Most Americans are familiar with the story of Benjamin Franklin and his famous 18th-century experiment in which he attached a metal key to a kite during a thunderstorm to see if the lightning would ...

On this day in history, June 10, 1752, Benjamin Franklin reportedly flew a kite during a thunderstorm, with the goal of collecting ambient electrical charge in a Leyden jar — a container that could ...

PHILADELPHIA -- Legend has it that 250 years ago this month, Benjamin Franklin sailed a kite and a key into a stormy Philadelphia sky and made a shocking discovery: Lightning is a form of electricity.

Illustrations of scientific experiments play a fundamental role in both science education and the dissemination of scientific knowledge to the general public. Confirming the adage that “a picture is ...

PHILADELPHIA -- Legend has it that 250 years ago this month, Benjamin Franklin sailed a kite and a key into a stormy Philadelphia sky and made a shocking discovery: Lightning was a form of electricity ...

PHILADELPHIA -- Legend has it that 250 years ago this month, Benjamin Franklin sailed a kite and a key into a stormy Philadelphia sky and discovered that lightning was a form of electricity. His test ...

Hand-colored lithograph published by Currier & Ives in 1876. This is probably the most widely distributed illustration of the experiment. Franklin is wrongly shown to be holding the string in one hand ...