Stansfield, William D.

English

DigitalCommons@CalPoly

Franklin's lectric Kite riment Did Benjamin Franklin really fly a kite to prove that lightning and static electricity were one and the same or was it all just a hoax? WILLIAM D. STANSfiELD AS A YOUTII. I LEARNED TilAT BEJ'{JAMI~ FrJnklin 0706-1790) flew a kite in a thunder­stom1 and drew lightning from the sky. I doubt that I t::ver knew v. hy he did it, but I thought even then that he must have been ('I'azy to do such a dangerous stunt. My conccm-; were for naught lx.>c1use, for one thing. he clltl not draw a lightning bolt down hi-> kite ~g. or. accord­ing to Tom Tucker!, did he ever con-;truct or fly such a kite. Whoa '\elly! llue...,)·l Didn't Franklin 1:;t.ate in writing that he flew an electric k1te? In his book Boll ofFate: Benjamin Hrmk/111 a11d His Electric Kite Hoa.YI, Tom Tucker believes that Franklin only mtimated that he d id the kite experiment as ::1 hoax to get even with a certain memher of the Royal Society of London who not only ignored some of his letters. but ridiculed some of his ideas at meetings of the Sociel). and plagiarized others. My dictionary defme- a hoax as "An act intended to deceive or trick. either as a practical joke or a seriou.s fraud. " In his review of Tucker's book, Jessie Thorpe2 claims that. if you follow Tucker's reasoning, it i.., difficult to con­clude that Franklin did not perpetrate fraud. If not frJud, thi'i leaves Franklin's hoax. if one has lx.>en committed. as a practiml joke. Did Fr.mkl.in have a reputation as a jokester? You bet he did, at IC<t'il in the part.') of hi'> life oubtde of science! i . ~ The Kite Experiment In June 1752, Franklin pro~'tl to place an elec­rriC"al conductor 35 do;e to the dou<.b as pos.'>ihlc to dmw elcctridl)' from the ~u11e source \\.here lightning :>eem'> to originate. I Ie propo~'t.l to use a kite for thb purpo.-.c. If he could draw :.1 spark from a key at the base of the string with hb hand, or charge ,t Leyden jar (,tn early type of condenser for storing an electncal charge) hy touching the key to it, then he thought he would haw proved that hghtrung and static ck.>c­tricity were identical. differing on.ly in the m.tgni tude of d1e discharge. An article by Franklin ,tppeared in 7be Pennsylmnia Gazelle on October 19. 1752. int.imating that he had flown an electric kite. He sent a copy to his friend Peter Collin-;on (a mem­ber of the Royal Socit.:ty of London) \\ho relay<..-'Cl it to the Royal Soctcty, '"'here it was published in tts Philosophica/1'mn..\Clclions about a ye-ar later Here it b: lllustrallOO: Fflllll<fln IJild El«trle•ty, At~at: Amencan Bank Note Company. 10 • RF F85 comp am E -[lll<35). Pnnted w•lh the permosslon of the American PholosophiCal Library, Philadelphia. PA. VOLUME 13 NUMBER 2 0 0 R A.b frequent mention 1s made m the publtc papers trom Europe of the success of the Philadelphia experiment for drawing the elec­tric fire from cloud~ by mean::. of pointed rod~ of iron erected on high buildings. &c . it may be agreeable to the curious to be mformcd, that the same experiment has succeeded m Philadelphia, tho' made.: in a different and more easy manner, which anyone may try, as follows: Make a ~mall cross, of two light stnps of cedar: the anns so long, as to reach to the four comers of a large thin silk handkerchief. when extenddl: tie the comers of the handkerchief to the extrcmi· ties of the cross; so you rove a body of a kite: which being properly acconunodated with a tail, loop, ~tnd string, will ri'iC m the air like those 1113de of plper; hut this. being of silk, is finer to hear the \'\Ct and wind of thunder-gust without te-aring. To the top of the upright stick of the cross is to be fixed a very sharp-pointed wire, ti-.ing a foot or more aho\e the w<.Xxl. To the.: end of the twine, next [to] the hand, is to be tit.'tl J silk riband [ribbon]; and where thl.:' twine.: and silk jom. a kcy may be fa'iten'd. The kite is to be raised. when a thundcr-gu::.t appe-ars to be coming on, (which~~ very frequent in this country) and the person who hold-; the string, must stand Within a door. or window, or under some cover. so that the silk riband rruy not be wet; and care must be taken, tlklt the t''\ me does not touch the frame of the door or window. As soon as any of the thunder-douds come over the kite, the point<.'d wire will draw the electric fire from them; and the kite, with all the twine, will he t:k:ctrified: and the loose filaments of the tw·ine will sktnd out tn every \vay, and be attracted by the approaching finger. When the rain has wet the kite and twine, ~ that 1t am condu<.t the clectnc fire freely, you will fmd it strean1 out plentifully from the key on the approach of your knuckle. At this key the phial [Leyden jar) rruy be chargdl. and from electric ftre thus obtain'd spir· its 1113Y be kinclled [alcohol may be igmted). and all other electrical cxpenments be performed. which are usually done by the help of a rubbed glass globe or rube, and thereby the sameness of the ek.'Ctric matter with that of the lightning com· pk:tcly dcmonstrat<.'d. Crttiques It ~hould be nQ{ed in Franklin's letter that he did not say that he or anyone else pertom1ed the kite experiment he proposed. The verbs arc future conditional tense, hardly the voice one v..ould use for an experiment that had already been pertorrm..'<.l The v. riting was atypical for reporting the re:.ults of a :.ciemific experiment (no elate, time, location, witnesses, rain amount, air humidity, length of kite tail, length of kite string in the air, wetght of the key. results of charging a Leyden jar, lightning strike:. st."'t:n and thunder.. heard. etc.). jo.-.cph Prie!itley 0733-lSOi) V.'aS an Engli.'>h clergyman and chemist who, with Carl o;;c.hcde of Sweden, lx.>c-Jme famous for the di'iCOWf) of oxygen. Priestley met Franklin for tl1e f'irhl time in 17(-l> and became interested in doing electrical experiments of his own. The following year (1767), about fourteen years after the kite experi­ment protocol wa:; published, Joseph Prie;tley (with tl1e help of Franklin) published a second hand account of the kite experiment in his llist01y and Present State ofElectricity s The tl~t account'> ( 1752-53) did not give a <.late or even u month when the kite experiment was perfomK•d. Pnestley, however, cites june 1752. If true, Tucker wonders why it took almost four months before Franklin's experiment was reported. and then in a new~p-aper It took about another si..x weeks .'>hip tran'>It time to re-.1ch England before tl1e Ro}~al Society learned the ne\"\s. In hb fm.t account, Franklin stue; that "ele<.·­tric fifl comes down the string: Priestle} s vers1on, however. says that franklin ~contriv<.."<.l actuall} to bring lightning from the he-avens." Priestley even said that Franklin ··presented hi~ knuckle to the key·· and "perceived a very evi­dent electric spark." Franklin's statement that "thereby the samenes:; of the electrical matter with that of the lightning [is] completely demon st.rated'' may not satisfy skeptics because no one reported :;eeing lightning strike the kite or :-;tnng. Tuckc..>r cJai.rn:) that he built a kite according to Fr.mk.lin's description: "It never got off the ground at windspeed 1 s-20 miles per hour:· The .~{yth­busters6 of 1V fame also huilt a kite Llccording to Franklin's spt..'Ci.fication.<; and it too failt:d to fly.' Tucker was not the first: to question the kite experiment or the chronology of Franklin's science letter.-.. For example, Carl van Doren's biography Be11jamtn Frank/ins devotes si.x p-age. WWW.SKEPTIC.COM Mistakes Were Made 11 } !.!1£) Why " '' /~<llfl fo,•h l lt Btltt{s, llaJ Dum~r11, and Hurtful tier s _______________________...._______________________ "This book is charming and delightful. But mainly it's just damn smart." --Daniel G1lbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness "to the inconsistences of d1e kite and [lightning] rod announcements." More than thirty years J.fter Franklin's kite experim<."nt wJs flf'St publi-;hcd, he fmally state<.! in his autobiography (fll'St publi<;hed a year after he c.lie<.l) that he did t.hc experin1ent: "1 will not 1>well this narrative with an account of that capital experiment, nor of the infinite pleasure I recei\ 'd in the success of a similar one I made SCX)n after wid1 a kite at Philadelphia, as bod1 are to be found in the hi<itolies of ck.'<.tridty "9 A skeptic may que>tion whether a person can accurately remember in his autobiography whar actually occurred twenty or more years ago. Tucker admits that "l11ere's no proving that Franklin nel'er Oew hi.s kite. It will always remain possible. But dli.s e.xpcrin1ent he presented as convenient and likely rums out to be dauntingly inconvenient." GiYen the circumstantial evidence presente<.l by Tucker. the Myd1husrers, and other critics against Franklin having performed his elecuic kite experiment, skeptics may wonder if scienrist'i today are in any better position to render a decision-one wa} or another-on Franklin's 111~1 famoW> experiment 'Y References '1111' lf~o;tmy c111d hll k<:r, Iom. 200~. l'rescm \Mte crf /Ju/1 uJ flll<' Hct fnctfl' \l11b /Jc>I!JUIII/11 fi'clllk/111 On~lnal/~\1)('nlllt'l/l~. a nell!~:; F/ec;lttc 1\ite l~lntkm. J I>utDt'\ ct al JJoax ~t''' \ork h Loxton J}.mld 2001 Puhltc Afl,ur... ~lythbust(•p; !. rhorpt·, .Jt'~'-lt', 200~ A E-xpost."''.l" V.,JIIzc, Vol Rt'\1<.''' ol J.Jvlt cif /ot1te I.!, :'\o. I, ;}H!.. <lmp· ,,.,,w t.l~ -. <http kwcorg. mph n1.1!1!1Cll1t'\\'S.<:Oin hu"lt.'rs 200(> \rd\1\ c ArchI\ t~{) uj lr.mkltns_klll'_n ,,_ 20Amdvs Augu,too uk-ncl· html>~~ book that will change the way you 202005 hsut'%2CH61 H. Van Dor~·n. C.rrl 19.~think about self-deceptioll-how it works, %20'Jhu !61-sront'S Bl'll!(lllllllllrmklzn hrml•n:> :'\~'\\' 'ork \ tkIng. 5 ll.ill, ,\1.t.'\ II)Wi. L-xl~'f!'l' from th" the harm it can cause, and how we can overcome it. 11 Bcn~ullln Fmnkhn':. lxx h. .m: on lht: mtcr --Maryanne Garry, PhD, and Elizabeth Loftus, PhD \\ hnppt•rs /lan·arcl IK'l ,1( <http· WWV. ll' 1/n~azllle, :\m IA.>c ht:>t<m orwtr:mkhn 72 \ ...211 mlo 'kit~' hun>....~-------------------I ~bll, \IJ..'.. )C)<)(), 9 J'rankhn. lk'n,.umn.none of the most needed and lk•nttlllltll /·mnklfn 1~137. lj.A lt'O, ancl!'oi/J Hnl..~·t• l1w Lt;\l:t) & Pi\1 /..;.til, 1/Wun• q/ a ftlt7WJ' t"(b, l 'n1e important books for our time." --Warren Bennis, Dc'<.t'{JIIOI/, Pltt!>hurgh, ,(ulobh,gmph)author of On Becoming a Leader PA. I 111\ CNI) of iJNitttmm h<mklin l'm~hurgh Plt'ss. trntlllg'. :O.:t" York i§lHarcourt www HarcourtBooks.com S Prieotlc}, Josq>h 1767. l.1hr.tl') ')I t\menc.::a VOLUME 1.3 NUMBER 2 0 0 8 

Franklin\u27s Electric Kite Experiment

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Franklin\u27s Electric Kite Experiment

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