Lightning¿facts and fancies

The lightning stroke, with its accompanying clap of thunder, has always been regarded with awe as one of nature´s more impressive manifestations. Not surprisingly this has given rise to a considerable amount of mythology on the subject, some of which persists even today. After a discussion of these ¿fancies¿ the paper turns to the work of Benjamin Franklin who made the first serious study of lightning,resulting in the invention of the lightning rod. Unfortunately this gave rise to thefamous controversy concerning sharp and blunt conductors. An outline of current theories of the lightning discharge is given and the paper ends with some comments on the effects of thunderstorms, particularly those which are of interest to the radio engineer