This lightning conductor was manufactured at the Nevyansk plant in the first half of the 18th century. It is a hollow metal ball with a diameter of 30 centimeters. Its walls are one millimeter thick. Initially, 25 triangular pointed spines up to 40 centimeters long were fixed on it, of which only one has remained intact. When the lightning conductor was examined, more than 150 traces of lightning strikes were found on it.

The lightning conductor was part of the lightning protection system. It intercepted the electrical charge from the air. Moreover, the design of the lightning rod included a ground plate and down conductors, thanks to which the charge was dissipated and could no longer harm people or structures.

The lightning conductor was installed on the Demidovs' leaning tower in Nevyansk in the first third of the 18th century and protected both the tower and its English chiming clock from lightning strikes.

The official invention of the lightning rod was patented by the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin in 1752. Franklin was the first American to become a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Benjamin Franklin installed a lightning rod on the roof of his house in Philadelphia. It was a nine-foot-high, pointed metal rod that was connected to the well by an iron wire running through the living room. The lightning rod was connected to an electric bell, which gave a signal in case of a lightning strike.

However, the lightning conductor on the top of the Demidovs' Nevyanskaya tower was installed no later than 1732: two decades before Franklin patented his invention. This essentially makes the sphere one of the first lightning conductors in the world, made long before the official patent was issued.

The lightning conductor was removed from the spire of the Demidovs' Nevyansk tower during its restoration in the 1970s. Since 2009, the lightning conductor has been kept in the exposition of the Nevyansk Historical and Architectural Museum. The tower is now crowned by its exact replica, also made of metal.