WOODCUT & DESCRIPTION OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S "KITE EXPERIMENT" PUBLISHED IN JULY 1752

The Gentleman's Magazine. London: Sylvanus Urban, E. Cave, July 1752. 8vo, 46 pages (of 48). Illustrated. Disbound, self-wrappers.

A notable issue of The Gentleman's Magazine with an article and diagram of Benjamin Franklin's groundbreaking experiments investigating the nature of lightning and electricity. The article, "A Cut and Description of a Machine, easily constructed, for making the Experiment by which Franklin's new Theory of Thunder is demonstrated," is illustrated with a diagram of the apparatus and accompanied by a description of the setup and method, including safety suggestions. 

Franklin began experimenting with electricity in 1746 and proposed that lightning was in fact electricity, an idea initially ridiculed by the Royal Society of London. The experiment described here required a tall spire, a roadblock for Franklin, as Philadelphia lacked sufficiently tall buildings. Frenchman Thomas-François Dalibard (1709-1778) successfully performed the experiment in May 1752. The next month, Franklin altered the experiment to use a kite to raise his lightning rod to an adequate height 

[American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Colonial America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe] [Ephemera, Pamphlets, Publications, Booklets, Books] [History of Science] 

Lacking leaf with pp. 309/310, not related to the Franklin experiment