Benjamin Franklin conducted experiments with static electricity
and discovered that pointed bodies conduct electricity
more readily than rounded bodies,
leading directly his inventing the lightning rod.
He was the first to understand the difference
between “a plenum of electrical fire”
which he said was electrified positively or plus
and “a vacuum of the same fire”
which he said was electrified negatively or minus.
He understood that the parts of electrical matter
repel each other, but are attracted by other matter,
so that electrified water molecules in a cloud repel each other
until they are discharged as lightning,
whereupon drops coalesce and fall as rain.
He was the first to claim that electrical charge is conserved,
and he was the first to show that static electricity
gathered by friction and stored in a Leyden jar
is the same as the electricity generated by an electrical storm
and conducted to a key by the wet string of a kite.
Electric pleasures
“A turkey is to be killed for our dinner
by the electrical shock,
and roasted by the electrical jack,
before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle.”
—Benjamin Franklin, 1748
Or so we read on our electric monitor
of the electric computer
from a distant electric archive
of an electric version of Franklin’s book,
Experiments and Observations on Electricity.
Electronic addiction
Users addicted to electronics
argue electronics are good for them.
There was a time when mankind
could not control electrons.
It would be foolish to argue
lives were better then,
and it would be foolish to argue
we have no more to learn.
Ben Franklin coined the term battery for multiple Leyden
jars connected in parallel.
Ben Franklin also wrote a ground-breaking paper on
population growth, he worked with his cousin Timothy Folger to
chart and name the Gulf Stream, he was an early defender of
Christiaan Huygens’ wave theory of light, he contributed to
meteorology, he invented traction kiting, he investigated the
principle of refrigeration by evaporation, and he documented the
effects of heating and cooling on electrical conductors, including
discovering the nonconductivity of ice.
Ben Franklin coined the term battery for multiple Leyden jars connected in parallel.
Ben Franklin also wrote a ground-breaking paper on population growth, he worked with his cousin Timothy Folger to chart and name the Gulf Stream, he was an early defender of Christiaan Huygens’ wave theory of light, he contributed to meteorology, he invented traction kiting, he investigated the principle of refrigeration by evaporation, and he documented the effects of heating and cooling on electrical conductors, including discovering the nonconductivity of ice.
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