by Hamlet Pericles

Created on: November 07, 2008   Last Updated: September 19, 2009

A lightning conductor, best known as a lightning rod in the United States, is a device that protects buildings from lightning strikes. This device is a metal rod (normally copper or aluminum) attached to the highest point of a building or any other structure to protect it from lightning by facilitating the lightning to the ground.

The lightning rod, however, is actually a single component for the lightning protection system. Other components of the lightning defense system include a network of conductors located at the rooftop, various cables producing energy pathways from the roof to the ground, connecting bondage of metallic objects within the structure, along with a ground network.

The history of lightning rods starts back in the 1700s, due to the dangers and consequences of thunderclouds (a large dark cloud that produces thunder and lightning). The damaging effects of lightning have not only been problematic for humans but also building structures. Lightning has been a prevalent force since the existence of mankind and even when people were nonexistent. When early structures were fabricated, they were less susceptible to lightning strikes because they were short. However, when superior and taller buildings were erected, some became a target, and thus were damaged and/or destroyed by lightning.

Around 1746, botanist Peter Collinson, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, aided Benjamin Franklin (one of the Founding Fathers of the USA) and his associates with their experimental research about static electricity in conjunction with lightning conductors by providing a crucial device, embedded with instructions on how to use it. The experiment was conducted in Philadelphia. Franklin kept Collinson abreast of the experiment with five letters that was sent from 1747 to 1750. When the experiment concluded, it was deemed a success and Franklin was given the title of the inventor of the first lightning rod, which is sometimes called Franklin rod.

Some historians, however, have claimed that Franklin was not the first to invent the lightning rod, because some metallic lightning conductors were used on the rooftop of Russia's Nevyansk Tower during its construction - speculated to have been built between 1725 and 1732. In that case, the inventors of the first lightning rod were Russian craftsmen. However, because there is no information about the architect and his true purpose for the metal rooftop, nor the actual time of construction (and the Tower's purpose at the

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