Benjamin Franklin Stole the Lightning

• Ben Franklin was good at many things, like writing funny stories, arguing, swimming, music, drawing cartoons, and traveling
• he was also a soldier and politician (government)
• he helped to write the Declaration of Independence
• he helped start a hospital, a school,. and a fire department
• he liked to make inventions the best (helpful ideas that no one had thought of before)
• he used a kite to pull him in the water to help him swim faster
• he thought of daylight savings time,  and special glasses to help people see better (to see up close and far away)

• he invented a special chair to help him collect library books
• he invented a special musical instrument that played music very beautifully
• he said "an apple a day keeps the doctor away"
• he had many ideas how to help keep people healthy, like eating fruits and vegetables and exercising
• he discovered the gulf stream, a stream of warm water in the ocean that helped people sail faster over the ocean

 

• many people were doing crazy tricks with electricity
• Ben decided to try to steal lightning from the sky because he thought it was electricity
• he put a key on a string attached to a silk kite and flew it up into a storm
• lightning hit the kite and BAM!!  it shocked the key and sparks flew everywhere

 

• Ben decided to make his most famous invention, the lightning rod
• he put a rod of iron on top of houses with a wire to the ground
• now the lightning would strike the rod instead of the house and travel safely to the ground

 

• Ben also helped America become a free country by asking France to help defeat the British