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—— ON THIS DAY ——
JUNE 11, 1752
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, British America
273 years ago
Benjamin Franklin, portrait by David Martin, 1767 — the printer, publisher, postmaster, diplomat, inventor, scientist, and Founding Father whose kite experiment in 1752 established the electrical nature of lightning.
In June 1752 — the exact date is not recorded — Benjamin Franklin conducted the experiment that demonstrated the electrical nature of lightning. The experiment as described in his account involved flying a kite in a thunderstorm, with a metal key attached to the kite string and a Leyden jar (an early capacitor) attached to the key. When lightning struck near the kite, electrical charge traveled down the wet string to the key and into the jar, proving that lightning was an electrical discharge. Franklin did not, contrary to popular myth, allow lightning to strike the kite directly — which would have killed him instantly.
Franklin had developed his theory of electricity through years of experiments with Leyden jars, which had been invented in the 1740s and had become a sensation in the scientific world. He proposed the concept of positive and negative electrical charges, demonstrated that lightning was electrical, and immediately turned the scientific discovery into a practical application: the lightning rod, a metal rod attached to buildings and connected to the ground, which safely conducted lightning strikes away from structures. Before the lightning rod, lightning regularly destroyed buildings, killed people, and set churches, barns, and ships on fire. The lightning rod was one of the most practically important inventions of the eighteenth century.
—— MARQUEE EVENT ——
Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky, painted by Benjamin West c. 1816 — the famous depiction of Franklin's kite experiment, which proved that lightning is electrical and led directly to the invention of the lightning rod.
Franklin's scientific work was conducted in parallel with his extraordinary public career — printer, publisher of Poor Richard's Almanac, founder of the first public library in America, the first Postmaster General of the United States, diplomat to France whose negotiation of the French alliance was perhaps the single most important contribution to American independence, and one of the principal architects of the US Constitution. His scientific reputation was international; he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and received honorary degrees from Oxford and St. Andrews. The combination of scientific achievement and public service at this level has no equivalent in American history.
The lightning rod's adoption was not without controversy. Some religious figures argued that lightning was the instrument of God's will and that protecting buildings from it was impious interference with divine judgment. The argument was particularly pointed because lightning frequently struck church steeples — which, being the highest points in most towns, attracted lightning disproportionately. Franklin noted with some satisfaction that church steeples protected by his rods survived storms that destroyed unprotected buildings. The religious objection gradually faded as the practical evidence accumulated.
Franklin's method in the kite experiment was replicated and confirmed by other scientists across Europe, including Joseph Priestley in England and Jacques de Romas in France, in the same year and shortly after. The independent confirmation established the electrical nature of lightning as scientific consensus. Franklin was awarded the Copley Medal — the Royal Society's highest honor — in 1753, partly for this work. He never patented the lightning rod, specifically so that it could be freely adopted by anyone who needed it.
—— WHY THIS MATTERS ——
The kite experiment is one of the clearest examples of scientific curiosity immediately translated into practical benefit. The gap between the observation (lightning is electrical) and the application (a grounded metal rod will divert it) was measured in months. The lightning rod saved countless lives and buildings from the moment of its adoption. Franklin's refusal to patent it ensured it was freely available.
Franklin's concept of positive and negative charges fundamentally shaped how we understand electricity. The vocabulary he introduced — positive, negative, battery, conductor, charge — is still the standard vocabulary of electrical science. His framework for understanding electrical phenomena remained the dominant model until the development of quantum electrodynamics in the twentieth century.
Franklin's combination of scientific and civic achievement is unique in American history and rare in world history. He is the only person who signed all four founding documents of the United States (Declaration of Independence, Treaty of Paris, Treaty of Alliance with France, US Constitution) and also made a major contribution to natural science. The breadth of his engagement with both the world of ideas and the world of practical affairs remains extraordinary.
—— THE TAKEAWAY ——
In June 1752, a man flew a kite in a thunderstorm to prove a theory, proved it, and immediately invented a device to protect buildings from the thing he had proved. He never patented it. He also wrote the Declaration of Independence, negotiated the French alliance, founded the first public library in America, and invented bifocals. He was busy.
—— QUOTE OF THE DAY ——
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
— Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac
—— OUR QUIZ OF THE DAY ——
How much do you know about Franklin's kite experiment, the electrical theory it confirmed, the lightning rod and why it wasn't patented, and the extraordinary breadth of a career that included both major scientific discoveries and the founding of a nation?
