Fact File about the Invention of the Lightning Rod: Invention: Lightning Rod *** Date of Invention: 1747 *** Name of Inventor: Benjamin Franklin *** Lifespan of Inventor: 1706 - 1790 *** Nationality of Inventor: American *** Historical Period: First US Industrial Revolution (1700 - 1860) *** Category: Technology *** Country of Origin: America *** Facts about the Inventor, Benjamin Franklin, and the invention of the Lightning Rod ***

Fact 1: Who invented the Lightning Rod? The Lightning Rod was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1747 during the First US Industrial Revolution era of inventions (1700 - 1860).

Fact 2: Who invented the Lightning Rod? Prior to Benjamin Franklin's invention of the Lightning Rod in 1747, severe lightening storms caused significant damage to houses.

Fact 3: Who invented the Lightning Rod? When Benjamin Franklin was 26 years old there was a powerful lightning strike on Tuesday, June 28, 1726 at in his hometown of Boston. During the lightning strike chimneys were destroyed, rafters and other timbers were demolished, slates were burnt and torn from roofs, fires started and people were thrown to the ground.

Fact 4: Who invented the Lightning Rod? Benjamin Franklin's early interest in the power of lightening would lead him to make experiments with electricity, including his famous kite experiment and his subsequent invention of the Lightning Rod.

Fact 5: Who invented the Lightning Rod? The inventor of the Lightning Rod, Benjamin Franklin, was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, America and died on April 17, 1790.

Fact 6: Who invented the Lightning Rod? Benjamin Franklin spent his early years in Boston, Massachusetts where he was raised by his family. His parents names were Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger Franklin and Benjamin Franklin was the 15th of 17 children. Benjamin Franklin attended Boston Latin School for just two years but became a self-educated man through extensive reading.

Fact 7: Who invented the Lightning Rod? Benjamin Franklin was just 10 years old when he started work in his father's candle shop. At the age of 12 years old he was apprenticed to his brother James, a Boston printer. Working at a printers Benjamin Franklin had access to numerous books, became extremely well read and developed a deep interest in science.

Fact 8: Who invented the Lightning Rod? In 1726 Benjamin Franklin established his own printing business and became a wealthy and successful man. He had time to pursue his many hobbies and scientific interests and in 1742 created his first major invention, the Franklin stove.

Fact 9: Who invented the Lightning Rod? In 1743 Benjamin Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society that encouraged scientists to discuss their theories, discoveries and inventions. He became deeply involved in politics and retired from his printing business in 1747 and began manufacturing some of his new inventions.

Fact 10: Who invented the Lightning Rod? Fascinated by the new ideas that were evolving during the First US Industrial Revolution (1700 - 1860) he began his innovative exploration of electricity and made several important discoveries about electricity, realizing that the force of electricity was present in nature in varying amounts.

Fact 11: Who invented the Lightning Rod? He went on to discover that the net increase of electric charge in one body corresponded with a net decrease of electric charge in another. Benjamin Franklin concluded that that lightning was a natural electrical phenomenon. But he wanted to prove it...

Fact 12: Who invented the Lightning Rod? In June 1752 Benjamin Franklin constructed a silk and cedar wood kite with a pointed, metal wire protruding from its top. He then flew the kite in a thunderstorm.

Fact 13: Who invented the Lightning Rod? The kite string was attached to a silk ribbon, and on the silk ribbon dangled a key. He stood indoors as he flew the kite because the ribbon needed to be dry to act as an electrical insulator. Without the silk insulating the key from the ground, any electrical current would have passed straight into the ground, rather than gathering in the key.

Fact 14: Who invented the Lightning Rod? The kite conducted the electric charge of the clouds along the kite string to the key. When he moved his hand to the key, he felt a sharp electric spark.

Fact 15: Who invented the Lightning Rod? Benjamin Franklin had proved that that electricity could be harnessed from the electric charge of the clouds and from lightning.

Fact 16: Who invented the Lightning Rod? Knowing that an iron rod could be used to attract lightning he constructed the first  Lightning Rod  on the roof of his own house in Philadelphia to continue his tests. Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rod rose nine feet above his chimney. The thin metal rod extended from the chimney through the staircase to his study, where it split into two rods, each with a metal bell attached to a silk thread at the end.

Fact 17: Who invented the Lightning Rod?  When the lightning rod conducted an electric charge from a storm, the electric charge forced the bells to ring.  Benjamin Franklin found that not only did the bells ring but also that an intense electric charge of white light went from bell to bell, illuminating his entire staircase.

Fact 18: Who invented the Lightning Rod? Benjamin Franklin explained how to protect homes by using the lightning rod In his book 'Experiments and Observations on Electricity'. He never patented his invention, believing the lightning rod should be available to everyone.

Fact 19: Who invented the Lightning Rod?  Benjamin Franklin witnessed all of the events leading to the American Revolution (1775–1783) and weighty matters of state overtook his scientific experiments.

Fact 20: Who invented the Lightning Rod? On July 4, 1776 Benjamin Franklin, one of the 56 delegates to the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence.

Fact 21: Who invented the Lightning Rod? Benjamin Franklin died on May 14, 1790 in Philadelphia, at the age of 84. Nearly 20,000 people attended his funeral to pay their respects to a Founding Father of the United States of America, a great statesman and a famous inventor whose inventions included the Lightning Rod.

Fast Info and Fact File: Country of Origin: America *** Name of Inventor: Benjamin Franklin *** Nationality of Inventor: American *** Date of Invention: 1747 *** Invention: Lightning Rod *** Lifespan of Inventor: 1706 - 1790 *** Invention Era: First US Industrial Revolution (1700 - 1860) *** Type: Technology *** The Inventor and Invention of the Lightning Rod ***