It has all the makings of a great monster story: an attempt to draw lightning from the sky, a scientist passionate to show that electricity held the secret of life, body parts and, of course, ...

Benjamin Franklin experimented with electricity on fowl. Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Duplessis, courtesy of The Library of Congress In 1751 Benjamin Franklin planned an electrical ...

The film explores the concept of electricity, demonstrating how it can be generated through simple experiments such as rubbing different materials together. It explains the basics of electric currents ...

Originally published as a series of pamphlets in 1751, the first collected edition of Experiments and Observations on Electricity Made at Philadelphia in America by Benjamin Franklin was the fourth ...

Special Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print ...

On January 17, 1803, a young man named George Forster was hanged for murder at Newgate prison in London. After his execution, as often happened, his body was carried ceremoniously across the city to ...

Italian scientist Luigi Galvani (left) and the steps of a suspended reanimation experiment on frog legs and a sheep. The manicules (pointing hands) illustrate to the reader how the steps should be ...

On a dark, stormy summer night in 1752, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite with a key attached to the string waiting in anticipation for lightning to strike. The dramatic bolt would harken the discovery of ...

Electricity isn’t just wires and outlets. Its history includes fake experiments, brutal PR wars, and vehicles that predate ...

THE following striking experiment to show the rapidity of the influence of sulphuric acid in removing the invisible film of moisture that in ordinary circumstances adheres to the surface of glass and ...