Procopius Divisch
Divisch, Procopius
(ProkopDiviš). Born Mar. 26, 1698, in žamberk, Bohemia; died Dec. 21, 1765, in Přimětice, Moravia. Czech physicist. Beginning in 1736, Divisch was a priest of the parish of the village of Pfimetice. He studied electrostatic phenomena with the aid of an electric friction machine that he had perfected, and he built the first grounded lightning rod in Europe in 1754. Divisch made practical use of a method of electrotherapy that he developed. He also invented an original orchestrion-type musical instrument called a Denydor.