Chapter-1 Lightning Chandima Gomes

Chapter-1 Lightning Chandima Gomes

CHAPTER- 1

Historical Preview

1.1 Lightning Gods & Beliefs

The glazing momentary brightness followed by the monstrous bellowing,

occur naturally in the atmosphere, now we term lightning and thunder, was
treated as a powerful divine deity by the people of many civilisations for few
thousand years. Ancient people believed that Lightning is a God who
punishes the bad people. They believed that the Gods send lightning bolts
from heaven to attack misbehaving human beings on earth. People around
the world, painted the picture of this god according to their culture.

The earliest form of the lightning-thunder god was the „thunderbird‟, who
created lightning and thunder either from its beak or from its wings.
Engravings of thunderbird have been found in the archaeological sites of the
Bronze Age in Dodona and Minussinsk in Siberia, Dong Son in Vietnam and
on pots in north Peru.

Several Red-Indian tribes lived in North America believed that lightning is

due to the flashing of feathers of a mystical thunderbird. Thunder is the
sound of the flapping wings, according to their belief.

As it is found in the mythology, Zeus of Greece (Figure 1.1), Jupiter of Rome

and Typhon of Egypt, send lightning bolts from heaven. The Greek legends
states that the thunderbolt was invented by Minerva the goddess of wisdom
and gifted to the Lord Zeus to punish the bad entities. According to one of
the Greek legendary stories, a Cretan called Iasios was struck by lightning
hurled by Zeus for attempting to ravish Demeter, the goddess of corn. The
ancient Roman empires, practised a cult of deducing the powers of god by
visualising and observing lightning and thunder. Since lightning was a
manifestation of the gods, a location struck by lightning was regarded as
sacred. Greek and Roman temples were often erected at such sites, where
the gods were worshipped in an attempt to appease them.

According to the Vedic mythology of India, Indra, the god of earth,

conquered innumerable human and demon enemies, and killed the dragon
Vrtra, who had prevented the monsoon from breaking, by means of the
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power of lightning and thunder. Agni, the god of fire, also uses lightning as a
major weapon to demolish the enemies of divinity.

A list of other ancient and present Thunder / Lightning Gods is given below.
Figure 1.2 depicts several of the lightning gods.

* Tien Mu (goddess), Lei Tsu and Lei Kung in China

* Thor of Scandinavians whose name is the origin of Thursday
* Tlaloc of Aztecs in Central America (now Mexico)
* Aktzin of Totonacs in Central America (now Mexico)
* Jasso of Mesoamericans in Central America (Now Honduras & Nicaragua)
* Chaac of Mayans in Central America (now Guatemala)
* Apocatequil of Incas in South America (now Peru)
* Haokah of Lakotas in North America (Now Dakota)
* Perun in Slavia and Bulgaria
* Raijin and Ajisukitakahikone in Japan
* Perkunas in Latvia and Lithuania
* Teshab of Hurrians in North Mesopotamia
* Taru of Hattians in Anatolia and Turkey
* Ishkur of Sumerians in Babylonia
* Adad of Akkadian in Babylonia
* Haddad in Middle East and Minor Asia
* Taranis in Gaul and Britain
* Perendi in Albania
* Ukko in Finland and Uku in Estonia
* Oya (goddess) and Shango of Youruba tribe in Nigeria
* Azaka-Tonnerre of Voodoo in Haiti
* Haikili and Kaha'i of Hawaiians in Polynesia
* Tāwhaki and Uira of Maoris in Polynesia

It is apparent that, according to these beliefs, the people of these ancient

civilisations knew that lightning possesses a massive power that they could
not understand with their persisting knowledge.

One phenomenon common to all these beliefs through out the world is that
the thrower of the lightning bolt is a divine entity while the receiver of the
thunder bolt is a sinful human being or a hellish entity. Thus naturally, a
person struck by lightning was branded as a sinner and a structure hit by
lightning was treated as a place not suitable for residence. The lightning
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striking to an important structure such as a religious place or a palace was

treated by the people as a very bad omen.

The Holly Quran of Islamic religion also mentioned about the God‟s power
on lightning. Surah 24: 43; "... And He sends down hail from the sky hail
mountains (or there are in the heaven mountains of hail from where He
sends down hail), and strikes therewith whom He wills and averts it from
whom he wills. The vivid flash of its lightning nearly blinds the sight." (Tafsir
At-Tabari)

At several places of the Holly Bible of Christian religion, the thunder and
lightning are spoken of as tokens of God's wrath or a representation of God's
glorious and awful majesty or some judgment of God on the world.

The lightning and thunder gods still continues in the popular beliefs of
several communities in the world. Some Eastern Europeans believe that St.
Elijah is the controller of lightning while some Latin Americans treat Santiago
as the saint of lightning.

One of the present communities in which, the belief of lightning god (or the
lightning ghost or spirit) is deep rooted is the Nigerian Yoruba tribe. They
call the lightning spirit as Shango, the thrower of thunderbolts. In this
Nigerian society a person getting a lightning strike is treated as a sinful
offender of god and nobody dares to touch his body except for the closest
relations. Usually the entire family of the lightning target is extradited from
the society. Unfortunately Nigeria is a region of very high lightning density
thus a person receiving a lightning strike is somewhat higher than that is in
average region of the world.

The lightning bird-god is still practised in the Bantu tribe in Africa by the
name Umpundulo. The indigenous doctors of Bantu tribe, even at present go
out in storms and bid the lightning to strike far away.

Sri Lanka, a country where lightning has never been treated as a god or
divine entity, has her own share on the mystery of lightning. It is long
standing traditios of Sri Lankans to curse on the foes with the phrase “be
lightning-without-rain fall upon you”. Later in this book, under the section on
positive lightning (that strikes most often in the absence of rain); you will
understand how scientific the thinking behind this curse is.
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Another true story that is popular among the Sri Lankans in the hill country
city Nuwara Eliya, still opens a riddle to be solved with respect to lightning.
Major Thomas William Rogers was a British National who was appointed in
the 1980‟s as the Assistant Government Agent and the District Judge of
Badulla, a mountainous district of then Ceylon, a Colony of the British
Empire (Now Sri Lanka). He was an elephant hunter and is credited with
killing over one thousand five hundred elephants within a short span of four
years. One of the elephants that Major Roger's killed was from the sacred
area of Kataragama, a sacred city. An old patriarch had warned him that he
had done wrong in killing this elephant within the sacred boundaries of one
of Lanka's holiest citadels and that he should beware of a tragic death. On
the 7th of June 1845, when Roger's stepped outside from his shelter in a
stormy night, onlookers suddenly witnessed a flash of lightning and saw the
elephant hunter fall face forwards. In the government cemetery of Nuwara
Eliya lies the tomb of Rogers, which, according to the records, have been
struck lightning twice since it was erected. Even today a visitor to the
cemetery may see the crack on the tomb stone where the lightning struck.

Figure 1.1: God Zeus with a lightning

on the left hand. He hurls lightning
bolts from heaven to attack
misbehaving human beings on earth.
He is not the only divine deity that
used the power of lightning to destroy
the bad ones. In many of the great
civilizations existed in the world the
lightning became either a god itself or
a weapon of a god.
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Figure 1.2
Figure 1.2: Lightning Gods
 Chapter-1 Lightning Chandima Gomes

1.2 Lightning incidents

The history of medieval Europe consists of numerous incidents of lightning

caused destruction. Among these lightning accidents, the total destruction of
the campanile of San Marco in Venice, the church of St. Nazaire in Bresica
(both in Italy) and the partial destruction of Coliseum, the giant amphitheatre
in Rome and Heidelberg castle, the magnificent red sand stone structure in
Germany are well known.

In the eighteenth century in France and some other part of Europe many
clergies believed that they can dissipate lightning by ringing church bells.
This blind faith became deadly hazardous on the 14th of April 1718, the day
when the coast of Brittany had a severe thunderstorm. Twenty four
churches were lightning struck on the night of this fatal day killing two and
injuring many devotees who were attending the ropes in the ritual of ringing
the church bells to chaise lightning away.

Two other catastrophic lightning incidents took place in Sumatra in 1782 and
in a Church on the Island of Rhodes in 1856. In Sumatra the Fort Malaga,
controlled by the Dutch received a lightning strike igniting 400 barrels of gun
powder and causing uncounted number of deaths. In the church in the Island
of Rhodes about four thousand people were killed by the fire and explosion
caused by the lightning strike. Apart from this, thousands of other
monuments have been destroyed by lightning during the passage of the
history.

Between 16th and 19th centuries hundreds of sailing ships were destroyed by
lightning. They had metal tops at the masks and they were also made of
wood and combustible fabrics. Thus, as they sail on ocean, they became
prime targets of lightning and subsequent destruction due to fire.

During the overcast conditions the metal tip of the mast of the ship
sometimes started emitting corona charges due to the enhanced electric
field. This charge dissipation was visualised as a fire by other ship passed
nearby. However, later they found that the ship that was apparently in fire
has been saved without damage. Thus people used to call the phenomenon
the Saint Elmo‟s fire [2].
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1.3 Development of Lightning Science

In Europe, the first methodical approach to the studies of atmospheric

electricity has been reported in 1752 by Thomas-François Dalibard (1709 -
1799) and his collaborator Philipe De Lor of France. By drawing sparks from
an iron rod insulated from ground, they could prove that thunderclouds are
electrically charged. The scientists in Italy also, showed that sparks can be
drawn from insulated metal rods under overcast conditions, hence verified
the presence of electric charge in thunder clouds.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) in America, originally proposed the above

illustration with his sentry box experiment just after the success of the two
French scientists, but not knowing that (there is a controversy on who
proposed the experiment first). In this experiment Franklin said that a person
insulated from the ground and connect himself to a long vertical metal pole,
can induce a spark between his fingers and the grounded metal walls of the
sentry box (where the experiment is carried out) by keeping the finger close
to the wall when a thunderstorm is passing by (Figure 1.3). Instead of
carrying out this experiment, he conducted the famous kite experiment which
was equally dangerous under thunderstorm conditions. On a highly overcast
day he flew a kite in the presence of his 21 year old son. They could see
sparks leaping from the thread of the kite to a bunch of keys that Franklin
was holding in one of his hands. Both Franklin and his son were lucky not to
get a lightning strike.

With the kite experiment Franklin confirmed the electrical nature of thunder
clouds which laid the basis of the explanation of the lightning. Further
experiments on cloud electricity and lightning were conducted in the mid
eighteenth century, by Franklin and his collaborators. The invention of the
lightning protection rod, named after Franklin, was one of the greatest
achievements during this period. While recommending the installation of a
well grounded metal conductor at the roof top of buildings for lightning
protection Franklin clearly mentioned that the purpose of the system is to be
a preferred striking point for a lightning that will come to the building; a
concept that is valid even today. At a latter time, the objective of such a
lightning protection system was misquoted as “neutralizing of a thundercloud
to prevent lightning striking ground”. This misconception was rectified only in
the mid 20th century [1, 2].
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Figure 1.3: The sentry box experiment described by Franklin to prove

that clouds are electrified. When the man keep the metal rod close to the
grounded metal wall a spark was predicted to jump between them.
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In Europe, eighteenth century was an eventful period in lightning studies.

The news of Franklin‟s studies have arrived the continent and there were
ferocious arguments and discussions took place in the scientific congresses
of Europe.

Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) and Thomas-François Dalibard of France

backed up the concept of lightning protection through Franklin rods while
Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700 -1770), and René Réaumur (1683 – 1757) two of
the leading scientists at that time, strongly opposed the idea. Among the last
two Jean-Antoine Nollet, popularly known as Abbé Nollet vehemently
rejected the concepts built up by Franklin, more on political rivalry rather
than on scientific basis. At that time American continent, successfully
rebelling against the European domination, was treated as a land of
uncivilised people thus some scientists in Europe, could not accept the fact
that some serious science has been developed in the American continent.
Abbé Nollet one of the leading scientists at that time in Europe, who was the
first to recognize the importance of sharp conducting points in electrical
discharging and also pioneered in inventing several electricity generators,
unfortunately opposed the idea of protecting structures with grounded
conducting rods and strongly discouraged the royal entities in the continent
in adopting such recommendations. This personal ignorance of not
accepting the Franklin rod caused the destruction of several structures in
France [1, 2] and may be a number of unreported incidents in the rest of
Europe.

One of the most noteworthy incidents with respect to lightning that took place
in Europe during the 18th century was the unfortunate demise of the Swedish
Scientist Professor Georg Richman who was working in St. Petersburg,
Russia On the 6th of August 1783. Professor Richman was influenced by the
findings of Benjamin Franklin on the thunderstorm electricity. On this fatal
day he was replicating the sentry box experiment with his assistant. He has
gone little further than Franklin and was trying to utilize the thunderstorm
electricity to charge capacitors. At this instant a lightning struck, killing the
professor and knocking down his assistant unconscious (but unharmed).
According to the descriptions given on this incident at a latter time, a small,
blue, fist-sized ball lightning has showed up through the apparatus, collided
with Richman's head, and killed him, leaving a red spot on the forehead.
However, it seems that this story of ball lightning has evolved after the
famous painting which depicts the death of Prof. Richman. This picture
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(Figure 1.4) which shows a ball of fire moving towards Richman‟s head,
focussed through a pair of forceps-like apparatus in his hand, may most
probably be the imagination of an artist who has little or no knowledge about
lightning. In contrast, the fact that his assistant has fallen unconscious (may
be due to step potential) and the following investigation report clearly shows
that he has been subjected to a side flash of a lightning that has struck the
metal rod that protruding outside the roof. The investigation report states that
“He has a small hole in his forehead, the brain is not apparently damaged,
the front part of the lung is sane, but the rear part is brown and black with
blood. His shoes were blown open and a blue spot is seen at his foot while
parts of his clothes are singed. The doorframe of the room is split and the
door itself has torn off from its hinges”; all are signs of multiple side flashes.

Figure 1.4: Professor Georg

Richman‟s death from the eye of an
artist. The painting depicts that the
lightning (as a ball of fire) has come out
Fire ball of the rod, focussed through an object,
similar to a pair of forceps in
Professor‟s right hand, towards his
face. While the possibility of a ball
lightning cannot be completely
discarded, the evidence pertinent to
the incident implies that more possibly,
the painting reflects the 18th Century
artist‟s understanding of the lightning
phenomenon. Even today some people
believe that lightning is a ball of fire
that emanate from the sky.

After the boom of the scientific studies pertinent to cloud electricity in the
second half of the eighteenth century, there was a long pause in this respect
until the well known Nobel Laureate, C. T. R. Wilson of United Kingdom
started his research in 1916. He was the first to use the measurements of
remote electric fields to determine the cloud structure.
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Lightning research was further boosted by the invention of the streak camera
by C. V. Boys (South Africa) in 1926.

The development and wide spread of power and communication networks in

many countries in the middle of the twentieth century, motivated scientists to
study the physics of lightning to implement better lightning protection
systems.

During this period, the scientist who made major contributions to this field
are: B. F. J. Schonland, D. J. Malan and N. D. Clarence in South Africa, R.
H. Golde in United Kingdom, C. F. Wagner and K. B. McEachron in USA,
Harold Norinder in Sweden and K. Berger in Switzerland

The destruction of a Boeing 707 aeroplane in 1963 and the damage caused
to a moon bound space vehicle in 1969 by lightning strikes attracted the
attention of many scientists and consequently drew large funds towards
lightning research in the early 70‟s. These studies became more and more
significant with the rapid improvement of the sophisticated electronics, which
are highly susceptible to external electromagnetic disturbances such as
lightning.

As a consequence, researchers developed methods to trigger lightning to

strike a pre-determined object, thus, enabling them to measure many
lightning features. These triggered lightning experiments extensively backed
up the improvement of reliable lightning detection, warning and protection
systems that have been constructed later.
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1.4 Lightning Protection in the Ancient Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka may be the only country in the world having a continuous written
history of over 2500 years. The most detailed and highly regarded history
book, Mahawamsa (The Great Chronicle) of which the first part was written
in the 5th Centuries A.D. by a Buddhist monk states at several places
regarding the lightning protection given to Buddhist Stupas in the
Anuradhapura Kingdom* (4th century B.C. to 11th Century A.D.).

Anuradhapura Kingdom is famous for the sky scraping stupas which are
sacred places for Buddhists even today. Among many such stupas, there
are 3 most significant structures, namely Jetavanaramaya (400 feet in
height), Abhayagiriya (370 feet in height) and Ruvanveliseya (300 feet in
height), Their ground level diameter was around 350 feet [3]. The 3 Stupas
were ranked as the 3rd, 5th and 7th tallest buildings of the ancient world.

According to the Mahawamsa, King Sangathissa I (243 - 247 A.D.) has

installed a Lightning Protection system called “Vajra Chumbata” to the
Ruvanveliseya. Then King Datusena has installed “Vajra Chumbata” again to
Ruvanveliseya, Jetavanaramaya and Abhyagirya with the intention of
protecting the Stupas from Lightning. The King Mahanaga (561 - 564 A.D.)
has also rectified the lightning protection systems of the 3 main stupas [4].

Unfortunately the writer of Mahawansa is not giving any details regarding

this device. It should be expected that the writer, a Buddhist monk, was not
knowledgeable enough to explain the scientific background of a lightning
protection system at a time the scientific and technological implementations
were done by people of a certain cast. Even today one can not expect a
writer from a non-science sphere to describe a lightning protection system in
a historical chronology other than mentioning about it. The most important
fact in this case is that Sri Lankans, as early as in the 3rd Century had the
concept of lightning protection (protection from lightning by installing some
devices in a building). Interestingly, it took the people in Europe (and who
went to American continent), 1500 more years to acquire the slightest idea of
the possibility of seeking protection against lightning.

After several efforts of getting reliable information on the structure of ancient

stupas, a qualitative argument of the above lightning protection system could
be developed, as given below.
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Figure 1.5: The Jetavanaramaya Stupa in Anuradhapura during the

restoration in 2004. The conical upper part of the stupa including the
location of the Vajra Chumbata has been destroyed due to natural
withering over the last few centuries. Interestingly there are no
historical records on lightning damage to any of these large stupas
during the Anuradhapura kingdom that stretches ove1000 years,
during which any such incident, if occurred, should have been well
documented. The ancient Kingdom is on a flat terrain where the
stupas are the tallest protrusions. At present, every year, several
lightning causalities are reported from this area, which indicates that
the lightning density in the area is not that low.
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As per the archaeological reports, the “Vajra Chumbata is a large ring or

block of quartz crystal installed at the top of the Stupa (Figure 1.5) [3].
Typically, the Quartz crystal is supported from the bottom by a metallic
container (Gold mixed alloy) which is fixed to the brick structure. There are
no historical records on the type of quartz that has been used for the
purpose. Being a semiconductor, with variable resistivity that depends on
temperature (from 105 Ω to 1018 Ω), it is not unfair to expect the quartz crystal
to send the first answering leader at 120 m height, before the other parts of
the structure. It is interesting to study the dynamic behaviour of quartz in the
presence of an extremely high transient electric field. Perhaps, quartz may
have better optimized ability to be the preferred interception point for a
stepped leader compared to a metallic air-termination that may even be the
striking point (at 120 m height) for a lightning that may have attached
elsewhere (other than the protected structure). Quartz has a specific heat
capacity almost twice as that of copper (about 780 J kg -1 K-1) and a melting
point (1720 ˚C) about 400 ˚C more than that of copper. Therefore, the
quarts block will withstand more heat dissipation than a copper rod does.

A stupa is a circularly symmetric structure thus, if the pinnacle is hit by

lightning the current will uniformly distribute along the circumference on its
path towards earth. As the circumference of a stupa is very large and the
walls are of several meters in thickness the current density at any cross
section will be considerably small. Therefore, the passage of current to
ground is not of that concern even in the absence of an externally connected
down conductor. However, it will be interesting to investigate the resistivity
of bricks and fixing materials used in these structures.

The foundation of a stupa is about 10 - 20 m deep and having an area of

about 12,000 – 15,000 m2. As per the historical records, the foundation was
made of several types of rocks mixed with butter clay. An iron mesh has
been sandwiched between these layers. Such a foundation should have an
excellent performance in grounding transient currents injected by a lightning
strike [4].

Historical records reveal that there were no lightning damage to any of these
large stupas during the ancient times, specially in the Anuradhapura era
(ove1000 years), during which any such incident, if occurred, should have
been well documented. The ancient Kingdom is on a flat terrain where the
stupas are the tallest protrusions.