The people believed that lightning was a direct expression of the wrath of God, and that any attempt to divert it was a defiance of His will. Far from saving the cathedral, the “heretical rod” could only attract a worse retribution.

...While the people of Siena were thanking God, some priests were perhaps remembering Benjamin Franklin in their prayers; Franklin had invented the lightning conductor 25 years earlier. Others had noted that lightning and the newly discovered electricity had similar properties; their flashes even released the same sulfurous smell. But Franklin was the first to conclude that lightning was electricity.

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