Name/Title
Thunder HouseEntry/Object ID
2013.3.82Description
Watkin's & Hill (A Descriptive Catalogue, Etc., London, 1836) state, "Mahogany model, called Thunder House, to explain the use of metallic rods as a protection to buildings from the effects of lightning, and also to show the superiority of pointed over rounded surfaces as a quiet and slow conductor of electricity."
This house, which stands over eight inches high, has hinged sides and roof and it contains a holder for gunpowder which explodes when an electric charge is transmitted to it through a rod attached to the chimney. Rounded topped rods are more vulnerable to a sudden electric spark than are the pointed rods. The chimney and lightning rod are missing from the house in our collection.
In 1839, in Paris, this house sold for 30 francs.Collection
Moosnick Museum - Scientific Apparatus