Vigo County Historical Society
Historical Treasure Article
November 27, 1988
By Deborah Curtis Drummy
Vigo County Historical Society
Book chapter provides some shocking stories
A recent investigation into the history of lightning rods has led to some surprising--and somewhat disturbing--information about the effect of lightning.
The information came from a chapter called “The Victims of Lightning” in a fascinating 1906 French book titled simply, “Thunder and Lightning.”
Stories abound of slow-moving, playful fireballs playing havoc with clothes and home furnishing, even killing livestock, yet leaving people untouched. There also are several accounts of people being stripped stark naked by lightning strikes, their clothes and boots ripped to shreds.
Lightning also has been reported to have transported people unscathed for dozens of yards from where they stood when struck and to have even removed people’s hair and beards right down to the roots! And while some tales accuse nature of practical jokes, other tales are quite gruesome, telling, for example, of victims split down the middle like so much cordwood.
Lightning’s tolls on livestock have been even worse, the most obvious explanation being that theirs is an outdoor existence, rain or shine. Other theories point out the greater exposed areas facing upward on animals on all fours, and the matter of wet fur and huddling stances of herd animals.
But in terms of dollars and cents, lightning’s assaults on man’s structures and the resulting fires, are far and away the most costly. Given man’s inclination to save money, that’s most responsible for causing man to seek solutions.
When Benjamin Franklin performed his kite experiment to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning in 1752, he provided the basis for the invention of lightning rods (or “conductors”) as a means to capture lightning and provide it with an easy route to the ground, thus minimizing the possibility of lightning damaging the protected structure with either and explosion or intense heat.
With the belief that lighting rods protected areas in diameter twice the rod’s height, lightning protection systems were arranged with equidistant points along room ridges and chimneys. Lightning rod salesmen roamed the countryside selling their security systems. Until recent investigative techniques for determining the origins of particular fires came into use, many barn and house fires went unexplained. People very often attributed the cause to lightning for want of any other explanation, so lightning rod systems proliferated.
This week’s treasure from the museum is an ornate lightning rod from the Victorian period around 100 years ago. Made of iron and topped with a 10-inch copper spike, the rod stands 6 feet tall and features a decorative glass globe and weather vane in keeping with the Victorian love of ornamentation. It is displayed in the museum’s tool room.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.