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About the Museum
The Museum of Hoaxes is dedicated to promoting knowledge about hoaxes. (Click here for opening hours, etc.) On our blog we post about dubious- sounding claims, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The site is also home to the Hoax Photo Database, the Hoax Forum, and the Hoaxipedia.
The Museum of Hoaxes is dedicated to promoting knowledge about hoaxes. (Click here for opening hours, etc.) On our blog we post about dubious- sounding claims, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The site is also home to the Hoax Photo Database, the Hoax Forum, and the Hoaxipedia.
RUDE ROVERThe Christmas dog with no class! He sings and toots Jingle Bells.
INFLATABLE TREEWho needs the hassle of a real Christmas tree?
FARTING SANTAGo ahead and pull his finger!
Was Franklin’s Electric Kite Experiment a Hoax?
Status: Scholarly debate
Last weekend Philadelphia celebrated the anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's electric kite experiment (in which he flew a kite during a thunderstorm and proved that lightning was a form of electricity). They did so despite the fact that many believe the experiment was a hoax... that it never happened. The Philadelphia Inquirer provides a summary of this debate. The main proponent of the electric-kite-hoax theory is Tom Tucker, author of Bolt of Fate: Benjamin Franklin and his Electric Kite Hoax. (I noted the publication of his book back in 2003 when it first appeared in print.) Tucker points out that a) "Franklin did not publicize the kite flight until four months later, and then only with a passing mention in the Pennsylvania Gazette"; b) Franklin would have been very stupid to perform such an experiment because it could very easily have killed him; and c) Franklin was a known trickster and a great self-publicist who would not have been above taking credit for something he never did. Defenders of Franklin argue that all of Tucker's evidence is circumstantial. Personally, I'm inclined to believe the hoax theory. I think that Franklin would have been too smart to try such a deadly experiment. But, of course, it's the kind of thing historians can argue about until they're blue in the face. Ultimately there's no definitive evidence to prove that Franklin did or did not perform the experiment.
Update: Since Captain Al pointed out that the kite experiment wouldn't be deadly with some simple safety modifications, let me clarify exactly what Tucker's argument is. Tucker notes that Franklin had been sending the British Royal Society reports about his electricity experiments, but that these reports were being marginalized, mainly because the members of the RS regarded him as an uncouth American. So Tucker suggests that Franklin, frustrated at how he was being treated, sent the RS a report of the deadly electric kite experiment as a joke. It was basically the scientific equivalent of giving them the finger... suggesting that they go fly a kite in a thunderstorm. Franklin knew, and the RS members knew, that doing so could be fatal. But when the report reached France, people there took it seriously. So Franklin, knowing a good PR opportunity when he saw it, played along and began claiming that he really had done the experiment. That's the jist of Tucker's argument.
Posted By: Alex | Date: Tue Jun 20, 2006 | Permalink |
Total Comments: 24
Category: History, Science
Category: History, Science
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
Page 2 of 2 pages < 1 2
Thanks to Captain DaFt and RedNeck Oreo for identifying the fallacies in the story.
It's an amusing little fancy; and if Franklin's experiment had occurred as most artists depicted it, it would indeed have to be either dangerously foolhardy or a hoax.
But that is not the whole nor the true story.
I heard many years ago that the whole Franklin/kite story was affected by a misunderstanding.
Most people, recalling the famous drawings, assume that Franklin was attempting to "fly the kite into lightning, and then capture the lightning charge in a key in a glass jar."
This would be terribly foolhardy, even if the kite-string were grounded and the kite-flier were insulated.
Far more likely, however, was that Franklin merely sent the kite up into a cloudy (not stormy) sky -- or likelier, a sky in which storm clouds were gathering but not yet storming.
Whenever there are clouds, there is a buildup of static electricity, due to updrafts and downdrafts associated with the movement of water droplets and air molecules in the clouds. This is mainly due to friction -- much the same way that glass rods were induced to become electrically charged by rubbing them with cloths. (The more energetic the updrafts, the stronger the charges generated; thus high-wind storms result in lightning, while calm-weather clouds don't.)
This electrical charge can be channeled down a string or wire, even with no actual lightning being present. (The air itself would be charged, and the string would carry the not-nearly-lightning-strength charge away to the ground.)
The charge could then be channeled into a leyden jar (a primitive early form of battery), which would prove that the forces that give rise to lightning are the same as electrical charges.
(The usual pictures drawn of the event are wrong on multiple points: Franklin would have been sheltered in a shed, not standing outside; he would have held the string not directly, but secondarily -- insulated by attaching a dry silk ribbon to it; the sky would not have lightning in it, as that would be too dangerous; and his son William would have been a young man of 21 at the time, not a little boy as usually depicted.)
Virtually the identical description of the real experiment I recalled is seen at
http://www.mos.org/sln/toe/kite.html
The good captain and the honored (if sunburnt) cookie confirm my recollection,
and accord with the versions seen at
http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/kite.htm
or
http://www.thebakken.org/electricity/franklin-kite.html (Showing a classic false artist's rendering).
To sum up: debunking the popular misconception of Franklin's experiment is fine --
as long as the mythbusters bother to then explain what the real experiment was, and the precautions taken.
They didn't do that, so it's a classic straw man argument.
All the best,
Peace & Love,
David
Posted by David Hecht in Miami, FL on Sat Jun 24, 2006 at 07:28 PMIt's an amusing little fancy; and if Franklin's experiment had occurred as most artists depicted it, it would indeed have to be either dangerously foolhardy or a hoax.
But that is not the whole nor the true story.
I heard many years ago that the whole Franklin/kite story was affected by a misunderstanding.
Most people, recalling the famous drawings, assume that Franklin was attempting to "fly the kite into lightning, and then capture the lightning charge in a key in a glass jar."
This would be terribly foolhardy, even if the kite-string were grounded and the kite-flier were insulated.
Far more likely, however, was that Franklin merely sent the kite up into a cloudy (not stormy) sky -- or likelier, a sky in which storm clouds were gathering but not yet storming.
Whenever there are clouds, there is a buildup of static electricity, due to updrafts and downdrafts associated with the movement of water droplets and air molecules in the clouds. This is mainly due to friction -- much the same way that glass rods were induced to become electrically charged by rubbing them with cloths. (The more energetic the updrafts, the stronger the charges generated; thus high-wind storms result in lightning, while calm-weather clouds don't.)
This electrical charge can be channeled down a string or wire, even with no actual lightning being present. (The air itself would be charged, and the string would carry the not-nearly-lightning-strength charge away to the ground.)
The charge could then be channeled into a leyden jar (a primitive early form of battery), which would prove that the forces that give rise to lightning are the same as electrical charges.
(The usual pictures drawn of the event are wrong on multiple points: Franklin would have been sheltered in a shed, not standing outside; he would have held the string not directly, but secondarily -- insulated by attaching a dry silk ribbon to it; the sky would not have lightning in it, as that would be too dangerous; and his son William would have been a young man of 21 at the time, not a little boy as usually depicted.)
Virtually the identical description of the real experiment I recalled is seen at
http://www.mos.org/sln/toe/kite.html
The good captain and the honored (if sunburnt) cookie confirm my recollection,
and accord with the versions seen at
http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/kite.htm
or
http://www.thebakken.org/electricity/franklin-kite.html (Showing a classic false artist's rendering).
To sum up: debunking the popular misconception of Franklin's experiment is fine --
as long as the mythbusters bother to then explain what the real experiment was, and the precautions taken.
They didn't do that, so it's a classic straw man argument.
All the best,
Peace & Love,
David
Yes, RedNeckOreo, Mythbusters did not recreate the Ben Franklin experiment correctly. He flew the kite in stormy clouds not in an actual storm. He merely revealed that clouds carried a charge. If he would have flown the kite in an electrical storm he would have blown his arm off.
Posted by gnumber9 in North Carolina, USA on Sat Jul 15, 2006 at 08:20 PMBenjamin Franklin DID NOT get his kite struck by lightning! He flew it in a thunderstorm and collected a charge on the string, then used it to make a small arc on the ground.
Posted by Ian on Sat Jul 29, 2006 at 12:16 PMAny 80 meter HF ham operator can tell you that an unterminated long wire outside in the wind will produce a spark at times and will knock you on your butt if you're the closest path to ground. You don't need a kite, just a long wire or antenna.
Posted by Jack Brooks in Woodbridge, Virginia on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 09:51 AMPage 2 of 2 pages < 1 2