Benjamin Franklin, the scientist, statesman, philosopher and writer, was a
curious man who spent much of his time contemplating nature’s mysteries. Fortunately, he spent just as much time writing down his
thoughts.
In the summer of 1747, Franklin conducted a series of groundbreaking
experiments with Electricity, all the while writing down his results and his ideas for future works in
letters to Peter Collinson, a fellow scientist and friend in London who wanted to
publish his work.
Franklin, a man of boundless curiosity, killed a hapless turkey - and almost
himself - before making history. His adventure began in the summer of 1746 in
Boston, Mass., when Franklin first stumbled upon the electrical experiments of
other scientists. Franklin’s home quickly became a busy laboratory as he used little machines I had roughly made for myself out of household items. Attempting to kill a turkey by electrocution,
Franklin describes how he inadvertently shocked himself. Attributing his mistake to
a distraction caused by house guests, in a letter he describes the shock as … a universal blow throughout my whole body from head to foot, which seemed
within as well as without; after which the first thing I took notice of was a
violent quick shaking of my body… He went on to describe a numbness in his arms and the back of his neck which
gradually wore off.
By July 1747 Franklin had introduced the concept of electricity as a single
fluid and had substituted the terms positive and negative, or plus and minus, for
vitreous and resinous electricity.
Franklin was momentarily interrupted by the politics of the time, particularly
to defend the province from the French, but he resumed his experiments in
September 1748 when he retired from his printing business. By the following
spring, in a letter to Collinson, he described the concept of an electrical Battery, although he was not sure what use it could provide to mankind. In that same
year he described what he believed were similar characteristics between
electricity and Lightning, such as the Color of the Light, crooked direction, crack or noise in exploding (see Explosive) and destroying animals, among other things. He was not alone in his
suspicions. There were others who believed lightning was electricity, but Franklin
set out to find a method of proving it.
By 1750 it appears that Franklin joined his ideas on proving electricity in
lightning with his thoughts on protecting buildings from lightning in what later
would become the lightning rod. He described how he intended on carrying out
the experiment. There should be a rod of iron 8 or 10 feet in length, sharpened gradually to a
point like a needle … the electrical fire would, I think, be drawn out a cloud
silently, before it could come near enough to strike … This may seem
whimsical, but let it pass for the present until I send the experiments at large. Meanwhile, French scientists read Franklin’s publications on electricity and were very eager to try the lightning
experiments that Franklin had introduced but not yet tried. A scientist named
Thomas-Francois D’Alibard was the first to succeed in Marly, France, in May 1752.
In France, England and Belgium his experiment was successful. But it took a
while for the news to travel to America. Around the same time Franklin, in
Philadelphia, was on the verge of his own experiment with lightning - the legendary
kite experiment that has become a part of American folklore. Surprisingly,
the only written account was not by Franklin himself but by a man named Joseph
Priestley who wrote about it 15 years later.
According to Priestly’s account, while waiting for the nearby Christ Church in Philadelphia to
complete construction of its steeple, Franklin grew impatient and decided a kite
would do just fine. Franklin, joined by his 21-year-old son (the only witness to
the event), used a kite and a key. At the first sign of an electrical Charge Franklin knew the discovery was complete. The exact date (see Dating) of the experiment is not recorded (sometime in June 1752) but it is believed
that Franklin was not aware of the successful attempts in Europe when he flew
his kite in Philadelphia.
The legendary kite experiment is a popular story for school children in the
U.S. According to Elaine Wilner, public relations director at the Franklin
Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia, the general public knows very little of
Franklin’s other experiments. We tend to forget the tremendous contribution he made as a scientist, said Wilner. Among his many accomplishments throughout his life Franklin
invented items such as bifocals, the odometer and the flexible catheter. He is
better understood outside the U.S., such as in Asia and Europe, than he is in his
own country, Wilner said.
People ask me, Why didn’t he get electrocuted? said Wilner. When he saw the key had a charge from the Air he had enough. He didn’t have to stay for the storm, she explained. Swedish physicist G.W. Richmann attempted a lightning rod
experiment in July 1753 and was killed.
Several years later the Royal Society in London elected Franklin a member and
his electrical writings were translated into French, German and Italian soon
afterword.