Patent 1,266,175 was an improvement in lightning protectors. The random behavior of lightning ensured that the method gained a good bit of credence even after the development of the marine lightning rod soon after Franklin's initial work. Hence the best method for preventing a lightning strike to a wooden ship was to bury a small solid glass ball in the tip of the highest mast. Therefore, goes the theory, there must be something about glass that repels lightning. Glass objects do not conduct electricity well. It is worth noting here not because it worked, which it did not, but because it reveals a lot about pre-scientific thought. The ornamental appeal of these glass balls has also been incorporated into weather vanes.īalls of solid glass occasionally were used in a method thought to prevent lightning strikes to ships. Lightning rods were often embellished with ornamental glass balls (now prized by collectors). In the 19th century the lightning rod became a symbol of American ingenuity and a decorative motif. As an act of philanthropy, Franklin decided against patenting the invention. Franklin countered that there is no religious objection to roofs on buildings to resist precipitation, so lightning, which he proved to be simply a giant electrical spark, should be no different. There was some resistance from churches who felt that it was defying divine will to install these rods. This experiment, in fact, took place because he was tired of waiting for Christ Church in Philadelphia to be completed so he could place a lightning rod on top of it. "įranklin speculated about lightning rods for several years before his reported kite experiment. "The electrical fire would, I think, be drawn out of a cloud silently, before it could come near enough to strike. Franklin thought that, with an iron rod sharpened to a point at the end, In the United States, the pointed lightning rod conductor, often incorrectly referred to as the "lightning attractor," was invented by Benjamin Franklin as part of his groundbreaking explorations of electricity. Later in the year, after the summer during which the thunderstorms did a lot of damage to the fields and vineyards, the people besought him to rebuild the machine, which he did in the precinct of Loucky monastery, and built another one on the top of the church tower in Přímětice. In 1756 the machine was damaged by wind and then rebuilt, and then on 10 March 1760, angry villagers of Přímětice tore down the structure, blaming Diviš for drought which struck the region that year. Abbé Marci, court mathematician and Diviš' friend commented: 'Blasphemant, quae ignorant' (condemning what they do not know). The emperor let the mathematicians in Vienna judge the proposal, but they refused it. In 1755 Diviš asked the Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria to let him build more machines on several places for the welfare of the people. The machine is also mentioned by Leonhard Euler in 'Lettres à une Princesse d' Allemagne'. He was sending his observations regarding the machine operation to Jan Antonín Scrinci, the physics professor at the Charles University in Prague, who published them in 'Prager Postzeitungen', 'Brünner Intelligenz-Zettel' and in 'Stuttgartisches Journal'. He proposed his machine to be used on church towers and ships. The original idea was to continually sap the electricity out of the clouds and so actually prevent the lightning and the storms, only in case this failed, the machine should have also been able to directly attract the lighting and channel it to the ground. He described his 'weather machine' in the treatise 'Descriptio machinae meteorologicae'. The structure was fastened by three metal chains, conductively attached to the iron grounding cones buried in the packed down soil. It consisted of 400 sharp metal spikes attached at the top of a 42 m tall supporting pylon. He is the inventor of the first grounded lightning rod, which he erected on 15 July 1754 in the garden of his home in Přímětice u Znojma. In Europe, the lightning rod was invented by a theologian and natural scientist, Václav Prokop Diviš, between 17. Peter Ahlwardts ("Reasonable and Theological Considerations about Thunder and Lightning", 1745) said people who sought to protect themselves from lightning should go anywhere except in or around a church. "temper the destruction of hail and cyclones and the force of tempests and lightning check hostile thunders and great winds and cast down the spirits of storms and the powers of the air." Early on, Christian churches tried to prevent the damage of lightning by prayers. It was also the building very often hit by lightning. The church tower was usually the highest structure or building in medieval European towns and villages.
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