"western states lay outside of the various Standard Oil's production and refining networks, cities like Long Beach, California, Dallas, Texas, and Houston, Texas emerged as major centers for refining and managing these new fields under companies like Sunoco, Texaco, and Gulf Oil. Benjamin Franklin pioneered the study of electricity by being the first to describe positive and negative charges, as well as advancing the principle of conservation of charge. Franklin is best known for the apocryphal feat of flying a kite in thunderstorm to prove that lightning is a form of electricity which, in turn, led to the invention of"
"in Thomas Browne's ""Pseudodoxia Epidemica"" of 1646. Further work was conducted in the 17th and early 18th centuries by Otto von Guericke, Robert Boyle, Stephen Gray and C. F. du Fay. Later in the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin conducted extensive research in electricity, selling his possessions to fund his work. In June 1752 he is reputed to have attached a metal key to the bottom of a dampened kite string and flown the kite in a storm-threatened sky. A succession of sparks jumping from the key to the back of his hand showed that lightning was indeed electrical in nature."
"for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm. On May 10, 1752, Thomas-François Dalibard of France conducted Franklin's experiment using a iron rod instead of a kite, and he extracted electrical sparks from a cloud. On June 15 , 1752, Franklin may possibly have conducted his well-known kite experiment in Philadelphia, successfully extracting sparks from a cloud. Franklin described the experiment in the ""Pennsylvania Gazette"" on October 19, 1752, without mentioning that he himself had performed it. This account was read to the Royal"
"in a letter to Collinson dated October 19, 1752. A man by the name of G. W. Richman was killed in 1753 from electrocution doing the kite experiment. Franklin had proven that lightning bolts and electricity were one and the same. He also showed that this ""electric fluid"" was attracted to a sharply pointed object high in the sky. An iron rod could have the other end put into the ground to create a path for safe conduction of the high voltage electricity. Thus, a way of diverting lightning bolts from wooden buildings and preventing them from going aflame due"
"of Franklin's historic kite experiment, the identity of the electricity developed by rubbing and by electrostatic machines (frictional electricity) with lightning had not been generally established. Dr. Wall, Abbot Nollet, Hauksbee, Stephen Gray and John Henry Winkler had indeed suggested the resemblance between the phenomena of ""electricity"" and ""lightning"", Gray having intimated that they only differed in degree. It was doubtless Franklin, however, who first proposed tests to determine the sameness of the phenomena. In a letter to Peter Comlinson of London, on 19 October 1752, Franklin, referring to his kite experiment, wrote, On 10 May 1742 Thomas-François Dalibard, at"
"found that the subjects experimented on lost weight, thus apparently showing that electricity quickened the excretions. The efficacy of electric shocks in cases of paralysis was tested in the county hospital at Shrewsbury, England, with rather poor success. Benjamin Franklin promoted his investigations of electricity and theories through the famous, though extremely dangerous, experiment of having his son fly a kite through a storm-threatened sky. A key attached to the kite string sparked and charged a Leyden jar, thus establishing the link between lightning and electricity. Following these experiments, he invented a lightning rod. It is either Franklin (more frequently)"
"Jacques de Romas Jacques de Romas (13 October 1713 – 21 January 1776) was a French physicist. He held a judiciary office in the présidial of his lifelong hometown of Nérac. As a hobbyist, he was a polymath scientist until specialising in electricity. He became known for physical experiments during thunderstorms and in 1750 proposed a connection between lightning and electricity when the chateau of Tampouy was hit by lightning strike. The same decade, Romas conducted the kite experiment that Benjamin Franklin proposed in 1750 in a letter to Peter Collinson, but that had not yet reached France. Raising a"
"and from the electric fire thus obtained, he kindled spirits, and performed all other electrical experiments which are usually exhibited by an excited globe or tube."" The kite was not struck by visible lightning; had it been, Franklin would almost certainly have been killed. However, Franklin did notice that loose threads of the kite string were repelling each other and deduced that the Leyden jar was being charged. He moved his hand near the key and observed an electric spark, proving the electric nature of lightning. The Kite Experiment was described in The Pennsylvania Gazette, October 19, 1752 as follows:"
"original site on 13 February 2010. A school and several streets in the region are named after Romas. Jacques de Romas Jacques de Romas (13 October 1713 – 21 January 1776) was a French physicist. He held a judiciary office in the présidial of his lifelong hometown of Nérac. As a hobbyist, he was a polymath scientist until specialising in electricity. He became known for physical experiments during thunderstorms and in 1750 proposed a connection between lightning and electricity when the chateau of Tampouy was hit by lightning strike. The same decade, Romas conducted the kite experiment that Benjamin Franklin"
"Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He founded many civic organizations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia's first fire department and the University of"
"Henry Leroy Transtrom Henry Leroy Transtrom (1885–1951) was an American inventor and showman who worked with high voltage electricity. His book, ""Electricity at High Pressures and Frequencies"", (1913) is still used as a guide for constructing homemade Tesla coils. Transtrom was best known for his dramatic stunts and performances with high frequency, high voltage electricity from a Tesla coil. For his ""Lightning Man"" demonstrations, he stood on a large Tesla coil which made sparks (electrical discharges) come out from his outstretched fingertips. There is a long-standing rumour that Transtrom was electrocuted during one of his demonstrations when one of these"
"reported by Hopkinson. Franklin wondered if this discovery could be used in a practical invention. He thought something could be made to attract the electricity out of storm clouds, but first he had to verify that lightning bolts really are giant electric sparks. He wrote Collinson and Cadwallader Colden letters about this theory. The 1752, Franklin letter to Collinson of October 19 of the kite experiment is noted by historian LeMay as a basis how it proved that lightning was electricity. Tom Tucker of the Isothermal Community College doubts the account, however, because of ambiguities in the account and points"
"stage America's scientific infrastructure was still quite primitive compared to the long-established societies, institutes, and universities in Europe. Two of America's founding fathers were scientists of some repute. Benjamin Franklin conducted a series of experiments that deepened human understanding of electricity. Among other things, he proved what had been suspected but never before shown: that lightning is a form of electricity. Franklin also invented such conveniences as bifocal eyeglasses. Franklin also conceived the mid-room furnace, the ""Franklin Stove."" However, Franklin's design was flawed, in that his furnace vented the smoke from its base: because the furnace lacked a chimney to"
"that out in his book ""Bolt of Fate: Benjamin Franklin and his Electric Kite Hoax."" Others disagree with this view, arguing that Franklin would not make up such a fake story because he valued the integrity of the scientific community. To test his theory, Franklin proposed a potentially deadly experiment, to be performed during an electrical storm, where a person would stand on an insulated stool inside a sentry box, and hold out a long, pointed iron rod to attract a lightning bolt. A similar but less dangerous version of this experiment was first performed successfully in France On May"
"the United States, the pointed lightning rod conductor, also called a lightning attractor or Franklin rod, was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1749 as part of his groundbreaking exploration of electricity. Although not the first to suggest a correlation between electricity and lightning, Franklin was the first to propose a workable system for testing his hypothesis. Franklin speculated that, with an iron rod sharpened to a point, Franklin speculated about lightning rods for several years before his reported kite experiment. This experiment, it is said, took place because he was tired of waiting for Christ Church in Philadelphia to be"
"Kite experiment The kite experiment is a scientific experiment in which a kite with a pointed, conductive wire attached to its apex is flown near thunder clouds to collect electricity from the air and conduct it down the wet kite string to the ground. It was proposed and may have been conducted by Benjamin Franklin with the assistance of his son William Franklin. The experiment's purpose was to uncover the unknown facts about the nature of lightning and electricity, and with further experiments on the ground, to demonstrate that lightning and electricity were the result of the same phenomenon. Speculations"
"Society on December 21 and printed as such in the ""Philosophical Transactions"". Joseph Priestley published an account with additional details in his 1767 ""History and Present Status of Electricity"". Franklin was careful to stand on an insulator, keeping dry under a roof to avoid the danger of electric shock. Others, such as Prof. Georg Wilhelm Richmann in Russia, were indeed electrocuted in performing lightning experiments during the months immediately following Franklin's experiment. In his writings, Franklin indicates that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his use of"
"the concept that electricity is attracted to points. Franklin then carried the idea a step forward and surmised that a pointed iron rod high above a rooftop would attract a lightning bolt, if the bolt was of electricity. Frenchman Thomas-Francois d'Alibald did the actual experiment May 10, 1752, as Franklin had suggested and lightning struck the iron rod. In London it was repeated in Spital Square on July 20, 1752, and again in Chelmsford, Essex, on August 12, 1752. The electricity attraction from a lightning storm was also done by Franklin himself in the kite experiment that he talked about"
"the concept of electrical ground. Franklin did not perform this experiment in the way that is often pictured in popular literature, flying the kite and waiting to be struck by lightning, as it would have been dangerous. Instead he used the kite to collect some electric charge from a storm cloud, showing that lightning was electrical. On October 19 in a letter to England with directions for repeating the experiment, Franklin wrote: Franklin's electrical experiments led to his invention of the lightning rod. He said that conductors with a sharp rather than a smooth point could discharge silently, and at"
"have been used for scientific purposes, such as Benjamin Franklin's famous experiment proving that lightning is electricity. Kites were the precursors to aircraft, and were instrumental in the development of early flying craft. Alexander Graham Bell experimented with very large man-lifting kites, as did the Wright brothers and Lawrence Hargrave. Kites had an historical role in lifting scientific instruments to measure atmospheric conditions for weather forecasting. Francis Ronalds and William Radcliffe Birt described a very stable kite at Kew Observatory as early as 1847 that was trialled for the purpose of supporting self-registering meteorological instruments at height. The Weather Doctor"
"of Saint Petersburg, Russia, created a kite-flying apparatus similar to Benjamin Franklin's proposal a year earlier. Richmann was attending a meeting of the Academy of Sciences when he heard thunder and ran home with his engraver to capture the event for posterity. While the experiment was under way, ball lightning appeared and travelled down the string, struck Richmann's forehead and killed him. The ball had left a red spot on Richmann's forehead, his shoes were blown open, and his clothing was singed. His engraver was knocked unconscious. The door frame of the room was split and the door was torn"
"seemed to move, causing a lightbulb to glow. The following is a list of people who worked for Thomas Edison in his laboratories at Menlo Park or West Orange or at the subsidiary electrical businesses that he supervised. Museums Information and media by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin. Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman, who has been described as America's greatest inventor. He is credited with developing many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the"
"conductive rods to attract lightning to a leyden jar, an early form of capacitor. Such an experiment was carried out in May 1752 at Marly-la-Ville in northern France by Thomas-François Dalibard. An attempt to replicate the experiment killed Georg Wilhelm Richmann in Saint Petersburg in August 1753; he was thought to be the victim of ball lightning. Franklin himself is said to have conducted the experiment in June 1752, supposedly on the top of the spire on Christ Church in Philadelphia. However, the spire at Christ Church was not added until 1754. Franklin's kite experiment was performed in Philadelphia in"
"experimenters, Hauksbee, Newton, Wall, Nollet, and Gray, that lightning was caused by electric discharges. In 1708, Dr. William Wall was one of the first to observe that spark discharges resembled miniature lightning, after observing the sparks from a charged piece of amber. Benjamin Franklin's experiments showed that electrical phenomena of the atmosphere were not fundamentally different from those produced in the laboratory, by listing many similarities between electricity and lightning. By 1749, Franklin observed lightning to possess almost all the properties observable in electrical machines. In July 1750, Franklin hypothesized that electricity could be taken from clouds via a tall"
"to lightning hits had been discovered. Franklin's lightning conductor invention, with its lightning rod uppermost point, became a model for the lightning-protection system used in America in the eighteenth century. King Louis XV honored Franklin after seeing some of the electrical experiments done in the royal palace at St. Germain near Paris, France. However physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700–1770), a skeptic who had published his own theory on electricity, declared Franklin's ideas were wrong. He claimed in 1753 that Franklin's lightning rod was not only dangerous but useless and would attract lightning bolts to wooden buildings, causing them to be hit"
"his accomplishments was the invention of a device to prevent frost from harming fruit. He was a pioneer in the use of kites to study conditions at high altitudes. In 1885 at Blue Hill, Boston, he modernized the experiments of Benjamin Franklin by attaching a voltmeter to a kite and measuring the voltage difference between the ground and several hundred feet up. He also made studies of the atmospheric effects of smoke, the connection between the aurora and electricity in the atmosphere, and the dangers posed by lightning. He is the author of a cloud atlas. He is also known"
"these two separate events. He wrote about them in a lecture series. Though Benjamin Franklin has been most noted kite-wise with his lightning experiments, he has also been noted by many for his using kites to pull humans and ships across waterways. The George Pocock in the book ""A TREATISE on The Aeropleustic Art, or Navigation in the Air, by means of Kites, or Buoyant Sails"" noted being inspired by Benjamin Franklin's traction of his body by kite power across a waterway. In his later years he suggested using the technique for pulling ships. Franklin noted a principle of refrigeration"
"Thomas-François Dalibard Thomas-François Dalibard (born in Crannes-en-Champagne, France in 1709, died in 1778) was a French physicist. He first met U.S. scientist Benjamin Franklin in 1767 during one of Franklin's visits to France and it is said that they became friends. In 1750, Benjamin Franklin published a proposal for an experiment to determine if lightning was electricity. He proposed extending a conductor into a cloud that appeared to have the potential to become a thunderstorm. If electricity existed in the cloud, the conductor could be used to extract it. Dalibard, who at the suggestion of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon,"
"crowned his exertions"". William Snow Harris Sir William Snow Harris (1 April 1791 – 22 January 1867) was a British physician and electrical researcher, nicknamed Thunder-and-Lightning Harris, and noted for his invention of a successful system of lightning conductors for ships. It took many years of campaigning, research and successful testing before the British Royal Navy changed to Harris's conductors from their previous less effective system. One of the successful test vessels was which survived lightning strikes unharmed on her famous voyage with Charles Darwin. Harris was born in Plymouth on 1 April 1791. His family was well established as"
"wire-wrapped kite in a thunderstorm, Romas proved the electrical nature of lightning. During his experiment, he noticed ten feet long sparks and explosions. He also reported that during a repeat performance in front of a larger audience, he received severe jolts that were more intense than all he received before during experiments with Leyden jars. For this reason, he performed later experiments only with separately grounded conductors and kites that he handled via glass rods. On 12 July 1752, he wrote a letter to the académie of Bordeaux with a first report about his experiences with a grounded rod during"
"inherited the land and sold it in 1848, when the house again underwent major changes. Galloway was good friends with William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's son. Franklin often visited him at his many estates, traveling 25 miles to Trevose from Philadelphia on horseback or by carriage. While a local legend maintains that Franklin performed his famous kite-flying experiment at Growdon Mansion to prove that lightning was the same as static electricity, the broader consensus is that Franklin flew his kite closer to his home in Philadelphia. Other significant historical figures such as George Washington and John Adams have also stayed at"
"""An Essay to show the Cause of Electricity and why some things are Non-Electricable, in which is also considered its Influence in the Blasts on Human Bodies, in the Blights on Trees, in the Damps in Mines, and as it may affect the Sensitive Plants"" (republished in 1752 with the more concise title ""Treatise on the Nature and Property of Fire""), expressing the belief that lightning and electricity were the same. He is mentioned in ""Tom Jones"" and as a friend of William Hogarth may have been the model for the president of the College of Surgeons in ""Reward of"
"Thomas E. Murray Thomas E. Murray (October 21, 1860 – July 21, 1929) was an American inventor and businessman who developed electric power plants for New York City as well as many electrical devices which influenced life around the world, including the dimmer switch and screw-in fuse. It has been said that he ""invented everything from the power plant up to the light bulb"". Murray is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history after Thomas Edison, holding 462 U.S. patents in his name. However, unlike Edison, Murray did not patent the work of others under his name; the"