Скачать или смотреть 23rd December 1750: Ben Franklin accidentally shocks himself while trying to electrocute a turkey

Benjamin Franklin began experimenting with electricity around 1746, and conducted a series of well-documented scientific experiments to explore its properties. His letters reveal that by 1750 he had already applied the terms ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ to electrical charge, and had performed numerous investigations using Leyden jars to store static electricity.

Franklin first expressed his intention to use electricity to cook a meal in a letter to his friend Peter Collinson on 29 April 1749. However, it wasn’t until the following year that he successfully killed a full-size turkey by using electricity stored in a number of 6 gallon Leydon jars. His earlier attempts had only resulted in the birds being knocked unconscious and, in a report by English scientist William Watson, it is revealed that Franklin was consequently forced to increase the shock by using more jars.

In a separate account Franklin himself recorded how, on the evening of 23 December 1750, he hoped to demonstrate his experiment to an audience. The letter, written on Christmas Day, describes how ‘I inadvertently took the whole [charge] through my own arms and body’. His audience reported hearing a loud crack accompanied by a great flash, while Franklin himself was rendered senseless. While the shock wasn’t enough to kill him he felt numb for a while afterwards, and his chest was sore for the next week.

This prompted him to warn his friend James Bowdoin to take care in his own experiments with electricity. However, the experience didn’t put Franklin off experimenting with electricity as he reportedly conducted the famous kite experiment two years later.