The whole point ( no pun intended) of a lightning rod is to leach away electrons in a controlled manner to ground to pre-empt a strike proper, as conditions move toward an event? As George points out ( no pun intended) we ain't got enough wire to carry a stroke safely down a building more than once. They aren't, as far as I'm aware, continually renewing the LC on the Empire State Building, which is said to get struck many times per year. The point is, ( NPI), Good Ol' Ben did all the experimental work some 12 score and ten years ago. And he found, by experiment, that a point on the rod ( his was made of iron- Yankee parsimony? ) seemed to give better results. He had some kind of bell mechanism rigged up in his stairwell to indicate that some kind of electric current was flowing during thundery conditions, and we know this worked because there is a letter extant from his wife to Ben in England begging him for directions as to dismantling the bloody thing as it was driving her to distraction.
Alan
ps. Which could explain how he survived the crazy kite stunt.
[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 09-29-2005).]
