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The pointed lightning rod placed on the State House and other buildings became a symbol of the ingenuity and independence of a young, thriving nation, as well as the intellect and inventiveness of Benjamin Franklin.
Jun 15, 2018 · To his most famous inventions belongs the lightning rod. In 1750 he started his experiments with electricity, and presumed that lightning is electricity. Only two years later he performed a kite experiment, which led to the extraction of sparks from clouds.
Lightning Rod. Once Franklin had an understanding of the behavior of electricity, he set about to protect houses from the destructive forces of lightning. A lightning rod, simply, is a rod attached to the top of a building, connected to the ground through a wire.
Here’s how the experiment worked: Franklin constructed a simple kite and attached a wire to the top of it to act as a lightning rod. To the bottom of the kite he attached a hemp string, and to that he attached a silk string.
Aug 10, 2015 · It was during this time, in 1750, that Franklin sent Collinson a letter proposing an experiment that would draw lightning through a 30-foot rod. He not only hypothesized that lightning and...
Jan 1, 2006 · Franklin’s seminal contributions were his suggestions that tall, insulated rods could be used to determine if thunderclouds are, in fact, electrified and that tall, grounded rods would protect against lightning damage.
Jan 4, 2002 · During September Franklin erected a lightning rod on his own house, ingeniously equipping it with bells that would ring when the wire became charged and thus notify him when the atmosphere above the house was electrified. 4 Then at last, on October 19, he printed in the Gazette a brief statement about the kite experiment with instructions for re...
