Parts Of A Lightning Rod And Functions

Lightning rod parts weathervane glass balls special stock.

Parts of a lightning rod and functions.

Lightning rods and all the wonderful gadgets that accompany them are an interesting part of our history beautiful glass balls were first created to sell lightning rods during the mid to late nineteenth century. Add to cart view details. 42 4 00 25 00. Lightning rod arrow glass tail tabs.

A lightning rod us aus or lightning conductor is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike. To be most effective the rods should be placed on the tallest parts of the building. It connects to a huge piece of copper or aluminum wire that s also an inch or so in diameter. A lightning rod is very simple it s a pointed metal rod attached to the roof of a building.

A lightning rod and its associated grounding conductors provide protection because they divert the current from nonconducting parts of the structure allowing it to follow the path of least resistance and pass harmlessly through the rod and its cables. Today balls of glass ceramic and plastic are created for lightning rods and weather vanes and these obscure articles of americana continue to be highly collected. It is the high resistance of the nonconducting materials that causes them to be heated by the passage of electric current leading to fire and. The rod might be an inch 2 cm in diameter.

Lightning rods were originally developed by benjamin franklin. Glass ball replacement caps. 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.