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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 ...
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 ...
The famous kite experiment enabled the Philadelphia group to established what had been surmised by others, that lightning was identical to the mild charge of electricity produced by the friction of the electrostatic machine. Franklin invented the lightning rod, which goes down in history as the first practical electrical invention.
The invention of the lightning rod was a significant breakthrough in the field of electrical engineering, and has saved countless buildings and lives from the destructive effects of lightning strikes. [4] The Franklin bells were named for Benjamin Franklin, an early adopter who used it during his experimentation with electricity. [5]
The invention in the late nineteenth century of the transformer meant that electrical power could be transmitted more efficiently at a higher voltage but lower current. Efficient electrical transmission meant in turn that electricity could be generated at centralised power stations , where it benefited from economies of scale , and then be ...
Speculations of Jean-Antoine Nollet had led to the issue of the electrical nature of lightning being posed as a prize question at Bordeaux in 1749. In 1750, it was the subject of public discussion in France with a dissertation of Denis Barberet receiving a prize in Bordeaux. Barberet proposed a cause in line with the triboelectric effect.
The conductor offers a certain resistance, akin to friction, to the displacement of electricity, and heat is developed in the conductor, proportional to the square of the current (as already stated herein), which current flows as long as the impelling electric force continues. This resistance may be likened to that met with by a ship as it ...
After years of obscurity, the memory of Diviš was reignited in the late 19th century. Now seen as a visionary inventor, supporters see him as the European inventor of the lightning rod, who invented the lightning rod in the same years as Benjamin Franklin, probably even independently. Despite scientific reviews of Diviš's errors (among others ...