And when did it become commonly used in clothing?
Keep it clean, wear a band aid, and then a glove. (make sure its a colored band aid and not a skin tone one so if it falls off, you will notice it)
Before the lightning strikes there is actually a flow of charged particles up from the building to the cloud. When the flow of these particles gets enough to cause a cascade breakdown in the atmosphere you get the BIG flash and bang. So you deliberately provide a conductor high up on a building as the easiest source of these charged particles.
Years ago it was said they did work. I did see a a house that got it's lightning rod hit, and it still did damage. I myself think the rod may have attracted the lightning. They don't use them much any more, do they?
lightening hits the highest point in an area. what happens is the electrons in the earth will travel up through a structure to meet the electrons travelling down from the sky. a rod directs the electrons someplace other than the main structure of the building
lightning and electricity are attracted to metal objects like poles etc. so instead for going through objecs in your house, lighting will hit a lightning rod, and all the electricity will be directed from the rod, often to the ground
