Why is lightning conductor made of copper

During every stage of animal and vegetable growth, electricity is either absorbed or given off, and no change can take place in the form of matter without affecting a change in its electrical conditions. When water is converted into vapor by intense solar influence, electrical equilibrium is disturbed, and in nature's efforts to restore the lost balance between earth, and air, we have thunder storms.

Electricity accumulates and floats in clouds, and unless it is quietly discharged or conducted back again to earth when the cloud becomes overcharged with its artillery, it bursts forth in fury, and sometimes proves very destructive to the persons and property of the children of men.

When lightning strikes a tree, in passing to the earth from a cloud, it oftentimes splinters itinpieces ; it never passes by the solid matter upon which it falls ; it endeavors to find its way to the earth by the interstical spaces between the particles composing the olid object; when these channels are insufficient to convey it, they are thrown apart, and the tree, house, or other object struck, is split in all directions.

There are certain bodies which, by their peculiar molecular construction, have the property of allowing this fluid to pass through them freely, and any of these bodies, of suffi-cient size to convey all the electricity of a thunder cloud to the earth, if placed in proximity to it, will pass the same as quietly and conveniently, and harmlessly, to the earth, as a pipe conveys rain water from the roof ot a building. These bodies are called lightning conductors ; Franklin was the first to apply them—his practical mind always looked to the useful, and this was one of his most useful discoveries.

A copper or iron rod, erected to project above the highest point of a building, and conducted down to some moist part of the earth, performs, as we have stated, the same office for lightning that a gutter does for rain water in conducting it to a cistern from the roof a house.

Copper makes the best lightning conductor—there is no fear of having it too thick: Faraday says, "the solid section is the grand object. If we take a wire, and form a galvanic circuit with a strong battery, if one part of the wire is thinned out, or is made of a different metal, such as an iron link in a copper chain, the thin part will be intensely heated, and so will the iron link.

An ironrod may be tipped at the point with silver or copper. The principle of constructing and putting up lightning conductors, is very simple ; any person can do so, or give directions to do so, who pays the least attention to the principles we have laid down.

The thickness of an iron one, we believe, should at least be half an inch in diameter, but rather let it be a thick wire, than to have none at all. The stays to bind the conductor to a chimney or the side of a house, should be non-conductors, such as thin strips of metal driven into dry varnished pegs of wood, and the conductor should always present the greatest amount of metal surface and section ; and it should terminate in some moist part ot the earth, such as a well or cistern.

Copper has many useful properties. For example, it is: a good electrical conductor a good thermal conductor corrosion resistant antibacterial easily joined ductile tough non magnetic attractive colour easy to alloy recyclable catalytic. Table 1.

Electrical conductivity. The values are a measure of how much current will flow in a standard sample when it is attached to 1 volt. These have led to its use in a number of applications throughout history. Now, its most important property is it electrical conductivity. Copper has the best electrical conductivity of any metal, except silver. A good electrical conductivity is the same as a small electrical resistance. Picture 1 A lightning conductor carries the charge safely to ground.

Copper wires allow electric current to flow without much loss of energy. This is why copper wires are used in mains cables in houses and underground although overhead cables tend be aluminium because it is less dense.

However, where size rather than weight is important, copper is the best choice. Thick copper strip is used for lightning conductors on tall buildings like church spires. The cable has to be thick so that it can carry a large current without melting.

Picture 2. A copper wire is made of a lattice of copper ions. There are free electrons that move through this lattice like a gas.

Copper is a metal. Copper wires allow electric current to flow without much loss of energy. Thick copper strip is used for lightning conductors on tall buildings like church spires. The cable has to be thick so that it can carry a large current without melting. Each copper atom has lost one electron and become a positive ion. The electrons can move freely through the metal. For this reason, they are known as free electrons.