', pp. 75--77, in H. Eugene Stanley and Nicole Ostrowsky (eds.), On Growth and Form. Schroeder's book as an absolute gem which deserves a glowing review of its own, but alas will not get one from me anytime soon.