Lightning rod
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Lichtenberg was one of the first to introduce Benjamin Franklin's lightning rod to Germany by installing such devices to his house in Göttingen and his garden sheds. |
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A lightning rod (US, AUS) or lightning conductor (UK) is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike. If lightning hits the structure, it will preferentially strike the rod and be conducted to ground through a wire, instead of passing through the structure, where it could start a fire or cause electrocution. Lightning rods are also called finials, air terminals or strike termination devices.
In a lightning protection system, a lightning rod is a single component of the system. The lightning rod requires a connection to earth to perform its protective function. Lightning rods come in many different forms, including hollow, solid, pointed, rounded, flat strips or even bristle brush-like. The main attribute common to all lightning rods is that they are all made of conductive materials, such as copper and aluminum. Copper and its alloys are the most common materials used in lightning protection.
See also
- Grounding kit
- Václav Prokop Diviš (1698–1765), constructor of the first grounded lightning rod, in Přímětice u Znojma during 1750–1754.
- James Otis, Jr., contemporary of Ben Franklin, killed at doorway by lightning in Andover, Massachusetts on May 23, 1783.
- Apollo 12. The Saturn V rocket was struck by lightning shortly after liftoff.
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin#Part One
- Lightning rod fashion