“Tell me and I forget.
Teach me and I remember.
Involve me and I learn.”
Benjamin Franklin

He’s one of the father’s of our country and he coined a number of terms and proverbs that are used today, including battery, conductor and electrician.

It was on this day in 1752, Benjamin Franklin flies a kite during a thunderstorm and collects a charge in a Leyden jar when the kite is struck by lightning, enabling him to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning.

Franklin became interested in electricity in the mid-1740s, a time when much was still unknown on the topic, and spent almost a decade conducting electrical experiments.

Franklin also wrote and published Poor Richard’s Almanack, a collection of proverbs advocating hard work and honesty in order to get ahead. The almanac, which Franklin first published in 1733 under the pen name Richard Saunders, included such wisdom as: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

Whether or not Franklin followed this advice in his own life is unknown, but he came to represent the American overachiever.

Shine On