Need Opinion Old lightening Rod

I have the old lightening rod that came off my grandfather house years ago.. It is about 3=4 feet tall with milk glass ball and a wind directional arrow and about 100 years old.
I want to put it on my new pole shop which is 36 feet wide with a 4/12 roof.

My question is if I put this rod up on the peak will this increase my chances of lighten striking this building. I don.t have the the rest of the rod that connects to the ground.

Whats your opinion on this installation

my 2 cents : i would find some way to put a ground wire on it so it works. not sure how much diffrence it would make but i would not take the chance. there was a shed hit a year or so ago apx 15 miles from me and the guy lost about half his stuff in the shed.

If the shed is tin and probably 20-25' to the peak I don't imagine the last 3' is going to be what makes the difference. Actual lightning rod cable is some pretty interesting stuff and supposed to be installed in a certain manner, not to mention expensive. I would just put it on and not worry about it. Show a picture if you would, we all pike to see that stuff.

I would not worry about it.

I would put it in the house and keep it for an antique. Could get damaged outside.

My vote is with Retired Farmer on this. Since it is so old and likely has a certain amount of sentimental value, I would either store it in a safe place or put it on display somewhere INSIDE the shop. It will be a good conversation piece, and be relatively safe. If installed on top of a building, and it does get hit buy lightening, the glass ball will be broken if nothing else.

I would not put it on your shed. Has NOTHING to do with weather or lightnig. A friend of my father"s about twenty years ago got a phone call when she got home about the POWER company hooking up a wire to her house. Said they had a bucket truck. She had no clue what her friend was talking about. She went out and took a look at her very old farm house and finaly figured out what had happend. THE POWER GUYS WERE antique THEIVES. They ripped off both of her old glass globe rods!! They dump them at a friends on the way back to the yard and do not get caught when she called the power company. I have no idea if they ever got caught but there were a lot of Pi--.s..ed off people in the area after a while; stuff missing. Jeffcat

Thanks guys for the relys. I will think about putting it on the wall inside the shop. I also Have the hay forks from my grandfather barn that I am going to mount inside the shop. Tomorrow I am putting up on the wall my grandmother saddle and my fathers army saddle. Next I have a car tag collection from my wifes father that is also going up soon

Thanks Guys

? Why are there no rods on todays building?????If you put it on a tin roof without a ground the Elec goes down the roof and if not grounded to the wall will arc from roof to wall. FIRE. I would make a lamp out of it for inside house. Some where about mid 50's farmers were taking them off their barns.

Its hard to say, with so many variables involved, but I would think you would want it grounded properly, in my opinion, without hesitation, if you do use it. One strike on a large poplar tree on our land in 2011, entered a small branch, no bigger than a lighting rod in diameter, it blew 4x4 chunks of wood out over 100', 50 feet down the trunk of the tree to the ground, I would not want to deal with that with a building, properly grounded, it should carry the load safely to the ground, or so I would think, I am no expert, instinct tells me to play it as safe as you can when it comes to lightening.

The conductor, (bare ground wire)for these systems as I understand it, is a specific type of conductor for this purpose, I know this from dealing with the company in the attached link, many years ago, they installed lightening protection systems on high rise buildings in the Metro NYC area that I worked on and beyond. The glass bulb, I would retain that and keep it, not use it, some of these are worth money or at least have keepsake value, fragile too. I have one from one of our big old hay barns and I had to precariously climb up a weather compromised roof to get it, its a Hawkeye brand, clear, with a purple tint, probably from all the years in the sun. you can find them on ebay, I see the exact same Hawkeye style that I have in milk glass, nice collectibles, but fragile like I said.

Good FAQ information on this site in the link below.
Associated Lightening Rod Company Inc

ebay Listings

No the reason for the ground was lead the strike to ground unless your roff is grounded it wont make any difference put it up and enjoy. The power line will catch a strike before the building.

"My question is if I put this rod up on the peak will this increase my chances of lighten striking this building."


Answer: Possibly a very slight increased chance due to an elevated higher sharp pointed element above the roof...


"I don.t have the the rest of the rod that connects to the ground. Whats your opinion on this installation"

While it would be "better" if the proper correct attached big braided copper ground wire was wired down to a grounding Electrode I wouldn't worry that much about it.

John T

My uncle has them on an old barn and house at an out of the way property. Someone tried to steal them by wrapping a rope around them and pulling them down. They got them bent down even with the roof so the rope wouldn't hold anymore and decided to quit. They busted up 3 or 4 of them that way before they figured it wasn't going to work. They didn't get them but they sure broke them trying.

My metal sheathed pole barn came with a weather vane made of aluminum. It"s not a lightning rod so there is no ground wire attached to it. Many buildings have weather vanes so I don"t think I would worry about using your "former" lightning rod weather vane as a plain ol" weather vane.
JMHO

Sounds like a really neat piece. I bet they don't sell those down at Harbor Freight.