How do ancient Chinese buildings protect themselves from lightning?

When people think of Franklin, they think of thunder and lightning and his invention of the lightning rod. About 250 years ago, he proposed the idea of ??a lightning rod: installing a sharp metal pole high on a building, leading it underground along the wall, and burying it deeply could prevent lightning strikes.

Now it seems that Franklin's lightning rod is not so perfect. The British lightning rod has a ball at the top instead of a needle. The French do not use needles, but a cone. Only the Americans, sticking to Franklin's original design, still use irons with sharp tops.

On July 13, 1997, New York City in the United States was struck by lightning. Five high-voltage lines were cut off and the power was out for a whole day. Only then did the Americans realize that lightning rods were unreliable, so the newly designed lightning protection device was no longer a solitary needle, but more than 2,000 thin wires, installed on a hollow tube, looking like a feather duster.

In recent years, some new lightning protection devices have appeared, such as installing a radioactive source on a metal pole, or installing a semiconductor lightning arrester, etc. However, what is surprising is that ancient my country also had lightning protection devices. Let us first quote the account of a French traveler, Dema Ganlan: "At both ends of the roof of a Chinese house, there is an upturned dragon head, and the dragon's mouth spits out a twisting metal tongue and stretches it into the sky. The base of the tongue is connected to the ground by a metal wire. This wonderful device allows electricity to flow from the dragon tongue to the ground along the wire without damaging the building. ”

This paragraph. The account comes from Notes on China, written by the Frenchman in 1688. In 1688, it was more than 60 years earlier than 1750, when Franklin invented the lightning rod! It can be seen that our country has already had lightning protection devices. The "dragon head" that the Frenchman talks about is called "chī tail" in our country. According to legend, during the Han Dynasty, Weiyang Palace was struck by lightning and caught fire. Someone suggested to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that an owl fish that could extinguish fires be installed on the tail ridge of the palace. As a result, later palaces and private houses had metal ornaments called "鸱kiss" or "鸱tail" on both ends of the roofs, in the shapes of dragons, fish, roosters, etc. Unfortunately, these owl tails did not have metal wires connecting them to the earth, but the Frenchman described them as lightning rod-like devices based on his own observations. Therefore, this matter has become an unsolved mystery.

Some people later analyzed that although the owl tail has no metal wires to connect to the earth, when a storm hits, it wets the roof and walls, and it also plays a role in grounding.

However, there are many ancient pagodas in our country with pointed tops and protruding from the ground. They are most likely to attract lightning and are most vulnerable to lightning strikes, but they are well preserved. It’s not that thunder and lightning never came, but that when thunder and lightning came, it was eliminated.

In 1960, on a night of thunderous thunder, people saw the top of the Liuhe Pagoda in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province shining continuously. This is a discharge phenomenon. After the discharge, the lightning disaster disappears.

There are similar records in history. One summer night in 1611, the East Tower in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province shone with golden light and scattered like shooting stars. There is a pagoda in Dongjuecheng Temple in Hejin County, Shanxi Province. On stormy nights, the top of the pagoda often lights up.

There is a metal pagoda on the top of these ancient pagodas. It has been found that the oldest metal pagoda appeared in the Three Kingdoms era. The Baosheng Temple Tower (located in Gaochun County, Jiangsu Province), built in 229 AD, is 31 meters high. There is a decoration on the top of the tower, which is composed of a bowl, a phase wheel and a treasure gourd. It is about 4 meters high. People often call this iron brake "gourd string", which is a lightning protection device. Thanks to it, the tower has not been struck by lightning for one or two thousand years.

There are some more examples of this. There was a Guanghan Hall in Beijing in the Ming Dynasty, which was built in today's Beihai Park. Next to the hall stood an iron pole, several feet high, with three golden poles on the top. The gourd also leads an iron chain to the earth. Although the literature says that this is to suppress the dragon, the dragon of the North Sea, its real function is to protect against lightning.

It seems that although the ancient buildings introduced above do not have lightning rods, they are equipped with lightning elimination and lightning protection equipment. Is this an intentional arrangement by ancient craftsmen? If so, then the invention of the lightning rod will be greatly pushed back; if not, why are similar devices found in more than one or two places, but in many places?

In addition to the metal tower being a mystery, the masonry structure and wooden tower are also a mystery. The wooden towers in Yingxian County, Shanxi Province are all made of wood and are 51 meters high. This is a tall building that can easily attract thunder. However, it has gone through more than 900 years since it was built and still stands tall today. .

Some people say that this is a wooden tower that does not conduct electricity. The tower body does not conduct electricity and the ground is dry, so the wooden tower has lightning protection properties. Others say that when lightning strikes, the voltage is extremely high, up to several million volts, and the current is extremely large. The wooden structure tower will also become a conductor. How can it be said to be lightning protection?

This is also unclear.