Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1909 — Cheap Lightning Rod. [ARTICLE]

Cheap Lightning Rod.

Prof. Henry, of the weather bureau at Washington, in a bulletin just issued entitled “Cheap Protection from Lightning,” declares 700 to 800 persons are killed, twice as many injured and an immense amount of property destroyed by lightning every year. He shows how lightning rods that are “inexpensive yet effective” may be put up by anybody. This is his list of necessary materials: “Enough galvanized iron telegraph wire to serve for the rod, a pound of galvanized iron wire staples to hold the .wire in place, a few connecting tees and a pound of aluminum paint.” “While iron is not so good a conductor as copper,” says the professor, “it is less likely to cause dangerous side flashes, and it also dissipates the energy of the lightning flash more effectively than does the copper.”