Maryland State House Dome
The Franklin Rod

Footnotes

1. Several ads appear in the Maryland Gazette for lectures discussing the causes and effects of electric fire. See: SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Maryland Gazette Collection) MSA SC 2731 Maryland Gazette. May 10, 1749; and, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Maryland Gazette Collection) MSA SC 2731 Maryland Gazette. August 30, 1764.

2. GENERAL ASSEMBLY (Law Record) MSA S973-14 The General Assembly Law Record Acts of 1773 Liber RG, ff. 310-311.

3. (November 1784 1-105) *As Mimi lists in HTML. See her for correct version.

4. The construction of the iron rod is not mentioned in the accounts of the auditor general. The creator of the rod is not specified but local ironmaster, Simon Rettalick, is paid several times for iron work done on the State House. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Auditor General Collection) MSA SC 2742-1 Auditor General Journal Book, f. 24

5. Rittenhouse was a leading authority of the physical sciences and generally agreed with Benjamin Franklin, who advocated the use of a long pointed lightning rod. After Peale's visit, the pointed lightning rod remained on the State House as the designers had planned it.

6. Lillian B. Miller, Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale & His Family, Volume I: Charles Willson Peale: Artist in Revolutionary Maryland. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press for the Smithsonian Institution, 1983.

7. Richard Anderson, Lightning Conductors: Their History, Nature, and Mode of Application, London: Spon, 1880. p. 17

8. Carl Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin, New York: The Viking Press, 1938, p. 160.

9. Richard Anderson, Lightning Conductors: Their History, Nature, and Mode of Application, London: Spon, 1880. p. 40.

10. Richard Anderson, Lightning Conductors: Their History, Nature, and Mode of Application, London: Spon, 1880. p. 41.

11. Richard Anderson, Lightning Conductors: Their History, Nature, and Mode of Application, London: Spon, 1880. p. 42.


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