Ben Franklin invented lightning, right?

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RodgerPe

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I am a 10th grade history teacher, and one of my students questioned me rudely when I stated "Benjamin Franklin is the inventor of lightning, and as such is an influential man in the history of the world." He did invent lightning, right?
 
Ben Franklin discovered electricity, via the lightning rod. (kite with key)

Your student may have been bothered by the term invented. As lightning was never invented. Just discovered.
 
Benjamin Franklin invented lightning? Man, you really don't get out much, do you?
 
No.
Franklin was the first to demonstrate conclusively that lightning is just a large amount of static electricity. He did this by capturing the static electricity of lightning on a Leyden jar using a kite and string. This is a dangerous experiment; several individuals have been killed attempting to repeat it.
Lightning is a natural phenomenon that predates humans by many millenia. Of course Franklin did not invent it. Franklin did, however, invent the lightning rod so people could protect their homes, barns, and other structures from a lightning strike.
 
no, no he didn't. nobody "invented" lightning. Benjamin franklin found ways of using it (such as flying a kite in a thunder storm). Shakespeare didn't invent poetry, he brought it to a new level.
 
He didn't invent lightning....he only proved it was electricity. He did many other things too....the Franklin Stove, bifocals.
 
Oh my god. Are you kidding me? Are people as brilliant as you really responsible for the education of America's future? Lightning is a natural phenomenon, no body invented it. He conducted experiments with electricity.
 
NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! Ben Franklin didn't invent lightning, he simply used lightning in his experiments with electricity! Lightning has been around since the dawn of time!
 
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