e soon became widely used, as it was efficient and available to anyone who could build one.One of Franklin's most famous and notable experiments was his kite experiment. He first set out to establish if lightning was a form of electricity. With his kite, Franklin drew lightning down to the ground, thus determining that it was a form of electricity. The most important concepts of his experiments were the existence of positive and negative electricity, the fluidity of electricized particles and the identity of lightning and electricity (Cohen 48). The experiment with the kite is taught in school to nearly every American child. It sparked the birth of lightning rods. The rods kept people's homes from getting hit by lightning and catching fire. House fires caused by lightning were one of the most dangerous problems colonists had to face. "Soon after the rods were invented, all of Philadelphia, Boston, London, and Paris began using them" (Fleming 17).Some of the new electricity related words conceived by Franklin included the condenser, conductor, electric shock, positive and negative electricity, and plus and minus charges. He wrote Poor Richard's Almanack in 1732 to explain the practical application of electricity. Both Harvard and Yale gave Franklin honorary degrees of Master of Arts even though his formal education ended in the second grade. After Franklin's experiments were successfully performed by French and English scientists, the King of France sent Franklin his personal congratulations. The Royal Society elected Franklin as a member by unanimous vote. They later awarded him the Society's highest honor, the Copley Medal, after learning of some of his other talents and distinguished accomplishments.Some of Franklin's other inventions were the copying press, a musical instrument called the armonica, a rocking chair that fanned itself as it rocked, a long arm device for moving books on high library shelves, a combination fo...
