Franklin and the lightning
Thunderstorms shown to be electricity, and made harmless
See it on the timeline →In depth
In the eighteenth century electricity was a parlour phenomenon — sparks from glass machines, entertaining and useless. Franklin's proposal that lightning was the same thing was first tested in France in May 1752, not by him. The lightning rod is probably the first application of a scientific finding that immediately saved lives at scale, and it gave American science an international standing it had not had. Franklin never patented it, on the grounds that inventions should be shared freely.
For children
Benjamin Franklin showed that lightning is the same electricity people could make with machines in a parlour. Then he invented the lightning rod: a metal spike on the roof that leads the strike safely into the ground. Church towers and houses stopped burning down.
Sources
- Franklin, Experiments and Observations on Electricity (1751)
- Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003)
Connects to
Report a correction
Found something that does not hold? Tell us — sources help, but are not required.
Report a correctionPart of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org ·