Apparel Cyanotype Kites DIY Kite Kits and Materials Gift Ideas Pins Publications Home Media View Cart Check Out Newsletter Signup Contact Us Privacy Returns Top > Publications Bolt of Fate: Benjamin Franklin and his Electric Kite Hoax $6.00 Award-winning writer Tom Tucker asks, “Was Benjamin Franklin’s famous electric kite experiment a hoax? And did it determine the course of the American Revolution?” Tucker looks at Franklin’s English, French, and Russian rivals on the intensely competitive scientific scene of the mid-eighteenth century, and argues that the image of himself Franklin presented to the world—that of a homespun, rural philosopher-scientist performing an immensely important and dangerous experiment with a child’s toy—was key to charming the French and enlisting their crucial help in the fight against the British.

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