![]() Franklin articulated these thoughts as he pondered the usefulness of a lightning rod: He first theorized that a lightning strike might be preventable by using an elevated iron rod connected to earth to empty static electricity from a cloud. Two years before the kite and key experiment, in 1750, Ben had observed that a sharp iron needle would conduct electricity away from a charged metal sphere. Courtesy George Eastman Museum, Rochester, N.Y. The very first photograph of lightning, by William N. His son William was the only witness to the event. At the first sign of the key receiving an electrical charge from the air, Franklin knew that lightning was a form of electricity and not a fluid. Even though this was a very dangerous experiment, (you can see what the lightning rod in the photograph looks like after being struck), some people believe that Ben wasn’t injured because he didn’t conduct his test during the worst part of the storm. Then he tied the kite string to an insulating silk ribbon for the knuckles of his hand. Ben needed to determine what he would use to attract an electrical charge he decided on a metal house key and attached it to the kite. He grew impatient and decided that a kite would be able to get close to the storm clouds just as well. To recap from the previous LOOKING BACK column: in June of 1752, Franklin was living in Philadelphia and waiting for the steeple on top of Christ Church to be completed so he could conduct his lightning experiment (the steeple would act as the “lightning rod”). Surprisingly, he never wrote letters about the legendary kite experiment, and only one article which appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette in October 1752 the British scientist Joseph Priestly wrote the only other account fifteen years after it took place. ![]() Two years later, Franklin decided to try his own lightning kite experiment. Franklin described an iron rod about 8 or 10 feet long that was sharpened to a point at the end.īen wrote, “the electrical fire would, I think, be drawn out of a cloud silently before it could come near enough to strike…” This grew into his idea for the lightning rod. Having noticed that a sharp iron needle conducted electricity away from a charged metal sphere, he theorized that such a design could be useful:īy 1750, in addition to wanting to prove that lightning was electricity, Franklin began to think about protecting people, buildings, and other structures from lightning. By 1749, he had turned his attention to the possibility of protecting buildings-and the people inside-from lightning strikes. Franklin then electrified him with his miraculous lightning rod and the three of them – Franklin, Washington, and the horse – conducted the entire revolution by themselves.”īen Franklin is known for his experiments with electricity (most notably the kite experiment in June 1752, described in the previous edition of LOOKING BACK), a fascination that began in earnest after he accidentally shocked himself six years earlier, in 1746. Franklin smote the ground and out sprang George Washington, fully grown and on his horse. Franklin did this and Franklin did that and Franklin did some other damn thing. I won’t be in the history books anyway, only you. John Adams: “It doesn’t matter, Franklin. Benjamin Franklin about the writing of the Declaration of Independence by Virginia delegate Thomas Jefferson they were discussing the importance of the document and who might be remembered for their part in bringing it to reality : ![]() In a dialogue held in Philadelphia on a very warm morning at the end of June 1776, when Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress John Adams had a conversation with Pennsylvania delegate Dr. If he were alive today, we could probably add a “storm-chaser” to his long list of titles and achievements. Ben was fascinated by thunderstorms he loved to study them. Well, if you lived in the mid-1700s and knew Benjamin Franklin, this is just what you might see during a terrible storm. What would you think if you saw a man on horseback chasing a thunder and lightning storm? You might probably wonder what on Earth he was trying to do.
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