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On Wednesday June 10, 1752 Benjamin Franklin stepped onto an open field with a kite attached to a long copper wire. He set the kite in the wind and let it sail through the darkening skies. Attached to the copper wire was a jar filled with brass keys. Franklin had observed how the electrical discharge of two spheres resembled small lightning bolts and here he was in the field, copper wire in hand, ready to prove that lightning bolts were caused by the discharge of static electricity in the clouds. When the kite was struck the current ran down the wire and filled the jar of uncharged keys with electricity!
While this is a famous story the authors of Conquering the electron: the geniuses, visionaries, egomaniacs, and scoundrels who built ourelectronic age point out that it is difficult to document the story's veracity, especially since another erstwhile European experimenter attempting a similar experiment died after being struck by the lightening he was attempting to harness (14). What is beyond debate is that electrical experimentation would soon change the world. From Franklin's lightening rod, which protected buildings from being set ablaze from lighting strikes, to modern communication, electricity has changed every element of human life.
You can read more about Benjamin Franklin as a scientist who emerged as an international celebrity long before he was a statesman by requesting Stealing God's Thunder:Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod and theInvention of America
Draw the lightning down: Benjamin Franklin andelectrical technology in the Age of Enlightenment places Franklin’s scientific work within the greater context of the history of the early study of electricity.
Conquering the electron: the geniuses, visionaries,egomaniacs, and scoundrels who built our electronic age will provide even more information about the eccentric world of electricity arcing from Franklin's day to contemporary times.
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