Old “Ben” and his Franklin lightning rod - The Washington Post
As most of us know, Ben Franklin had a childhood fascination with electricity, performing early experiments with static electricity and later, the Leyden jar, a device that “stores” electricity (a capacitor). Eventually, he performed his famous kite experiment, in which he supposedly flew a kite into a thunderstorm and held a metal key on the other end to test his theory that lightning was a form of static electricity. Or did he? Unfortunately, we don’t know for sure. Franklin was very diligent about recording all of his important activities in his diary, where there is no mention of that experiment. Nevertheless, whether Franklin himself actually performed the experiment or not, he was able to greatly benefit from what was learned and subsequently invented what he called the “Franklin rod,” a device to help protect structures from lightning-caused fires.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/old-ben-and-his-franklin-lightning-rod/2011/06/01/AGGaNRGH_blog.html?utm_term=.886df799b92b
