Seeing further: the story of science & the Royal Society — 6 SIMON SCHAFFER

1. 1. On 12 June 1781, a lightning strike at the Heckingham House of Industry in Norfolk set fire to the building despite the presence of pointed lightning rods installed four years earlier.
2. 2. The Royal Society sent Fellows Charles Blagden and Edward Nairne to investigate the Heckingham incident, but their findings were contested by local gentlemen and rival experts.
3. 3. Benjamin Franklin's lightning rod theory, which held that sharply pointed rods could silently discharge thunderclouds and prevent strikes, was already disputed within the Royal Society by the 1770s.
4. 4. The Heckingham controversy highlighted a fundamental problem: to judge whether the rods failed, experts had to decide whose testimony to trust, but trust depended on social status rather than technical expertise.
5. 5. Modern science shows that Franklin's claims about pointed rods silently discharging clouds and preventing strikes are false; pointed tips can actually make strikes more likely.
6. 6. The Royal Society's involvement in the lightning rod debate was driven by government pressure: the Board of Ordnance feared for its arsenals, and the King demanded certainty.
7. 7. The Heckingham affair parallels modern controversies where expert disagreement is mistaken for ignorance, and public trust in science becomes a lightning rod for broader conflicts.
8. 8. The term 'Promethean science' captures the ambition to protect humanity from threats while risking hubris and unintended consequences, as seen in both 18th-century lightning rods and modern genetic engineering.