Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), painted by Joseph Duplessis
The founding father electrocuted himself when trying to kill the animal in 1750. But he drew valuable conclusions from the experience.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the central figures in the founding of the United States and a pioneer in the study of electricity, suffered an electric shock in 1750 while trying to kill a turkey during a dinner with guests.
The episode, described by him in a letter recently cited by , became one of the most unusual accounts of his long relationship with electrical experiments.
Franklin wrote that he had recently made “an experiment in electricity” that he wanted “never repeat”. According to the report, he was preparing to kill a turkey by discharging two large glass jars — containers similar to Leiden bottles, used to store electrical charge — when he himself ended up receiving the complete discharge through his arms and body.
According to the description, the scientist first felt a violent and rapid shaking throughout the body, gradually recovering consciousness in the following moments. Those present said they saw a flash and heard a loud crack, although he did not notice any of these signs at the time of the accident. He later stated that the sensation had been that of “a “universal blow” from head to toe, followed by intense tremors in the trunk.
On the one hand, Franklin was one of the first to demonstrate experimentally that lightning is electrostatic dischargenamely through the famous experience of the kite during a storm, described in 1752. On the other hand, the founding father carried out his investigations on a “spree”.
In a letter to his friend Peter Collinson, he confessed that he had never been so absorbed by a study as that of electricity, especially after receiving experimental equipment, such as a Leiden bottle. This curiosity extended to dinners and social demonstrations, where he liked to surprise guests with slightly electrified glasses, causing small shocks while drinking wine.
Franklin also believed that turkeys killed by electric shock remained especially tender. He even wrote that birds slaughtered in this way were “unusually tender” to eat.
Despite the scare, the episode did not cause any apparent serious damage. Franklin only mentioned some subsequent numbness and drew a curious conclusion from the incident: a human being could withstand a greater electrical discharge than he imagined, although he admitted that he did not know what the consequences would be if the shock went through the head.
