Benjamin Franklin and Lightning Rods

Franklin performed his initial experiments on electricity in collaboration with friends and neighbors, including Thomas Hopkinson, a lawyer and judge; Ebenezer Kinnersley, a clergyman and teacher; and Philip Syng Jr, a master silversmith. Franklin described the experiments and their results in five formal Letters to Peter Collinson, a fellow of the Royal Society of London, during the years from 1747 to 1750. Collinson in turn communicated those Letters to the Society and published them in April 1751....