Many Americans believe that Ben Franklin performed a kite experiment to discover electricity. Some even think he invented electricity. (Electricity is actually a natural force that can not be “invented.”) According the story, the 42-year-old Philadelphian went in a field during a thunderstorm with his 22-year-old son William. The kite string had a key tied to it and when a lightning bolt hit the kite, it went down the line and electrified the key. There were two sources for the discovery. One, a letter Franklin to a friend that was published in The Pennsylvania Gazette and read before the Royal Society. Two, it was included in Joseph Priestley’s book History and Present Status of Electricity. It came out in 1767. Priestley wrote that Franklin had told him the story. But, is it true?
The great Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus theorized that lightning was electricity in the 6th Century B.C. Franklin and others were building on Thales’ discovery. Franklin described electricity as “electric fire.” Electric fire was a fluid. In July, 1750, he proposed an experiment with a lightning rod to catch the electrical charge. In May, 1752, the French scientist Thomas Dalibard successfully conducted the experiment using a 50 foot high rod. On June 10, 1752 (or some other day in June), Franklin went out in a field in Philadelphia with his son, but they were in a shed so they were out of the rain. The kite had a metal wire to attract lightning. The kite was attached to hemp string that was then wet from the rain. Then came the key that was in a “leyden jar” designed to attract electrical charges. At one point, Franklin touched key and felt a spark and the threads on the hemp stood out. If Franklin had been standing in a field holding the string, he would have been electrocuted. In 1753, a German scientist named Georg Reichmann was killed when he reenacted the experiment. What positive (get it?) result came from Franklin’s experiment (or his proposed experiment)? Franklin set up a rod on the top of his house so that a thunder storm would result in bells ringing in his house. He drew a big crowd to see him electrocute a turkey. Unfortunately, he electrocuted himself and fell to the ground having convulsions. Oh, and he did invent the lightning rod to save homes from being burned down due to lightning strikes.
https://www.history.com/news/benjamin-franklin-kite-experiment-electricity
https://ushistory.org/franklin/science/electricity.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_experiment
https://www.livescience.com/benjamin-franklin-kite-key
https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/benjamin-franklin/kite-key-experiment
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