I’m reposting this in celebration of Independence Day, my favorite founding father, and Americ

I’m reposting this in celebration of Independence Day, my favorite founding father, and American ingenuity.Benjamin Franklin’s Electric Gun. Turkeys meet your doom!Benjamin Franklin’s accomplishments are many and varied. His most famous inventions include bifocals, the wood stove, the lightning rod, the capacitor, and the glass harmonica. He also discovered positive and negative electrical charge and first charted the Gulf Stream. Like Heron of Alexandria and Leonardo Da Vinci, his ideas were centuries ahead of his time.Of all his inventions, his most brilliant were electrical in nature. Franklin, an outgoing partygoer and ladies man, often hosted interesting social gatherings where he would showcase his new electrical gadgets. Among his most popular gadgets were electricified wine glasses that created a tingling sensation when used and board games that shocked players that made wrong moves.By far his most popular invention was an electrified gun. It consisted of an electric rod (created from bundles of copper, silver, and gold wire) hooked up to a Leyden’s Jar (a primitive capacitor). While not technically a gun, it didn’t fire lighting bolts, it was a predecessor to the modern cattle prod or TASER. Franklin often used it to electrocute wild turkeys while crossing a stream or zap to death domesticated turkeys in front of an astounded audience. The birds would then be cooked on an electric spit, also invented by Franklin.On December of 1750, Franklin was once again demonstrating his turkey death zapper, when with a loud bang he was electrocuted and knocked unconscious. Fortunately he survived with little injury and continued his work as an inventor/writer/musician/printer/statesman/founding father/scientist/womanizer. -- source link

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