 There is an ongoing debate over whether a "metereological machine", invented by Premonstratensian priest Prokop Diviš and erected in Přímětice near Znojmo, Moravia (now Czech Republic) in June 1754, does count as an individual invention of the lightning rod.Diviš's apparatus was, according to his private theories, aimed towards preventing thunderstorms altogether by constantly depriving the air of its superfluous electricity.The apparatus was, however, mounted on a free-standing pole and probably better grounded than Franklin's lightning rods at that time, so it served the purpose of a lightning rod.