Posts Tagged ‘Scientists’

On June 15, 1752, Benjamin Franklin and his 21 year old son William went outside in a storm. Franklin had made a kite out of a piece of silk cloth, silk being better able to handle the rain. Attached to the string was a metal key. As Franklin is flying his kite, he notices that several of the strings making up the kite twine sticking straight out. When he reaches down grips the key, he feels a slight electrical charge, thus proving that lightning contains electricity. This discovery led to Benjamin Franklin’s invention of the lightning rod.

Of course, many sources will tell you that the above story is as true as George Washington chopping down the cherry tree.That is, to say, not true at all. Just a nice story. The fact that several scientists attempted to replicate Franklin’s results and died of electrocution in their attempt seems to validate the claim that this story is a fake. What is more likely true is that Franklin did fly his kite on June 15th, and that his observations of the strings standing straight up led him to hypothesize that there was an electric charge in the air. It is doubtful that Benjamin Franklin would willingly put himself in harms way for science.

Whether or not the story is entirely true, the facts that come from it are irrefutable: there is an electric charge in lightening. Kite Flying is fun, and today we can’t live without electricity. We should celebrate it!

As recently as the 1970s, women’s history was little more than a footnote in the K-12 curriculum or in general public consciousness. The Education Task Force of Sonoma County in California decided to initiate a “Women’s History Week” in 1978 to raise awareness of the accomplishments of women in our history and in the history of the world. (more…)