From Boyhood to Manhood: Life of Benjamin FranklinThayer, William Makepeace
History
From Boyhood to Manhood: Life of Benjamin Franklin
Thayer, William Makepeace
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
The kite was sent up in season for the coming storm to catch, and,
with intense anxiety, Franklin held the string, which was hempen,
except the part in the hand, which was silk. He was so confident of
success that he brought along with him a Leyden bottle, in which to
collect electric fluid from the clouds for a shock. It was a moment of
great suspense. His heart beat like a trip-hammer. At first a cloud
seemed to pass directly over the kite, and the thunder rattled, and
the lightnings played around it, and yet there was no indication of
electricity. His heart almost failed him. But in silence he continued
the experiment as the storm increased and drew nearer, and the
artillery of heaven grew louder and more vivid. Another moment, and he
beheld the fibers of the hempen cord rise as the hair of a person does
on the insulated stool. What a moment it was! The electric fluid was
there! His experiment was successful! Electricity and lightning are
identical! Pen nor poesy can describe his emotion. Eagerly he applied
his knuckles to the key, attached to the extremity of the hempen cord,
and drew a spark therefrom. His joy was immeasurable! Another spark,
and then another, and still another, until further confirmation was
unnecessary! The Leyden bottle was charged with the precious fluid,
from which both father and son received a shock as unmistakable as
that from his electric battery at home. Franklin's fame was secured
throughout the world. He went home with feelings of indescribable
satisfaction.
Doctor Franklin was a very modest man, and he wrote a letter to Peter
Collinson, member of the Royal Society of London, dated Philadelphia,
Oct. 16, 1752, describing the experiment without even hinting that he
was the experimenter. As that letter described his electrical kite,
and his method of using it, we insert it here:
"As frequent mention is made in public papers from Europe of the
success of the Philadelphia experiment for drawing the electric fire
from clouds by means of pointed rods of iron erected on high
buildings, etc., it may be agreeable to the curious to be informed
that the same experiment has succeeded in Philadelphia, though made in
a different and more easy manner, which is as follows:
"Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arms so long as
to reach the four corners of a large thin silk handkerchief when
extended; tie the corners of the handkerchief to the extremities of
the cross, so you have the body of a kite; which being properly
accommodated with a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the air like
those made of paper; but this, being of silk, is fitter to bear the
wet and wind of a thunder-gust without tearing. To the top of the
upright stick of the cross is to be fixed a very sharp-pointed wire,
rising a foot or more above the wood. To the end of the twine next the
hand is to be tied a silk ribbon, and where the silk and twine join a
key may be fastened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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