... http://scitation.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_59/iss_1/42_1.shtml?bypassSSO=1 Benjamin Franklin and Lightning Rods Franklin& apos;s work on electricity and lightning earned him worldwide fame and respect—ideal assets for brokering ... friends and neighbors, including Thomas Hopkinson, a lawyer and judge; Ebenezer Kinnersley, a clergyman and teacher; and Philip Syng Jr, a master silversmith. Franklin described the experiments and ... most authorities agree that lightning rods define and control the points where lightning will strike the structure and then guide the current safely into ground. As Franklin noted in 1761, "Indeed,...