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    Once upon a time there was a man named 

Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin was born in 

Boston on January 17, 1706. He was a very 

intelligent and talented man in America. He was 

very fascinated by electricity so he decided to 

learn more about it and perform different 

experiments with it!

      Ben Franklin became inspired by electricity  

after he attended a lecture on it while he was in 

Boston. Ever since then he did experiments based 

on electricity and lightning. Through his 

observations he believed that electricity and 

lightning were the same thing. He came up with 

several similarities between the two. Giving off 

light, conducted by metals, crooked direction, and 

switch motion were some similarities he discovered.

   He performed minor electrical tricks such as 

making a woman's hair stand on end, setting 

alcohol on fire, giving shocks with a kiss and 

mysteriously causing an artificial "spider" to 

move to amuse his friends.   He used things 

around his house to create these experiments. 

All of these electrical tricks made him very 

popular! 

    Ben Franklin was the first person to use 

the terms "positive" and "negative" when 

referring to electrical charges. In one of his 

experiments he uses a charge electric tube, 

iron shot balls, and a cork ball. This 

demonstrates how the positive and negative 

electrical charge is passed from one item to 

another in the following manner. This discovery 

led itself to a practical application with the well 

known invention, lightning rod.

   Ben and his friends experimented with a 

Leyden Jar. Electrical charge was stored up 

in the jar by touching the conducting wire to 

an electrical source known as the electric 

tube. At first, he thought the electricity was 

stored in the water but it was actually stored 

in the glass. Later, it was determined that 

almost anything could act as a storage device. 

He noticed that different items can be 

conducted and store energy at different rates. 

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