The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-04-04

Northwest.
And the inventor and erector of this
pioneer instrument was a Catholic
monk, Premonstratensian Father of
Brenditz in Moravia
A widely circulated German non
Catholic magazine: "Ueber Land und
Meer," has in it's latest issue, called
attention to this interesting bit of his
of duplicate of the first serviceable
lightning-rod in the courtyard of the
castle at Znaim in Moravia. The
author of the article not only states
the priority of the erection of the
European apparatus over the Ameri-
can invention, but also reminds his
readers that the monk, Father Pro-
copius Divisch, had taken up the study
of the problem of drawing electricity
from the atmosphere without danger
to the surroundings, for the purpose of
preventing death and destruction by
lightning, almost 20 years before
Franklin devoted himself to this prob
lem seriously.
The ancient Egyptians, the Romans
and the Greeks had endeavored to
protect their buildings from lightning
by various devices, but their efforts
unfortunately were largely unsuccess-
full, and partly even disastrous to the
men conducting the experiments. "Ex-
periments along these lines" says the
writer. were conducted also during
the Middle Ages" After that time
during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, following the Reformation,
there was an hiatus in these expert
ments, which were resumed in the
eighteenth Gentry after the subject of
electricity had aroused new interest
in the various manifestations of this
force. Kleist, Nollet, Voll, Reimann,
Cunaeus and others then resumed ex-
periments in protecting buildings from
lightning, but confined their efforts to
more or less desultory and unsys-
tematic attempts. "The first to pur-
sue these ideas Systematically and in
tensively, says the author of the ar
ticle (and we beg the reader to bear
in mind that the publication from
which we quote is non-Catholic) were
Divisch and Franklin. 1t was the
former who, six years before Frank
lin, erected the first serviceable light
ning-rod. Wenceslaus Divisch was born
in 1896 at Senftenberg in Bohemia,
graduated from the Academy at
Znaim, then conducted by the Jesuits,
and entered the monastery of the
Premonstratensians at Bruck near
Znaim, where he received the name of
Procopius in religion. Later he be-
came rector of the parish at Brenditz,
where he remained until his death in
1865. This plain, unassuming priest
enjoyed an enviable reputation as
student of physics and mechanics, and
was repeatedly called to the court of
Maria Therese to demonstrate his ex-
periments and theories. Divisch pro-
posed to withdraw the electricity
from the atmosphere gradually and
to conduct it into the ground, without
danger to the surrounding objects or
periments Divisch knew nothing of
Franklin's studies along the same
lines, since his labors in this field
antedate those of Franklin by almost
20 years." In 1853, seven years be-
fore Franklin's experiment at Phila-
delphia was successful, Divisch had
submitted a defense of his system as
opposed to those of some others, to
the Academy of Sciences at Berlin
Divisch and Franklin, moreover,
pursued different theories. The i'm
portance of their invention is evident
to anyone who considers the general
use of these instruments at the pres
ent day and the great protection they
afford to life and property. The fact
that an unpretentious monk succeeded
in this important task so long before
the eminent American, and moreover
had occupied himself with his expert
ments almost two decades before the
latter should be a source of humilia-
tentionally malign the Church and its
servants as "reactionary" or "un-
progressive" It is also significant
that these modern inventors built up
on what had been begun in the much
maligned Middle Ages, while the six
teenth and seventeenth centuries had
but little if anything to offer them in
their particular field.