The altitudes where lightning is born are limited by the height of a thundercloud, the direct source of lightning which is 20 kilometers or 12.4 miles at its highest.
Franklin himself, insulated by the silk string, became the ground wire of a giant atmospheric circuit, and the sparks he witnessed proved once and for all that thunderclouds are electrified.
Knight rapidly bound his handkerchief round the place, and to add to the complication, the thundercloud he had been watching began to shed some heavy drops of rain.
In the early 1960s, researchers tried firing rockets trailing wires into thunderclouds to set up an easy discharge path for the huge electric charges that these clouds generate.
Other ideas for keeping nature at bay include using lasers to generate clouds and for controlling thunderstorms.One idea involved firing laser pulses into thunderclouds in an attempt to suck out lightning in a controlled manner.