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You may know Benjamin Franklin as one of the founding fathers of our nation. But, did you know Ben Franklin also helped discover how electricity works?

At this time, Philadelphia was still part of England. Franklin was a famous scientist and inventor. People could see static electricity and lightning. But, they did not know much about electricity. (This was the 1740s!) Franklin was one of the few thinking about electricity at this time. After this experiment, people were excited about Franklin’s new discoveries.

Franklin loved to help people. He was a diplomat, which meant he went to other countries to explain America’s thoughts. He always wanted to help people in his community. He searched for ways to improve people’s lives.

He was also curious about things he observed. Because he thought about things that people saw every day, it made him an excellent inventor. For example, lightning interested him. He knew lightning was dangerous for his community. It started many fires and burned down many buildings. This problem made Ben Franklin interested in finding some solutions. First, he had to learn more about lightning. So, he conducted one of the most famous scientific experiments of all time.

THE EXPERIMENT THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD

Ben Franklin was the first person ever to establish the connection between lightning and electricity.

One stormy, cloudy day, thunder was loudly clashing across the sky. Two fearless individuals tried to uncover the puzzling nature of electricity. These two individuals were Benjamin Franklin and his son, William Franklin! They wanted to see if electricity and lightning are similar. Their experiment used a kite made out of silk handkerchiefs. They used silk so it would not tear in the rain or wind. At the very tip of the kite they put a wire that acted as a lightning rod. At the bottom, they attached a hemp cord and a silk ribbon. The hemp cord got wet from the rain. Since water is a good electrical conductor, it attracted electrons from the thunderstorm and built an electrical charge. The silk ribbon on the bottom stayed dry. Because it was not wet, it was safe for Ben Franklin to hold.

The last part of the experiment was a metal key that was connected to the hemp cord. Franklin and his son waited a long time, then suddenly the hemp cord began drawing electrical charges. They knew this was happening because they observed a few threads of the cord were standing up. The cord was full of electrons from the thunderstorm clouds. Then, Franklin touched his hand near the metal key, and he received a shock! How, you might ask? Well, the negative charge from the metal key wanted to get the ground. Because Ben Franklin was touching the key and standing on the ground, he became the conductor for this electricity. 

It is important to remember that Franklin kept himself and the silk ribbon dry so he would not be shocked dangerously. Someone may tell you Franklin was struck by lightning. This is NOT true! If lightning directly struck the kite or the rope, Franklin would have been dangerously electrocuted. 

This shows how Franklin set up his experiment. Franklin was not struck by lightning! Instead, the hemp rope picked up electricity buzzing in the dark, stormy clouds. The hemp cord was the conductor for the electricity. The rope conducted enough electrical charge to give Franklin a small shock when he put his hand near the metal key.

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Electricity is a type of energy. Electricity occurs naturally. That means it happens in nature. No one invented electricity. It’s always been around!

It can build in one place and then flow to another place. Electrons are small particles that have a negative charge. They are the smallest pieces of electricity. Electricity is the flow of electrons.

You probably have felt static electricity. Electricity built inside of you. Then, it flows to a doorknob or desktop. It’s a good example of electricity. Static electricity forms when electricity gathers in one place. Static electricity builds when two objects are rubbed together. When you rub a balloon on your hair, you create static electricity. Sometimes, when you run across the carpet in your fancy socks, you create static electricity. Your body received additional electrons. Then, if you touch metal (like a door knob), your hand is shocked by electricity. This happens because the additional electrons leave you and jump into door knob.

An electrical current forms when electricity moves. Electricity moves along a line. It can move in the air (lightning!). It can move along a wire (power line!). It can move along a lot of pieces. We call this current is this flow of electricity.

A conductor allows electrons to move easily. Your phone charger is a good conductor. The metal wires in your tablet also move electricity well. In fact, metal is a good conductor of electricity. That is why your metal doorknob causes shocks from static electricity. The door knob is a conductor, so if you touch it with your negatively charged hand, there is a shock! Now, if the doorknob was made out of wood, you would not receive a shock. Why? Because wood is an insulator. Insulators do NOT allow electrons to move freely. So, the wood does not allow the electrons leave your negatively charged hand.

How do we know?

People like you studied electricity. They studied things they saw for a long time. They wrote down what they saw, which is called observations. These observations are data scientists used to study electricity. Some of these scientists studied electricity over 2,500 years ago. You could be the person that makes the next event on our timeline!

Want to learn more? We like this list of electricity events!

https://www.salemelectric.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Kids_History_of_Electricity.pdf

You probably have made slime before. We make it with glue, starch and water. My grandfather would be happy to know if you use Borax in your slime fun. But, we spice it up a bit with metal filings!

The nice thing about having the space at the store is that we were able to let the magnet sit with the slime over a week! The picture above is after 24 hours. Notice that the gray color by the magnet is much darker than the gray still in the slime. It attracted a lot of the filings over the first day.

You can clearly see two circular arcs also. This shows where the magnetic fields were able to attract the slime to the magnet. Where there is still grey, the magnetic fields were not strong enough to move the filings.

This experiment shows how magnetic fields are circular.