Prokop Divis was a Czech canon regular, theologian and natural scientist, who invented the first grounded lightning rod.
Background
Prokop Divis was born Václav Divíšek on March 26, 1698, in a small farmhouse on the outskirts of Helvíkovice u Žamberka, Bohemia, Habsburg Empire (now Ústí nad Orlicí District, Czech Republic), the son of Anně and Jan Divíšek. He lived there with his siblings until 1714. When his father died, his elder brother Jan took over the small farm.
The birthplace of Prokop Diviš is still on the left bank of the Divoká Orlice River in Helvíkovice and since 1965 it has been open to the public as a part of the Municipal Museum in Žamberk.
Education
From 1716 Divis attended secondary school at Znojmo, in southern Moravia. In 1719 Divis joined the Premonstratensian monastery at Louky, where he completed his study of philosophy and was ordained in 1726. He then taught natural science at the monastery school and introduced practical experiments in the classroom. Divis also taught theology, becoming doctor of theology at Salzburg in 1733 and doctor of philosophy, probably in 1745 at Olmutz (now Olomouc).
Career
In 1736 Divis was appointed parson in the small village of Přímětice, near Znojmo, where he remained, except for a brief interval, until his death.
During his stay at the monastery of Louky, Divis concerned himself with practical hydraulics. From his manuscripts it appears that he also worked in chemistry and alchemy. He even constructed a musical instrument called the “denisdor,” which resembled a complicated harpsichord and had strings that could be electrified.
Divis’ main interest was electricity. It is not know exactly when he began work in this area, but in 1748 he performed various electrical experiments. He is said to have demonstrated the electric effects of the conductive point in Vienna as early as 1750. By means of unnoticeable pointed wires inserted into his wig, he drew off the electricity from a charged solid body. He had also considered drawing off electricity from clouds, but it is not until early in 1753 - only after Dalibard’s first experiments - that there is any evidence of Divis’ real interest in and ideas about atmospheric electricity.
In that year Divis also wrote a treatise explaining why the St. Petersburg physicist G. W. Richmann had been killed by a flash of lightning, and sent it to Euler. In a letter dated October 24, 1753, which accompanied the treatise, he hints at his intention of finishing that winter a machine for reducing the severity of thunderstorms and of testing it the following summer. On June 15, 1754, Divis erected his lightning conductor in the rectory garden of Prlmetice.
The basic idea of Divis’ conductor was a consistent application of the point-effect analogy (discovered by Franklin in 1747), that metal points possess the property of allowing electricity to flow away from a charged object. This led Divis to believe that a thundercloud could be deprived of its charge, thus entirely preventing lightning. Divis’ lightning conductor consisted of a horizontal iron cross with three boxes with twenty-seven points attached to the end of each arm. This complicated machina meteorologica was placed on a wooden frame about 108 feet high and connected to the ground by four iron chains. Whether the chains were intended only to increase the stability of so high a structure or whether Divis was actually aware of the necessity of grounding remains uncertain.
At any rate, the grounding made the conductor truly effective, in contrast with the insulated experimental rods of that time. In this respect, Divis’ lightning conductor is considered to be the first to afford actual protection from lightning, although, of course, it did not possess the preventive effects attributed to it by its inventor. The lightning conductor remained standing at Přímětice until 1760, when the villagers, believing it to be the cause of a great drought, broke the chains and a heavy gale did the rest. Divis later attached a smaller version to the steeple of his church.
Divis also was interested in the therapeutic applications of electricity, advocating such treatments and carrying them out. He is said to have cured more than fifty persons. He doubtless was a highly skilled experimenter, but the results he obtained were never beyond the level of the period.
Divis devoted much attention to the theoretical explanation of electric phenomena. In doing so he referred to Genesis, and in many respects he was influenced by Aristotle and the Scholastics. These influences, together with the general distrust of lightning conductors, seem to have been the main reasons why - despite his continual efforts - Divis was not more appreciated during the Enlightenment.
In 1753 he sought membership in the Berlin Academy of Sciences; in 1755 he took part in a competition at the St. Petersburg Academy; in 1760 he solicited a professorial chair at Vienna University - but all in vain. Likewise, he had great difficulties with his only publication, Magia naturalis, which was rejected by the Vienna censors. It was not published until the year of his death, with the help of German Protestants.
Religion
Divis was affiliated with the Catholic Church.
Personality
Scientific research mattered more to Divis than his parish duties. Unfortunately, he lived at a great distance from his country’s centers of learning. He had to keep up with scientific developments through literature, personal contacts, and (chiefly) correspondence. Of the latter, however, only a small portion has been found. Thus circumstance made Divis more or less self-taught.
