In his Christmas letter Franklin describes the event. The picture was rigged so that anyone who tried to remove the crown while holding the gilt edge of the picture would be shocked.”įranklin thought electricity made the turkey tender, so he continued to cook his turkey this way until in 1750 he shocked himself while electrocuting his holiday turkey. Franklin also devised a game called “treason,” which involved an electrified portrait of the king, with a removable gilt crown. Guests drank from electrified glasses that gave them a small shock as they sipped their wine, and were entertained as sparks were sent across the river. He killed a turkey by electrical shock, then roasted it using the electrical jack, an electric device he invented that would rotate the turkey as it roasted before a fire, which was kindled by an electrified bottle. For instance, in the early summer of 1749, somewhat disappointed at not yet having produced anything of great use to mankind with electricity, Franklin hosted an elaborate electrical barbecue. The American Physical Society tells the story well: “To be sure, Franklin had a great sense of humor and clearly enjoyed the parlor tricks, and he liked having an audience for his electrical amusements. It is plain the Wire conducted the Lightning to him thro’ the whole Length of the Gallery: And had his Apparatus been intended for the Security of his House, and the Wire (as in that Case it ought to be) continued without Interruption from the Roof to the Earth, it seems more than probable that the Lightning would have follow’d the Wire, and that neither the House nor any of the Family would have been hurt by that unfortunate Stroke.” Richmann being about to make Experiments on the Matter of Lightning, had supported his Rod and Wires by Electrics per se, which cut off their Communication with the Earth and himself standing too near where the Wire terminated, help’d with his Body to compleat that Communication. “The new Doctrine of Lightning is, however, confirm’d by this unhappy Accident and many Lives may hereafter be sav’d by the Practice it teaches. It is believed that the last paragraph was written by Benjamin Franklin as an explanation of the accident. There was an explosion that knocked both Richmann and his engraver backwards and the door off its hinges.Ī letter from Moscow giving the account of Richmann’s death, dated August 23, 1753, was reprinted in the The Pennsylvania Gazette, March 5, 1754. Richmann was standing a foot from the jar when a ball of lightning came down the bar and struck him on the forehead. An iron bar stuck out of the jar and was attached to a wire on the roof of the building. In Russia, Swedish Physicist Georg Wilhelm Richmann tried the experiment with a jar of water with brass fittings. Unfortunately, not everyone who tried the experiment survived.
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