Benjamin Franklin's Fascination with Electricity
adapted from the National Park Service
Benjamin Franklin was fascinated by electricity and gave a lot of his time after he retired to study its properties. Some of his research resulted
in "tricks" that he used to amuse others. For example, he made a charged metal spider that moved like the real thing. He discovered new ways
to generate, store, and turn on electricity. His design of lightning rods helped prevent untold numbers of structural fires throughout the world.
His famous kite experiment occurred in June 1752. Franklin asked his son William to fly a kite to which he had attached a wire on top and a
key at the end of a string. Ultimately, the kite gathered an electric charge from a storm cloud, Franklin was then able to collect some of the
charge and compare it to the electricity he had created in other experiments. He did not mention the experiment until October, four months
after it took place, at which point Franklin did not clarify that he had conducted the experiment himself-an issue that has caused some people
to doubt Franklin's story.