10 TRaturc'e 



name for a shortage or lack of the normal 

 amount. 



As we have said, Franklin believed in the 

 identity of lightning and electricity, and he 

 wait I'd long for an opportunity to demonstrate 

 his theory. He had the Leyden jar, and now 

 all he needed was to establish some suitable 

 connection between a thunder-cloud and the 

 earth. 



Previous to 1750 Franklin had written a 

 paper in which he showed the likeness be- 

 tween the lightning spark and that of fric- 

 tional electricity. He showed that both sparks 

 move in crooked lines as we see it in a storm- 

 cloud, that both strike the highest or nearest 

 points, that both inflame combustibles, fuse 

 metals, render needles magnetic and destroy 

 animal life. All this did not definitely estab- 

 lish their identity in the mind of Franklin, 

 and he waited long for an opportunity, and 

 finally, finding that no one presented itself, he 

 did what many men have had to do in other 

 matters; he made one. 



In the month of June, 1752, tired of wait- 

 ing for a steeple to be erected, Franklin de- 

 vised a plan that was much better and prob- 

 ably saved the experiment from failure; for 

 the steeple would probably not have been high 

 enough. He constructed a kite by making a 

 cross of light cedar rods, fastening the four 

 ends to the four corners of a large silk hand- 



