Chapter III: Franklin and Some Contemporaries (3)

October 19th, 1752: Franklin describes the "lightning kite" in a letter to Peter Collinson, of London.

May 14th, 1753: First use by de Romas of the electric kite in the fields around Nérac; no result.

June 7th, 1753: First success by de Romas with his electric kite.

_Pointed Conductor._

Suggested by Franklin in letter to Peter Collinson, of London, dated July 29th, 1750.

D'Alibard, following Franklin's instructions, gets torrents of discharges from his iron rod 40 feet high at Marly, May 10th, 1752.

De Lor gets good results from his conductor 99 feet high, erected over his house in Paris, May 18th, 1752.

De Buffon succeeds with his rod on May 19th, 1752.

Franklin erected the first rod over his house in Philadelphia in September, 1752. It was made of iron with a sharp steel point rising seven or eight feet above the roof, the other end being sunk five feet in the ground. Franklin charged a Leyden Jar from his rod in April, 1753. Professor Richmann, of St. Petersburg, was killed by a flash from his apparatus on August 6th, 1753.

BROTHER POTAMIAN.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] Scientific Writings of Joseph Henry, Vol. I., p. 201.

[9] Frequently referred to as Lullin's experiment.

[10] Every schoolboy knows that the electricity which passed down the kite-string was not drawn from the clouds, but was due to their inductive action on the pointed conductor attached to the kite. Kant calls Franklin the "Modern Prometheus."