Focus on Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky and discuss the Background.
West based his painting on a well-known experiment Franklin conducted in 1752. Franklin observed that lightning frequently destroyed homes by igniting those made of wood. Franklin was determined to prove the presence of electricity in lightning through an experiment. Franklin's experiment, in its initial conception, depended on the completion of Christ's Church in Philadelphia, whose steeples would be sufficiently high as to attract a lightning strike. Franklin then conceived of an alternative experiment that involved flying a kite during a thunderstorm with a metal key attached to the string.Franklin conducted his experiment in private for several reasons, including its dangerous nature, and he did not want to disappoint the scientific community if the experiment failed. He decided to experiment alongside his son William in a field. Franklin demonstrated that the clouds carried an electrical charge by bringing a finger near the metal key, producing a spark. His experiments led to the widespread adoption of lightning rods on tall buildings to draw electricity off the building and into the ground.
William lightning rod kite Philadelphia