Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When did Benjamin Franklin supposedly perform his kite experiment?
Franklin's kite experiment was performed in Philadelphia in June 1752, according to the account by Priestley.[5] Franklin described the experiment in the Pennsylvania Gazette in October 19, 1752,[6][7] without mentioning that he himself had performed it.[8] This account was read to the Royal Society on December 21 and printed as such in the Philosophical Transactions.[5] A more complete account of Franklin's experiment was given by Joseph Priestley in 1767, who presumably learned the details directly from Franklin, who was in London at the time Priestley wrote the book.[5]
Around 600 BC, Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus observed that amber could be electrified when rubbed with a cloth and attract other objects and produce sparks. In 1671, Leibniz discovered that sparks were associated with electrical phenomena. In 1708, Samuel Wall performed experiments with amber rubbed with cloth to produce sparks. In 1752, Thomas-François Dalibard, acting on an experiment proposed by Benjamin Franklin, arranged for a retired French dragoon named Coiffier in the village of Marly to collect lightning in a Leyden jar thus proving that lightning and electricity were equivalent. In Franklin's famous kite experiment, he successfully extracted sparks from a cloud during a thunderstorm.
The Franklin Society coat of arms consisted of three golden key intersecting each other, with the Brown crest in the background. The Brown crest serves as a tribute to the University, while the three keys are distinctly Franklin symbols. The three keys, partially references to Benjamin Franklin's electricity experiment involving a key and a kite, are said to represent Science, Reason and Action.
Franklin invented the lightning rod based on what he learned from experiments with his electrostatic machine. [11][41] Franklin and his associates observed that pointed objects were more effective than blunt objects at "drawing off" and "throwing off" sparks from static electricity.[12][42] This discovery was first reported by Hopkinson.[19] Franklin wondered if this discovery could be used in a practical invention. [43] He thought something could be made to attract the electricity out of storm clouds, but first he had to verify that lightning bolts really are giant electric sparks.[43] He wrote Collinson and Cadwallader Colden letters about this theory.[44] The 1752, Franklin letter to Collinson of October 19 of the kite experiment is noted by historian LeMay as a basis how it proved that lightning was electricity.[45] Tom Tucker of the Isothermal Community College doubts the account, however, because of ambiguities in the account and points that out in his book Bolt of Fate: Benjamin Franklin and his Electric Kite Hoax.[46][47] Others disagree with this view, arguing that Franklin would not make up such a fake story because he valued the integrity of the scientific community.[48][49]
Benjamin Franklin promoted his investigations of electricity and theories through the famous, though extremely dangerous, experiment of having his son fly a kite through a storm-threatened sky. A key attached to the kite string sparked and charged a Leyden jar, thus establishing the link between lightning and electricity. Following these experiments, he invented a lightning rod. It is either Franklin (more frequently) or Ebenezer Kinnersley of Philadelphia (less frequently) who is considered to have established the convention of positive and negative electricity.
Benjamin Loxley, also known as Benjamin Lockley (December 20, 1720 – October 10, 1801) was a prominent Philadelphia master-builder and carpenter-architect in the American Colonial Period. He was also a well known American patriot army leader. He collaborated with Benjamin Franklin on some of Franklin's electrical experiments, including the kite experiment when Franklin used his house key.
Franklin County High was opened in the fall of 1958 and dedicated on November 30 of that year. It consolidated Elkhorn, Bridgeport, Bald Knob, Thornhill, and Peaks Mill High Schools. Franklin County is named for Benjamin Franklin, and the high school's mascot, the Flyer, was chosen in honor of Franklin's kite experiment. The mascot itself is a bird named "Freddie Falcon".
Mendte appeared in three movies in cameo roles: "Primary Colors", "Shadow of Doubt", and "Snipes", a film starring Zoe Saldana. He wrote and directed four short documentaries. "Ben Franklin: Stealing Lightning from the Sky" aired across the country on Benjamin Franklin's birthday in 2006. The documentary questioned whether Franklin really did conduct his famous kite experiment. Later that year Mendte wrote and directed "Alex Scott: A Stand for Hope", a short documentary about Alex Scott, founder of Alex's Lemonade Stand. "Alex Scott: A Stand for Hope" won the award for Best Documentary at the Reno, Oxford, Danville, West Chester, Lake Arrowhead and Reel Award film Festivals. Mendte was named best Pennsylvania Filmmaker for 2006 at the West Chester Film Festival.
Though Benjamin Franklin has been most noted kite-wise with his lightning experiments, he has also been noted by many for his using kites to pull humans and ships across waterways. The George Pocock in the book "A TREATISE on The Aeropleustic Art, or Navigation in the Air, by means of Kites, or Buoyant Sails" noted being inspired by Benjamin Franklin's traction of his body by kite power across a waterway. In his later years he suggested using the technique for pulling ships.
It seems that Eddy's interest in kites was renewed when he learned about recent advances. In 1883, Douglas Archibald used kites to measure differences in wind velocity. Alexander McAdie repeated Benjamin Franklin's kite experiments with an electrometer. In 1887, Eddy heard of Woodbridge Davis' maneuverable kites. Based on accounts of tailless diamond kites common in Java, he tried to fill in the missing details. In standard diamond kites the tail was needed for stabilization, but was problematic when chaining several kites in order to reach higher altitudes. He added a bow in the cross spar and a hole at the crossing of the sticks. 
Franklin published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm. On May 10, 1752, Thomas-François Dalibard of France conducted Franklin's experiment using a iron rod instead of a kite, and he extracted electrical sparks from a cloud. On June 15, 1752, Franklin may possibly have conducted his well-known kite experiment in Philadelphia, successfully extracting sparks from a cloud. Franklin described the experiment in the "Pennsylvania Gazette" on October 19, 1752, without mentioning that he himself had performed it. This account was read to the Royal Society on December 21 and printed as such in the "Philosophical Transactions". Joseph Priestley published an account with additional details in his 1767 "History and Present Status of Electricity". Franklin was careful to stand on an insulator, keeping dry under a roof to avoid the danger of electric shock. Others, such as Prof. Georg Wilhelm Richmann in Russia, were indeed electrocuted in performing lightning experiments during the months immediately following Franklin's experiment.
Loxley was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and helped make many of his electrostatic machines. He assisted Franklin in his electrical experiments. Loxley provided his house key that Franklin used to get lightning from flying a kite in the clouds. The kite experiment became known as a variant of the "Philadelphia Experiment" of 1752.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, has appeared in popular culture as a character in novels, films, musicals, comics and video games. His experiment, using a kite, to prove that lightning is a form of electricity has been an especially popular aspect of his biography in fictional depictions.
In 1752, Franklin proposed an experiment with conductive rods to attract lightning to a leyden jar, an early form of capacitor. Such an experiment was carried out in May 1752 at Marly-la-Ville in northern France by Thomas-François Dalibard.[3] An attempt to replicate the experiment killed Georg Wilhelm Richmann in Saint Petersburg in August 1753; he was thought to be the victim of ball lightning.[4] Franklin himself is said to have conducted the experiment in June 1752, supposedly on the top of the spire on Christ Church in Philadelphia. However, the spire at Christ Church was not added until 1754.
Benjamin Franklin would often travel to Bensalem to visit his friend, Joseph Galloway, at Growden Mansion. At the time, the Galloway family owned all of present-day Bensalem Township. A local legend maintains that Franklin performed his famous kite-flying experiment in Bensalem, at the mansion, to prove that lightning was the same as static electricity. (The broader consensus is that Benjamin Franklin flew his kite closer to his home in Philadelphia.)
Local legend maintains that Franklin Square is where Benjamin Franklin conducted his famous, though misunderstood, "kite and key" experiment in 1752. However, it would have been unlikely for Franklin to fly a kite near a cemetery, and not all that far from possible observers from town. The legend is memorialized in Isamu Noguchi’s "Bolt of Lightning... A Memorial to Benjamin Franklin", a 101-foot tall, 60-ton stainless steel sculpture commissioned by the Fairmount Park Art Association and costing $850,000. It was erected in 1984 in Monument Plaza at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge, facing the Square across 6th Street, a location personally chosen by Noguchi.
In his writings, Franklin indicates that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his use of the concept of electrical ground. Franklin did not perform this experiment in the way that is often pictured in popular literature, flying the kite and waiting to be struck by lightning, as it would have been dangerous. Instead he used the kite to collect some electric charge from a storm cloud, showing that lightning was electrical. On October 19 in a letter to England with directions for repeating the experiment, Franklin wrote:
Galloway was good friends with William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's son. Franklin often visited him at his many estates, traveling 25 miles to Trevose from Philadelphia on horseback or by carriage. While a local legend maintains that Franklin performed his famous kite-flying experiment at Growdon Mansion to prove that lightning was the same as static electricity, the broader consensus is that Franklin flew his kite closer to his home in Philadelphia. Other significant historical figures such as George Washington and John Adams have also stayed at the mansion.
Kites have been used for scientific purposes, such as Benjamin Franklin's famous experiment proving that lightning is electricity. Kites were the precursors to the traditional aircraft, and were instrumental in the development of early flying craft. Alexander Graham Bell experimented with very large man-lifting kites, as did the Wright brothers and Lawrence Hargrave. Kites had a historical role in lifting scientific instruments to measure atmospheric conditions for weather forecasting.
The standard account of Franklin's experiment is disputed by science historian Tom Tucker in 2003.[11] According to Tucker, Franklin never performed the experiment, and the kite as described is incapable of performing its alleged role.[12]
In 1752 Benjamin Franklin published an account of a kite experiment to prove that lightning was caused by electricity.
The kite experiment is a scientific experiment in which a kite with a pointed, conductive wire attached to its apex is flown near thunder clouds to collect electricity from the air and conduct it down the wet kite string to the ground. It was proposed and may have been conducted by Benjamin Franklin with the assistance of his son William Franklin. The experiment's purpose was to uncover the unknown facts about the nature of lightning and electricity, and with further experiments on the ground, to demonstrate that lightning and electricity were the result of the same phenomenon.
The same decade, Romas conducted the kite experiment that Benjamin Franklin proposed in 1750 in a letter to Peter Collinson, but that had not yet reached France. Raising a wire-wrapped kite in a thunderstorm, Romas proved the electrical nature of lightning. During his experiment, he noticed ten feet long sparks and explosions. He also reported that during a repeat performance in front of a larger audience, he received severe jolts that were more intense than all he received before during experiments with Leyden jars. For this reason, he performed later experiments only with separately grounded conductors and kites that he handled via glass rods.
According to the 1767 Priestley account, Franklin realized the dangers of using conductive rods and instead used the conductivity of a wet hemp string attached to a kite. This allowed him to stay on the ground while his son assisted him to fly the kite from the shelter of a nearby shed. This enabled Franklin and his son to keep the silk string of the kite dry to insulate them while the hemp string to the kite was allowed to get wet in the rain to provide conductivity. A house key belonging to Benjamin Loxley was attached to the hemp string and connected to a Leyden jar; a silk string was attached to this. "At this key he charged phials, and from the electric fire thus obtained, he kindled spirits, and performed all other electrical experiments which are usually exhibited by an excited globe or tube." The kite was not struck by visible lightning; had it been, Franklin would almost certainly have been killed.[9] However, Franklin did notice that loose threads of the kite string were repelling each other and deduced that the Leyden jar was being charged. He moved his hand near the key and observed an electric spark,[5] proving the electric nature of lightning.[10]
Another proposal is that the character of Dr. Frankenstein was based upon a real scientist who had a similar name, and who had been called a modern Prometheus – Benjamin Franklin. Accordingly, the monster would represent the new nation that Franklin helped to create out of remnants left by England. Victor Frankenstein's father "made also a kite, with a wire and string, which drew down that fluid from the clouds," wrote Shelley, similar to Franklin's famous kite experiment.