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Franklin's friend Kinnersley traveled throughout the eastern United States in the 1750s demonstrating man-made "lightning" on model thunder houses to show a how an iron rod placed into the ground would protect a wooden structure. He explained that lightning followed the same principles as the sparks from Franklin's electrostatic machine.
A lightning strike can also create a large Lichtenberg figure in grass surrounding the point struck. These are sometimes found on golf courses or in grassy meadows. [12] Branching root-shaped "fulgurite" mineral deposits may also be created as sand and soil is fused into glassy tubes by the intense heat of the current.
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 ...
A metal rod electrode projects through the nonconductive stopper at the mouth of the jar, electrically connected by some means (usually a hanging chain) to the inner foil, to allow it to be charged. The jar is charged by an electrostatic generator , or other source of electric charge, connected to the inner electrode while the outer foil is ...
Franklin observed that lightning frequently destroyed homes by igniting those made of wood. Franklin was determined to prove the presence of electricity in lightning through an experiment. Franklin's experiment, in its initial conception, depended on the completion of Christ Church in Philadelphia , whose steeples would be sufficiently high as ...
A very important advance in glass manufacture was the technique of adding lead oxide to the molten glass; this improved the appearance of the glass and made it easier to melt using sea-coal as a furnace fuel. This technique also increased the "working period" of the glass, making it easier to manipulate.
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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 ...