“The company present… say that the flash was very great and the crack as loud as a pistol,” he later wrote. Soon it became a regular party trick, as he wowed guests with his magical ability to command this strange force.ĭuring one of these demonstrations, however, Franklin became distracted, and made an elementary mistake – he touched one of the live jars while holding a metal chain in the other hand. Having succeeded, he thought it’d be impressive to use the discharge to kill and roast his dinner. Benjamin Franklin had been attempting to capture “electrical fire” in glass jars as a primitive battery. If you ever doubt the idea that the very clever can also be very silly, just remember the time the smartest man in America tried to electrocute a turkey.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |