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American Heritage MagazineJune/July 2002    Volume 53, Issue 3
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TIME MACHINE


1752 250 YEARS AGO

FRANKLIK FLIES A KITE
BY FREDERIC D. SCHWARZ

In June of 1752, in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin performed what may be the most famous scientific experiment of all time by flying a kite in a thunderstorm. In so doing, he verified his theory that lightning is a form of electricity. The experimental apparatus consisted of an ordinary kite with a footlong metal spike attached to its end to attract lightning. At the bottom of the kite string was a key, which absorbed the electricity from the lightning. To keep himself from being electrocuted, Franklin put a length of silk thread between the key and his hand. He stood inside a shed and flew the kite through a window to keep the silk dry and thus non-conducting.

When lightning struck, the spike, the kite, the string (which was wet, allowing it to conduct electricity easily), and the key all became electrifled. A finger placed near the string attracted its fibers; a knuckle next to the key brought forth sparks. The electricity that was captured in the key could be used to perform all the same experiments and demonstrations as ordinary electricity.

Franklin had suggested the equivalence of lightning and electricity as early as 1749, but he was not the first to do so. Nor was he the first to prove it experimentally. In France, Thomas-François Dalibard and a fellow scientist named Delor each had verified the conjecture in May of 1752. In their method, which Franklin had suggested, a metal spike was placed at the top of a tall structure, and the experimenter drew sparks from a thundercloud by bringing together a rod and a wire. It is very unlikely that Franklin knew about the French experiments when he found his more picturesque way of getting a spike into the sky.

One practical benefit that came out of the experiments was the protective lightning rod. Franklin gave instructions for building such a device in his 1753 edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack. Useful applications of electricity itself, however, would have to wait nearly a century until the introduction of the telegraph during the 1840s.

 
25 YEARS AGO

June 7, 1977 An ordinance in Dade County, Florida, that prohibits discrimination in housing against homosexuals is repealed, largely through the efforts of the singer and orange juice spokesperson Anita Bryant.

June 11, 1977 Seattle Slew wins the Belmont Stakes, thereby capturing Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown.

June 19, 1977 The Roman Catholic Church canonizes Bishop John Neumann, making him the first American male saint.

June 27, 1977 The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down laws that prohibit lawyers from advertising their services.


50 YEARS AGO

June 2, 1952 The U.S. Supreme Court declares President Harry S. Truman’s seizure of the nation’s steel mills, which was meant to settle an industrywide strike, to be unconstitutional. On July 24 labor and management agree to a settlement.


125 YEARS AGO

June 15, 1877 The U.S. Military Academy graduates its first black cadet, Henry O. Flipper, who has endured four years of ostracism and torment.

July 14, 1877 Workers on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad walk out, igniting a wave of sympathy strikes that will spread across the country and lead to violent clashes between strikers and law-enforcement personnel.


200 YEARS AGO

July 4, 1802 The U.S. Military Academy opens at West Point, New York.


225 YEARS AGO

June 14, 1777 The Continental Congress resolves “that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

July 6, 1777 British troops led by Gen. John Burgoyne recapture Fort Ticonderoga, on the Hudson River, from the American rebels. On July 29 the rebels will abandon nearby Fort Edward as well.

July 12, 1777 The settlers of Vermont, which will not officially become a state until 1791, nonetheless adopt a constitution, the first in America to ban slavery and enact universal manhood suffrage.

July 27, 1777 The Marquis de Lafayette arrives in Philadelphia from France and offers his services to the Continental Congress, which commissions him a major general.


350 YEARS AGO

June 10, 1652 In defiance of English law, the Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes the first colonial mint, which produces the famous pine tree shilling.


 
 
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