Discovery of Electricity

Hello there. My name is Ben Franklin, and I love to look at the world and ask big questions. I have always been very curious. One of my favorite things to watch is a big thunderstorm. The clouds get dark and grey, and then FLASH. A bright, beautiful light zips across the sky. Then BOOM, the thunder rumbles. I used to wonder what that zappy lightning was. Have you ever shuffled your feet on the carpet and then touched something metal? You get a tiny little spark. I wondered if the big lightning in the sky was the same as that tiny little spark.

To find out, my son William and I did an experiment on a stormy day. We built a special kite and tied a little metal key to the long string. We went outside just as a big storm cloud was passing over us. The wind was strong and it pulled my kite up, up, up into the sky. I held the string very carefully. The thunder rumbled far away. I waited and watched. Then, I slowly moved my finger close to the little metal key. ZAP. I felt a tiny tingle on my knuckle. It was a little buzz, like a secret message from the cloud. That little tingle proved it. Lightning was a kind of energy, the same energy as the little sparks from my feet. We call it electricity.

I was so happy. I felt like I had solved a giant puzzle from the sky. Understanding the secret of lightning was so exciting. Once we knew that lightning was electricity, we could learn how to use that energy to help people. We learned how to make electricity work for us, to do amazing things. Now, we use it to turn on lights in our homes so we can read books and play games even after the sun goes to sleep. Always be curious and ask big questions. You never know what wonderful things you might discover to make the world a much brighter place.