WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Benjamin Franklin fashioned the first lightning rod in the 1750s following his famous experiment flying a kite with a key attached during a thunderstorm, the American ...

Benjamin Franklin is credited with inventing the lightning rod, and for some 270 years it has remained the main tool for protecting buildings from destructive and potentially deadly thunderbolts. But ...

A group of scientists have created a high-power laser beam that they claim lightning will follow for a period of time. Physicists have published a new study in the scientific journal Nature Photonics ...

Scientists have found a competitor to the lightning rod — one of the most tried and true methods of controlling where lightning strikes. The new method is far more expensive, but it allowed scientists ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. There’s a reason lightning rods haven’t changed much since ...

SPOKANE, Wash.-- For the first time, scientists have proof that lasers can help direct where lightning strikes go. This may be the biggest breakthrough in lightning safety since Ben Franklin invented ...

Lightning rods have been used to safely guide strikes into the ground since Benjamin Franklin's day, but their short range (roughly the same radius as the height) and fixed-in-place design makes them ...

Lightning rods have been used to guide lightning strikes for centuries, but now scientists have demonstrated something a bit more advanced than a humble metal stick. Beaming a high-powered laser into ...

Most Americans are familiar with the story of Benjamin Franklin and his famous 18th-century experiment in which he attached a metal key to a kite during a thunderstorm to see if the lightning would ...

In the mid-18th century, Benjamin Franklin helped elucidate the nature of lightning and endorsed the protective value of lightning rods. And yet, a hundred years later, much of the public remained ...

Benjamin Franklin experimented with electricity on fowl. Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Duplessis, courtesy of The Library of Congress In 1751 Benjamin Franklin planned an electrical ...