Franklin
made his silk kite, with which he finally demonstrated to his own and
the world's satisfaction that his theory was correct.

Taking his kite out into an open common on the approach of a
thunder-storm, he flew it well up into the threatening clouds, and then,
touching, the suspended key with his knuckle, received the electric
spark; and a little later he charged a Leyden jar from the electricity
drawn from the clouds with his kite.

In a brief but direct letter, he sent an account of his kite and his
experiment to England:

"Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar," he wrote, "the
arms so long as to reach to the four corners of a large, thin, silk
handkerchief when extended; tie the corners of the handkerchief to the
extremities of the cross so you have the body of a kite; which being
properly accommodated with a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the
air like those made of paper; but this being of silk is fitter to bear
the wind and wet of a thunder-gust without tearing. To the top of the
upright stick of the cross is to be fixed a very sharp-pointed wire,
rising a foot or more above the wood. To the end of the twine, next the
hand, is to be tied a silk ribbon; where the silk and twine join a key
may be fastened. This kite is to be raised when a thunder-gust appears
to be coming on, and the person who holds the string must stand within
a door or window or under some cover, so that the silk ribbon may not be
wet; and care must be taken that the twine does not touch the frame of
the door or window. As soon as any of the thunder-clouds come over the
kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them, and the
kite, with all the twine, will be electrified and the loose filaments
will stand out everywhere and be attracted by the approaching finger,
and when the rain has wet the kite and twine so that it can conduct the
electric fire freely, you will find it stream out plentifully from the
key on the approach of your knuckle, and with this key the phial may be
charged; and from electric fire thus obtained spirits may be kindled and
all other electric experiments performed which are usually done by the
help of a rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the sameness of the
electric matter with that of lightning completely demonstrated."(5)

In experimenting with lightning and Franklin's pointed rods in Europe,
several scientists received severe shocks, in one case with a fatal
result. Professor R