![]() It would take several more months for Franklin to report his success publicly. As the American Physical Society tells it, "A glowing ball of charge traveled down the string, jumped to his forehead, and killed him instantly - providing history with the first documented example of ball lightning in the process." Reichmann posthumously discovers ball lightning Frank SchulenburgĪnother scientist, the German physicist Georg Wilhelm Reichmann, died the following year in his own attempt at Franklin's lightning rod experiment. At this Key the Phial may be charg’d and from Electric Fire thus obtain’d, Spirits may be kindled, and all the other Electric Experiments be perform’d, which are usually done by the Help of a rubbed Glass Globe or Tube and thereby the Sameness of the Electric Matter with that of Lightning compleatly demonstrated." And when the Rain has wet the Kite and Twine, so that it can conduct the Electric Fire freely, you will find it stream out plentifully from the Key on the Approach of your Knuckle. " As soon as any of the Thunder Clouds come over the Kite, the pointed Wire will draw the Electric Fire from them, and the Kite, with all the Twine, will be electrified, and the loose Filaments of the Twine will stand out every Way, and be attracted by an approaching Finger. In reporting his experiment to The Pennsylvania Gazette several months later, Franklin wrote, But by June 1752, he believed he had found an easier, more cost-effective way to set up the experiment: rather than building a tall metal spike, he could just fly a kite with a wire and a key attached. Franklin's lightning rod was a success, but he'd still never seen it in action - and he hadn't yet heard of its success. ![]() Delor, replicated the experiment a week later. And in fact, Dalibard tried out Franklin's lightning rod before Franklin himself could do it, on May 10, 1752.Ī second French scientist, recorded only as M. A letter about a new experiment or theory tended to get passed around the scientific community, or copied and sent to colleagues. By the summer of 1752, Franklin's letter had made it to Paris, where it had electrified the scientific community there thanks to French physicist Thomas Dalibard's translation. Letters between scientists weren't really private correspondence in those days. ![]()
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