Benjamin Franklin Drawing
Electricity from the Sky, c 1805
Artist:
Benjamin West (American, 1738-1820)
Oil
on paper on canvas, 13-1/4 x 10"
"The
Doctor, having published his method of verifying his hypothesis concerning the
sameness of electricity with the matter of lightning, was waiting for the
erection of a spire in Philadelphia to carry his views into execution, not
imagining that a pointed rod of a moderate height could answer the purpose, when
it occurred to him that by means of a common kite he could have better access to
the regions of thunder than by any spire whatever. Preparing, therefore, a large
silk handkerchief and two cross-sticks of a proper length on which to extend it,
he took opportunity of the first approaching thunderstorm to take a walk in the
fields, in which there was a shed convenient for his purpose. But, dreading the
ridicule which too commonly attends unsuccessful attempts in science, he
communicated his intended experiments to nobody but his son who assisted him in
raising the kite.
The kite being raised, a considerable time elapsed before there was any appearance of its being electrified. One very promising cloud had passed over it without any effect, when, at length, just as he was beginning to despair of his contrivance, he observed some loose threads of the hempen string to stand erect and to avoid one another, just as if they had been suspended on a common conductor. Struck with this promising appearance, he immediately presented his knuckle to the key, and (let the reader judge of the exquisite pleasure he must have felt at that very moment) the discovery was complete. He perceived a very evident electric spark. Others succeeded, even before the string was wet, so as to put the matter past all dispute, and when the rain had wet the string he collected electric fire very copiously. This happened in June 1752, a month after the electricians in France had verified the same theory, but before he heard of anything they had done."
Description of Franklin's famous kite experiment by the English chemist Joseph Priestly in his History and Present State of Electricity (1767)
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