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Everybody has heard the famous story of how pioneeringexperimenter–and part-time founding father–Ben Franklin tied a key to a kite string and flew thekite in a thunderstorm.
大家都聽過這個有名的故事：本.富蘭克林這位開創性的實驗者兼開國之父如將一把鑰匙系到風箏線上，并在電閃雷鳴的惡劣天氣下放風箏。
The kite was hit by lightning, and zap! Franklin had discovered electricity.
風箏被閃電擊中燒毀了，于是富蘭克林發現了電。
Well, it makes a better story than it does an experiment.
我們最好把它當成一個故事而非實驗。
The danger is that lightning is notsomething you want to play with, and you certainly don't want to attract it to yourself!
這個實驗的危險之處在于：閃電不是你能玩耍的東西，當然你也不想引“電”上身。
Were thisstory to be true, I'm afraid, the result would have been fried Franklin.
如果這個故事是真的，恐怕富蘭克林早已被燒焦了。
What Ben actually did in his famous 1752 experiment was to cause some excess electrical chargenear a storm cloud to ground out through his kite string–still an impressive demonstration, but amuch less powerful prospect than an actual lightning strike.
在1752年這次著名的實驗中，本所做的就是將暴風云附近的過量電荷通過風箏線引到地面上來，雖然相比實際雷擊威力要小很多，但它仍是一個令人印象深刻的證明。
Nor is it true that Franklin discovered electricity, as people tend to say.
事實上，富蘭克林也沒有像人們所說的那樣發現了電。
What he was trying to dowas to demonstrate that lightning itself is simply a powerful electric discharge between the cloudsand the earth.
他所努力做的一切就是要證明：閃電本身只是云和地球之間的一種威力巨大的放電現象，
In this he was entirely correct.
在這一點上，他是完全正確的。
Now, did you know that two of the basic terms we use even today to describe electric chargewere coined by Franklin? Next time.
時至今日我們仍用以描述電荷的兩個基本術語是富蘭克林創造的，你知道嗎？這個問題我們下次詳述。
