Sir William Snow Harris was a British physician and electrical researcher, nicknamed Thunder-and-Lightning Harris, and noted for his invention of a successful system of lightning conductors for ships. It took many years of campaigning, research and successful testing before the British Royal Navy changed to Harris's conductors from their previous less effective system. One of the successful test vessels was HMS Beagle which survived lightning strikes unharmed on her famous voyage with Charles Darwin.
HMS Beagle was one of the first ships protected from lightning by Harris's conductors.
A lightning rod or lightning conductor is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike. If lightning hits the structure, it is most likely to strike the rod and be conducted to ground through a wire, rather than passing through the structure, where it could start a fire or cause electrocution. Lightning rods are also called finials, air terminals, or strike termination devices.
Lightning striking the lightning rod of the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada.
Drawing of a general store by Marguerite Martyn in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of October 21, 1906, with a traveling salesman selling lightning rods
Lightning protection system at a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Lightning rod on a statue.
