Benjamin Franklin first shocked himself in 1746, while conducting experiments on electricity with found objects from around his house. Six years later and exactly 261 years ago today, the founding father flew a kite attached to a key and a silk ribbon in a thunderstorm and effectively trapped lightning in a jar. The experiment is now seen as a watershed moment in mankind's question to channel a force of nature once thought to be the wrath of God himself. It's also understood that Ben Franklin was pretty effing lucky he didn't fry his bones on that fateful early June afternoon in 1752. Based on what he'd contribute to the nation in the years after that, America is pretty lucky, too.
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