Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1337
That time Benjamin Franklin tried (and failed) to electrocute a turkey
Through his experiments, Franklin was able to demonstrate that electricity consisted of a common element he called "electric fire," arguing that it flowed like a liquid, passing from one body to another. He studied how sparks jumped between charged objects, correctly concluding that lightning was merely a massive electric spark. And he coined several electricity-related terms we still use today: "charging," "discharging," "conductor," and "battery," for instance.
But Franklin had yet to find a practical application for this exciting new phenomenon, which irked him greatly. To that end, he conceived of throwing an electricity-themed dinner party. "A turkey is to be killed for our dinner by the electric shock, and roasted by the electrical jack, before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle," Franklin wrote to Collinson. Guests would drink their wine from electrically charged glasses so they would receive a subtle shock with every sip.
It's not clear if Franklin ever hosted such an elaborate dinner party, but we do know that he experimented with electrocuting various fowl using six-gallon Leyden jars. A Leyden jar is basically a glass jar partially filled with water, with a conducting wire sticking out of its cork. The jar was charged by exposing the end of the wire to an electric spark generated by friction—created by, say, rotating a glass plate so that it rubbed against leather pads. There were no standard units of electricity back then, but modern estimates indicate that a pint-sized Leyden jar would have had the energy of about 1 joule.
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Tuesday December 10 2019, @06:33AM (1 child)
This dept. line is excellent.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Tuesday December 10 2019, @02:23PM
Also,when Ben Franklin tried to shock the turkeys, he said "hold my beer."
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(Score: 2) by iWantToKeepAnon on Tuesday December 10 2019, @08:42PM (1 child)
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 10 2019, @10:44PM
You want us to zap bad puns that lost their energy?