Prokop Diviš – A Czech Pastor Who Tried to Control Weather and Invented the Lightning Rod Instead
Diviš was a pastor in Přímětice, a neighborhood in the town of Znojmo near the Austrian border. In addition to preparing sermons and conducting ceremonies, he managed the monastery’s farmland. Diviš became fascinated with the study of electricity, a little-known subject in his time. He began experimenting with low voltage, achieving notable success in promoting plant growth and healing. He published his findings and even demonstrated them at the royal palace in Vienna.
Prokop Diviš’s house with the weather machine on the right. (Image: Wikimedia)
In 1753, Russian physicist Georg Wilhelm Richmann attempted to extract electricity from lightning using a metal rod but was struck and killed by lightning. The year before, American scientist Benjamin Franklin survived a similar accident during his famous kite experiment. News of Richmann’s death inspired Diviš to study atmospheric electricity. In his letters, he proposed building a “weather machine” with several physicists. This device was designed to suppress storms and lightning by regularly drawing electricity from the air. Diviš’s theories were considered fanciful at that time and were largely ignored. Not receiving any feedback, Diviš decided to build the machine himself.
On June 15, 1754, Diviš erected a 40-meter tall pole with no supports in Přímětice and placed the “weather machine” on top. The device consisted of several tin boxes and over 400 metal spikes. At that time, a popular hypothesis suggested that sharp spikes could conduct electricity more effectively. The pole was protected by heavy metal chains connected to the ground, making it one of the first grounded lightning rods in the world.
Diviš described his invention as highly effective in dispersing storms. According to his observations, clouds would form when the pole was lowered and disappear when it was raised again. He considered this evidence that the sharp spikes attracted latent electricity in the atmosphere and safely dispersed it before lightning could form.
Despite Diviš’s enthusiasm, his invention faced skepticism from the scientific community. In 1759, when a drought threatened the farmers of Přímětice, they dismantled the “weather machine” and blamed it for the lack of rain. Diviš then built a second “weather machine” and placed it on the church tower to prevent outsiders from destroying it. However, due to the villagers’ complaints, the church authorities advised Diviš to cease his experiments.
Undeterred, Diviš continued to correspond with scientists and proposed a theory he named Magia naturalis. He received support from two pastors from Württemberg who came to observe his experiments and helped him publish his theory abroad in the year of Diviš’s death.
For many decades, Benjamin Franklin was credited as the inventor of the lightning rod. However, by the late 19th century, the European scientific community began to assert that Prokop Diviš was the true father of the lightning rod. Some argued that his unsupported design from 1754 grounded better than Franklin’s experiments.
Today, Prokop Diviš is recognized as an independent developer of the lightning rod, contemporaneously with Benjamin Franklin. Both made significant contributions to the understanding and application of electricity. Their research has had a lasting impact on safety and lightning protection technology.
