Franklin's kite experiment
Lightning is the same thing as a Leyden jar's spark
In the summer of 1752, by his own account, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite with a metal point into a thunderstorm and drew a spark from a key on the wet string. It showed that lightning is electricity and made his lightning rod famous.
Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Did you know
One of Europe's last 'witches' was executed 30 years after Franklin caught lightning with a kite. Anna Göldi was beheaded in Glarus, Switzerland, in 1782; Franklin described his kite experiment in 1752. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — 3 years later
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — 4 years later
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — 8 years later
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — 17 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — 10 years later
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — 12 years later
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — 16 years later
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — 20 years later
Middle East
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — 5 years earlier
Asia
- 1755–1758 The Dzungar genocide — 3 years later
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — 5 years later
- 1761 Third Battle of Panipat — 9 years later
Oceania
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — 16 years later
Alive at the time
- Voltaire (aged 58)
- Benjamin Franklin (aged 46)
- Mikhail Lomonosov (aged 41)
- James Cook (aged 24)
- Catherine the Great (aged 23)
- George Washington (aged 20)
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (aged 3)
- Carl Linnaeus (aged 45)
- Leonhard Euler (aged 45)
- Elizabeth (aged 43)