The Great Kite Experiment

H. Wright Smith, "Benjamin Franklin."

June 15 is traditionally considered the date of Benjamin Franklin's experiment with a kite to prove that lightning was electrical in nature. The Libraries has recently published a very interesting piece about Franklin by Joyce E. Chaplin, Benjamin's Franklins Political Arithmetic: A Materialist View of Humanity. Excerpts can be read on this blog, the entire publication can be found on the Libraries website, or you can even request a copy from the Dibner Library.—Elizabeth Periale