Do you really think that Benjamin Franklin flew the kite with a key on a string?
by 
loveschimps
ANSWERS: 14
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Yes i do - cause that is what i was told as a child
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yes i really do think he flew the kite. if he didnt, why would people lie that he did?
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Yes he did and there is a lot more that he did that we are not aware of..most of us that is. http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/inventor/inventor.html
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Not really .. I mean .. string conducting electricity seems a bit far-fetched to me .. even if it were wet enough .. it'd have to be some heavy-duty string not to burn to bits ..
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He wrote a proposal theorizing that lightning was indeed electricity and could be proven by flying a kite into an electrical storm. A dude named Thomas-François Dalibard put the theory to the test, but did so using a 40-foot tall iron rod. It is often the subject of debate as to whether the whole kite-on-a-string experiment was ever implemented by Franklin himself. Some say it never happened.
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there's an article about it in a recent issue of Skeptic Magazine. I left it at work though, so I'll hafta see tomorrow.
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Sounds like he got busted out on a walk while he was supposed to be at home doing chores... "Hey, Ben. Watchya up to?" "Bla! I'm mean, Hi, I'm just, er..." "Weren't you supposed to be cleaning the garage out today?" "Um, yeah, I was, but, you see, the thing is..." "Are you shirking your responsibilities? You're out here flying a kite, Deborah's gonna be pissed if she finds out." "But, that's the thing, you see, it's a... a...a science experiment, yeah, that's it!" "Dude... you're flying a kite." "No, no! No really, it's an experiment." "Uh-huh...?" "To do with, um, lightning, yeah. I'm out here doing an experiment with a kite and lightning." "Riiiight. Is that what you're going to tell Debs?" "Um, of course. I've got this new theory about, um, lightning, right, and, and, um, electricity! Yeah! So, like, I've got to stay out here until that storm rolls in, so I can totally show that lightning is electricity!" And so the theory was born. Nothing like a little pressure to get a brain to think.
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I always thought that he got someone else to do the actual flying of the kite... I think he had an idea of what would happen. Anyways, I do think the idea was 100% Ben.
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In 1750 Franklin has a written proposal for flying a kite (with a key attached as well as a capacitor)in a storm as a way of confirming that lightning is electricity. Other scientists of the time tried the experiment and 2 people who didn't properly insulate themselves actually died when lightning struck them. No one knows for sure whether Franklin ever conducted the experiment. There is some evidence that he did in June of 1752, properly insulated. He wrote about results of such an experiment in 1752. These experiments led to his invention of the lightning rod. Here's a link. http://www.thebakken.org/electricity/franklin-kite.html
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The key went to the door on his girlfriend's house, he was trying to return it so his wife wouldn't find it : ) Actually if the lightning actually hit the kite, the wet string would have brought it right down and blew him right apart. All he got was a small jolt from nearby "capacitance" to a lightning strike. He was lucky.
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Ben was a philanderer or womanizer when he came home Deborah Reed told him to go fly a kite when he wanted sex.
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So goes the story I cannot tell a lie
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It is not clear whether he performed the experiment himself, though that it is logical that he would have. He did write up a description of such an experiment, which was subsequently carried out by Dalibard in France.
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yes, but on a sunny day.
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