Prokop Diviš And The Lightning Rod

In 1754, Prokop Diviš, a Czech priest, attempted to control the weather but ended up inventing the lightning rod instead.

Diviš was a pastor in Přímětice, a neighborhood in Znojmo near the Austrian border. In addition to preparing weekly sermons, preaching, and conducting worship services, he managed farmland belonging to the abbey. Diviš developed an interest in electricity, a little-understood subject in his time. He began experimenting with small electric voltages, achieving notable success in promoting plant growth and therapy. He published his findings and even demonstrated them at the Imperial Court in Vienna.

Photo credit: Chuck Lee

In 1753, Russian physicist Georg Wilhelm Richmann attempted to extract electricity from a thunderstorm using a metallic rod but was struck by a ball of lightning and died of electrocution. The previous year, American polymath Benjamin Franklin had survived a similar endeavor—the famous kite experiment, in which he flew a kite into a storm cloud with a house key attached to the wet hemp string. Franklin observed that loose threads of the kite string were repelling one another, indicating that the string was charged. When he moved his hand near the key, he witnessed an electric spark jump from the key to his hand, proving that lightning was electrical.

The news of Richmann’s death inspired Diviš to study atmospheric electricity. In letters, he proposed to several physicists the construction of a "weather machine"—a device designed to suppress and prevent thunderstorms and lightning by constantly drawing atmospheric electricity out of the air. His theories were considered fringe science even in his time and were largely ignored. Receiving no responses, Diviš decided to build such a machine in his own parish.

Prokop Diviš

On 15 June 1754, Diviš erected a forty-meter-high, free-standing pole in Přímětice, on which he mounted his "weather machine." The device consisted of several tin boxes and more than 400 metal spikes. At the time, a well-established theory suggested that pointed spikes would conduct electricity more effectively. The pole was secured with heavy metal chains, which inadvertently grounded the construction, effectively making it one of the first grounded lightning rods. Diviš described his invention as highly effective at driving off storms. According to his observations, clouds would form when the pole was taken down and disappear when it was erected again. He interpreted these occasional occurrences as evidence that the pointed spikes extracted latent electricity from the atmosphere, safely dispersing it before lightning could form. Several local newspapers and novelty papers from Southern Germany reported on his attempts.

Despite his enthusiasm, Diviš's invention faced skepticism from the scientific community. In 1759, when a drought threatened Přímětice's farmers, they tore down the "weather machine," believing it was somehow to blame for the lack of rain. Diviš then built a second "weather machine" and had it mounted on the tower of his church to prevent it from being destroyed by an unruly mob. However, the villagers took offense, leading church superiors to advise Diviš to stop his experiments.

Family house of Prokop Diviš with his “weather machine” on the right. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Undeterred, Diviš continued to correspond with scientists and promote his theory, which he called Magia naturalis. Diviš found support from two like-minded priests from Württemberg who had visited him during his experiments, and helped him publish his theory abroad under the German title "Längst verlangte Theorie von der meteorologischen Electricité" (Much Desired Theory of Meteorological Electricity) in the same year that Diviš died. Despite their efforts, the theory was largely ignored. Danish scientist Johannes Nikolaus Tetens dismissed it as a work of fantasy.

For decades, Benjamin Franklin was credited as the inventor of the lightning rod. However, in the late 19th century, the European scientific community began to assert that Prokop Diviš was the true inventor of the lightning rod. Some argued that Diviš's free-standing apparatus in 1754 was better grounded than Franklin's experimental lightning rods at the time.

Today, Prokop Diviš is recognized as a visionary inventor who independently developed the lightning rod around the same time as Benjamin Franklin. Both men made significant contributions to the understanding and practical application of electricity, and their work has had a lasting impact on the safety and technology of lightning protection.