A Conversation about Lightning Rods

Excerpts courtesy of OBP Secretary Claudia Smith and OBP Director Will Samis.

CLAUDIA: From my personal experience, as well as my barn research for my book, lightning rods were very important.

 I had lightning rods on my house and barn and in one terrific thunder storm a direct strike took out our stove and fridge. When asked why the rods had not protected the house the insurance adjuster said, “They did. Your house did not burn down!”

Early lighting rods had smooth glass balls four and a half inches in diameter, most of an opaque white or blue colour. Amber, black and yellow balls are rare. The balls shattered if hit by lightning , warning the farm family that the system should be examined for damage. Boys loved to prey on the balls with their 22 calibre rifles.

In the late 1800s people began to gain confidence in lightning rods although some thought it showed a lack of faith in God to have them installed. Representatives of lightning rod companies visited farms peddling their wares.

Later rods were pointed posts on iron stands or braces that were attached the roof.

All lightning rods had to be installed by reliable and capable people so that bolts were conducted safely down copper wires harmlessly into the earth.

Barns without rods had cattle killed in their metal stanchions and I heard on a  team of horses, standing too near the manure gutter cleaner, were killed when a bolt came along the track. 

Hope this adds to the discussion. From the many farming people I have talked with over the years the main thought shared was  — “Perish the thought of a barn burning down.“

WILL: It’s been a fascinating discussion about lightning rods and when you poke around on the Internet you also find a great divergence of expert opinion about their effectiveness and desirability.

I’m no expert but I was Chairman of the Board and President of an insurance company with several million dollars in farm policies and in that position, I undertook to sort through the chaff to find the kernel of truth , if such existed, about lightning rods.

Here is a summation of the vetted information that I gathered.

1. Lightning rods, properly installed, do give the building significant protection against fire caused by lightning.

2. The rods effectively bleed off electrons, neutralizing the charge difference between the clouds and the earth and can prevent a strike from occurring or can significantly reduce the amperage and destructive power of a strike if it does occur.

3. The greater number of rods and the larger the capacity of the conductor wire to the earth the less chance a given strike will cause collateral damage.

4. Strikes have been measured in excess of 150K amps and they would likely heat the conductor to the point that they would ignite adjacent flammable materials.

5. Lightning bolts normally travel up… not down.

6. The higher your buildings are relative to surrounding terrain the more likely they will collect electrons during a storm as they represent the shortest distance between earth and clouds and theoretically the more benefit you will get from properly installed rods. Our farmstead is the highest in our municipality and we have lighting rods on 5 of our 8 buildings.

7. Most modern farm buildings have metal roofs and walls and so offer better built-in conductors than wooden buildings…but they would theoretically be more effective with pointed rods on the peaks and well sized conductors connecting the metal parts and the earth.

I have not found an insurance company that gives a discount for lightning rods.

I heard of an 80’s scam in the Owen Sound area where a couple enterprising guys were going farm to farm with a portable generator charging up lightning rods for a fee.

One farmer I spoke with quickly rejected lightning rods saying “Why would you want to attract lightning?“.

After this exercise I am going to recommend that we install a proper conductor on our 12-sided museum barn in Sowerby as I realized that there is not one from the metal roof to the earth.

I have included a short “you tube” video which is helpful in understanding the physics involved.

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