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Show Ben Franklin's Kite Experiment Showed What Lightning Is Was there ever another man to equal Benjamin Franklin in versatility? He was a statesman, diplomat, scnetist, inventor, popular pop-ular philosopher, journalist, publisher, pub-lisher, printer, philanthropist, civic leader, soldier and athlete. And he made historic contributions contribu-tions in practically all of these capacities. His most notable scientific experiments ex-periments were those devoted to confirming his theories as to the nature of electricity.. And of these the most picturesque was the famous one with the kite, though oddly enough Franklin himself barely mentioned it directly. di-rectly. Franklin did, however, describe how electricity was drawn from lightning by means of a kite, in Philadelphia, but failed to say who conducted the experiment. The kite, according to his description, de-scription, was made of a large, thin silk handkerchief and a smal cross of two light strips, of cedar. With' a tail," loop and the string properly attached, it rose in the air like one made of paper. A piece of wire about a foot long was extended from the top of the upright stick of the cross. A silk ribbon and a key .were tied to the twine near its lower end the key to register the electricity, elec-tricity, and the ribbon to hold on to when the twine became electrically elec-trically charged. The kite was raised in an open space. Nearby was a shed for use as a shelter when rain started, for the silk ribbon had to be kept dry. Before undertaking the daring experiment Franklin had spoken about it to no one but his 21 year old son, who helped carry it through. Besides verifying Franklin's theory as to the nature of electricity, elec-tricity, this experiment helped prepare the way for his development develop-ment of the lightning rod. Such a combination of the theoretical and the practical is characteristic of all Franklin's activities, to a dagree unequaled in the achievements achieve-ments of any other man. |