On June 16, 1752, Benjamin Franklin tied a kite to a silk string with an iron key on the string's end. From the key, he ran a wire into a Leyden jar, a container that stored electricity between two electrodes inside and outside of the jar.
He tied a silk ribbon to the key, which he held onto from inside a shed, to keep it dry. The electrical charge from the storm overhead passed through the key and into the Leyden jar.
Franklin used the information he gained to design lightning rods, which conducted a storm's electrical charge safely into the ground. One of Franklin's lightning rods saved his own house years later, during a storm.
Creative Write: Have you ever wanted to design a contraption to test a notion? Write about it.
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