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We all know the story of Franklin’s famous kite-in-a-thunderstorm experiment. But is it the true story? On a June afternoon in 1752, the sky began to darken over the city of Philadelphia.
The experiment was first proposed in 1752 by Benjamin Franklin, who reportedly conducted the experiment with the assistance of his son William. The experiment's purpose was to investigate the nature of lightning and electricity, which were not yet understood.
Jun 6, 2022 · On June 10, 1752, Benjamin Franklin took a kite out during a storm to see if a key attached to the string would draw an electrical charge. Or so the story goes. In fact, historians aren’t quite...
Dec 28, 2021 · On a dark, stormy summer night in 1752, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite with a key attached to the string waiting in anticipation for lightning to strike. The dramatic bolt would harken the...
Learn how Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod and proved that lightning was an electrical discharge by flying a kite in a storm. Read his own description of the experiment and its impact on science and history.
Jan 4, 2002 · Priestley wrote that the famous experiment with kite and key took place during June 1752, and the present editors believe there is no good reason to doubt the correctness of this date. If so, then Franklin performed his experiment before he learned of what Dalibard and Delor had done in France.
An excerpt from Carl Van Doren's definitive Ben Franklin biography, about the famous kite experiment
