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David Emery's Urban Legends Blog

By David Emery, About.com Guide to Urban Legends since 1997

Was Ben Franklin's Kite a Hoax?

Tuesday June 3, 2003
Historian Tom Tucker first became suspicious after building an exact replica of Ben Franklin's kite — the one the early American statesman and inventor supposedly sent aloft during a raging thunderstorm to collect static electricity — and the damned thing wouldn't fly. Re-examining Franklin's papers, Tucker found precious little evidence to support historical claims that the famed experiment actually took place. In his soon-to-be-released book, 'Bolt of Fate,' Tucker argues that Benjamin Franklin was a great inventor in more ways than one.

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