250 years after the Franklin experiment

2002/06/25 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Fisika
• Klima

Legend has it that this month, but 250 years ago, Benjamin Franklin tied a key to a comet and introduced them into the stormy Philadelphia sky. It was not crazy, I wanted to show that lightning is electricity.

Franklin, strongly criticized by the clergy, was accused of wanting to challenge God, but in both America and Europe, he was considered one of the clearest of his time.

However, there is a great divergence among historians: some believe that, despite being a real fact, it is not clear where and when the essay was made, so it cannot be considered a true legend, while others consider that the evidence is numerous.

According to legend believers, a 46-year-old inventor and his 21-year-old son, William, went out to test Franklin's ray theory in June 1752. The pair waited for the storm in a field and a thick cloud bush negatively charged the kite, rope and key. The discharge did not affect Franklin thanks to the dry piece of silk he carried in his hand, but when the researcher touched the key, a spark leapt by hand. The only witnesses were Franklin and his son, and the story and all its details were broadcast fifteen years later by Franklin's colleague Joseph Priestley.

For some historians, Franklin was not the first to see the similarity between static earth electricity and lightning, but he did design the first experiment to demonstrate that similarity. In addition, Franklin demonstrated with this discovery that the experiments on static electricity carried out in laboratories were more than a mere hobby, research on the main forces of nature.