That time Benjamin Franklin tried (and failed) to electrocute a turkey

"I have lately made an Experiment in Electricity that I desire never to repeat."

Read the whole story

 

[ZenBeam]

The Founding Father once infamously electrocuted himself while trying to kill a turkey with electricity.

Oh oh, people aren't going to like that...

 

[ZenBeam]

The Founding Father once infamously electrocuted himself while trying to kill a turkey with electricity.

Oh oh, people aren't going to like that...

I have a feeling Franklin's livestock lived better lives, overall, than their descendants in the modern day.

Wasn't talking about that. Was talking about Wheels of Confusion's post.

 

[ZenBeam]

The description of the Ark of the Covenant fits as a Leyden jar like device. Mythbusters episode supports this.

As we are digressing into mythical devices, I always thought that the Ark of the Covenant might be an Orgone generator that actually works. Ha! Some similarities in published designs between the two devices except that as far as I know, no-one has ever sprung for gold sheeting to line the wood when trying to build an Orgone generator.
Or, you know, a container to store and carry some old stone tablets.

However, I can personally attest that the shock from an approximately one gallon Leydon jar fashioned from an old chemical bottle and Al foil is something not to be repeated. Also one gets a nasty burn at the point of entry of the juice which is perhaps a secondary consideration.

I've never understood this with Leyden jars. The area of a gallon jar would be under 1/2 square meter, the wall thickness would be at least a couple millimeters, and the dielectric constant of glass is 5 to 10. The capacitance would only be at most around 0.02 micro Farads. That's... not big. How are these shocking people? How many volts were people able to generate back then to put into them? Van de Graaff generators could make mega Volts, but those were invented in 1929.