EXPERIMENT WITH THE KITE

For proving his theory that electricity is created during lightning strike Benjamin Franklin had a lot of ideas. First idea was to draw electricity to the top of the church tower in Philadelphia. For constructing a tower a lot of time was needed so he had the idea that it would be easier to get close to clouds that are "rich" of lightning strikes.

For that occasion Franklin constructed a kite. A wire was desired on the top of that kite (which should draw electricity) and on edges thread of hemp. After he constructed the kite, Franklin traveled to areas well known for lightning strikes. As he was afraid of mocking and sneering, he didn't tell anybody about his plans. He and his son went to a field and during the storm he let the kite fly. They hid in an arbor to protect themselves. In the beginning results of experiment weren't worth attention. In the moment he started to doubt in his theory he saw that the hemp threads were corrupted. They looked like every one of them was connected to a separate conductor. As it is later said in his manuscript, the feeling in that moment that lived in his body he never forgot.

To confirm his theory of electricity on the end of the thread he attached a key and he raised the kite closer to "lightning" clouds. After certain time on the end of the key appeared evident and clearly visible electric spark. In the moment when the rain wet the thread and the key they accumulated great amount of electricity.
In June of 1752 Franklin proved constancy of his theory. However, it stayed mysterious and foggy for a long time, because Franklin didn't publish his notes. Everything that was noted that June day, J. Presteley published 15 years later using Franklin's notes.