lightning arrester

American  

noun

1. a device for preventing damage to radio, telephonic, or other electric equipment from lightning or other high-voltage currents, using spark gaps to carry the current to the ground without passing through the device.

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lightning arrester British  

noun

1. a device that protects electrical equipment, such as an aerial, from an excessive voltage resulting from a lightning discharge or other accidental electric surge, by discharging it to earth

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Etymology

Origin of lightning arrester

First recorded in 1855–60

Example Sentences

A lightning arrester no bigger than a quart-size fruit jar receives the bolt, discharges it harmlessly through its coils.

From Time Magazine Archive

Of course on an indoor aerial there’s no need of a lightning arrester.

From The Radio Boys at the Sending Station Making Good in the Wireless Room by Chapman, Allen

The simple principles of switchboard construction, the development of the switchboard, the connections of the various instruments, including the lightning arrester, are also plainly set forth.

From Aviation Engines Design?Construction?Operation and Repair by Pag?, Victor Wilfred

To protect the house and your apparatus from lightning insert a fuse and a little carbon block lightning arrester such as are used by the telephone company in their installations of house phones.

From Letters of a Radio-Engineer to His Son by Mills, John

But talking of radio reminds me that we ought to get busy with that lightning arrester we were talking about.”

From The Radio Boys at the Sending Station Making Good in the Wireless Room by Chapman, Allen