It was on this date in 1752 according to legend that Benjamin Franklin carried out his kite experiment. I say “according to legend” because some have speculated that the event took place some time later in the summer, after word trickled in to America of similar experiments carried out by French scientists over the summer. Personally I have no idea of the order of the events and leave it to others to sort out, if that can even be done. Whatever the timeline, Benjamin Franklin’s contribution to showing that lightning and electricity are one and the same was a significant contribution to Enlightenment ideas. Here via Founders Online is Franklin’s report as published in his Pennsylvania Gazette on October 19.

It is interesting how paintings, lithographs, and other media in use prior to the advent of photography influence our understanding of the past. Currier & Ives printed the image we see here in the Centennial year of 1876. Much like in 1976 there was a huge market for what we would now call Americana during the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Benjamin’s son William in June 1752 was a young man of 22, not the young lad we see here depicted by Currier & Ives. Colonial and Revolutionary War Era iconography from the past is roughly akin to reading historical novels or watching period movies today. We may enjoy them for their own merits, but shouldn’t take them as authentic representations. I suppose that’s another story though.