This is John Batchelor. Coming soon a conversation with the author Richard Munson, his new book, Ingenius,

a biography of Benjamin Franklin, scientists, concentrating on the natural philosopher of Ben Franklin,

we now call a scientist, and his application to experiment, to derive the next step from seeing it and repeating it in

his very excellent house on Market Street in Philadelphia.

And with electricity, it is important to understand that before the kite demonstration, Franklin had

secured his place in scientific literature with his expectation of charge, of electricity, what he was

studying.

Richard explains here the law that was before the kite that is still with us.

Ingenious is the book, Richard Munson is the author, coming soon, the whole store.

Highly recommended. Here's Richard. It's a, it's a rudimentary battery.

It's something that is able to store electricity, remarkable invention because you were

able to move the battery to wherever you needed the power. So it was named after the city in

which it was invented, but Franklin looked at it,

thought it was a remarkable invention, and tried to improve it. And you're right. I mean,

before the kite experiment, he was doing basic fundamental research on electricity. He came up with

a thought that electrical charges, both positive and negative, were always seeking balance.

It was a law that he referred to as the conservation of charge.

And the great thing about this is that what scientists love about laws is that they tend to predict accurately various other scientific experiments.

And that's what this one did.

And other sort of modern-day physicists would say the conservation law that Franklin developed

would by itself have provided him as fame as a scientific pioneer.