[Qcwa] history

[Harvey&Bessie]

No, it was an electric switch, in the early days of experimenting with
electricity such a switch was called a "key." What Franklin did was
charge some Leyden jars (early form of capacitor) from the wire and then
switch the wire back to ground.
He said this experiment proved that lightening and electricity were the
same phenomenon. Actually it did not prove that! All it proved was that
you could charge those Leyden jar capacitors with a suspended wire when
there was a lightening stroke nearby. He wrote later, in some of his
notes, that he was very foolish for performing such an experiment and
was lucky he wasn't killed in so doing.
As a result of the experiment, however, he invented the lightening rod.
Harvey/W4TG