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The lightning rod invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1752 suggested a way of avoiding the common problem of lightning causing damage to the wooden sailing ships of the period. In Britain, the Royal Navy chose a protection system with a chain draped into the sea from the top of the mast as a lightning conductor. This system proved unsatisfactory ...
A lightning rod or lightning conductor (British English) is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike. If lightning hits the structure, it is most likely to strike the rod and be conducted to ground through a wire, rather than passing through the structure, where it could start a fire or ...
English scientist Stephen Gray made the distinction between insulators and conductors. 1745: German physicist Ewald Georg von Kleist and Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek invented Leyden jars. 1752: American scientist Benjamin Franklin showed that lightning was electrical by flying a kite and explained how Leyden jars work. 1780
He could "read a book at a distance of one and a half feet". [2] However, he did little to establish his claim or to develop the device. In 1854 Lindsay took out a patent for his system of wireless telegraphy through water. This was the culmination of many years' painstaking experimentation in various parts of the country.
The lightning rod consists of a metal rod or conductor, typically made of copper or aluminum, that is mounted on the roof of a building and connected to the ground by means of a conductive wire. When lightning strikes, the rod provides a path of least resistance for the electrical charge, allowing it to be safely conducted to the ground rather ...
He said that conductors with a sharp [181] rather than a smooth point could discharge silently and at a far greater distance. He surmised that this could help protect buildings from lightning by attaching "upright Rods of Iron, made sharp as a Needle and gilt to prevent Rusting, and from the Foot of those Rods a Wire down the outside of the ...
A more complete account of Franklin's experiment was given by Priestley in 1767, who presumably learned the details directly from Franklin, who was in London while Priestley wrote the book. [ 6 ] According to the 1767 Priestley account, Franklin realized the dangers of using conductive rods and instead used the conductivity of a wet hemp string ...
Claude Shannon (1916–2016), founder of information theory and modern cryptography, invented Minivac 601, and co-invented the first wearable computer (with Edward O. Thorp) Ugo Cerletti (1877–1963), together with Lucio Bini (1908–1964), Italy – Electroconvulsive therapy; Leona Chalmers (c. 1937), U.S. – modern menstrual cup