Thunder church

Thunder church It must have been a spectacular sight, at the public demonstrations Jacob Uilkens organised as professor of agronomy. Under the watchful eye of farmers and villagers from the Marne area, north of Groningen, he placed a small tin of gunpowder in this wooden ‘thunder church’. Hanging just above it, coming down from the tower, was a copper wire. Next, Uilkens generated electricity through a small electrostatic generator, until an artificial lightning bolt hit the brass knob on the tower. Then… boom! The hinged sides flew outward and the church collapsed. These demonstrations, which took place mainly after 1815, were designed to convince the public of the blessings of lightning conductors. The principle had been discovered by Benjamin Franklin in 1752, but it wasn’t until the beginning of the nineteenth century that the first lightning rod was placed on a Dutch building. In 1837 the Martini Tower in Groningen got one too.