Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1894 — Protection Against Lightning. [ARTICLE]

Protection Against Lightning.

It seemsrftrange that notwithstanding the gr< at, advance which has been made in electricity during the last twenty-five years so little progress should have been made in developing a method for protecting buildings from the destructive effects of lightning. The need of this protection was never before so great as now, as the annual loss of property in the United States from lightning alone reaches hundreds of thousands of dollars, to say nothing of the hundreds of lives which are destroyed by the same agency. The lightning rod remains in almost exactly the same primitive state in which It was left by Franklin, even the main question of its efficiency not being settled beyond dispute. If the rod is able to accomplish what is claimed for it there seems to be no reason why its usefulness should not be conclusively proven. The fact of Its protective qualities established there should be no delay in hastening its development into that state of perfection in which it could be relied upon with something akin to certainty. There is certainly a*promising field here for ambitious electricians.—Manufacturers’ Gazette.