Ben Franklin Guilty as Charged Desk Mat

A humourous take on Ben Franklin’s famous scientific experiment in static electricity, when he flew a kite into a thunderstorm and drew an electric charge down the wet string to a metal key. After getting a bit of a jolt, Franklin used the energy of lightning to charge a Leyden jar, an early form of capacitor that could store static charges for later experimental use. Our caption is, appropriately, “Guilty as Charged”. While interesting science history from one of our founding fathers, don’t try this at home.