For those who want to read the wiki article:
I wish these could be made with something non toxic. Having one on my desk to shake would be a great fidget spinner.
Just drink a little bit at a time to buoys up an immunity.
for a moment I thought this was going to be about arc-lights in the 1800s that mechanically touch electrodes and then draw apart
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_lamp
it's amazing how far we've come
think about Benjamin Franklin twenty-five years before Declaration of Independence naming the first "battery" (out of the concept of lined-up artillery) by connecting a series of lynden jars (basically capacitors) - he also invented the concept of +/- positive and negative
now we've got space telescopes and probes leaving the solar system
imagine what's coming in another 300 years
> naming the first "battery" (out of the concept of lined-up artillery)
That's an amazing fun fact.
Another fun fact is that it was impossible to deduce from any of Ben Franklin's experiments what material was transferred and what material remained in place to give rise to "charge" as we think of it. So he picked a convention that we've continued to use even after we learned that his negative charges were the material that gets transferred by friction.
somewhat more "fun" and impressive (despite useless) are "Franklin Bells" which way before anyone figured out electric motors, was the first example of electricity to mechanical energy
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_bells
of course incredibly crude
(imagine showing a paperclip motor to someone in 1750 https://player.vimeo.com/video/120255518 )
but it must be said, as genius as Franklin was, sadly he bears the original sin of owning slaves EVEN AS AN ABOLITIONIST and didn't free them until after his death (via will) - it's more than a little f-ed up
> but it must be said, as genius as Franklin was, sadly ..
Some people can't help themselves from bringing irrelevant facts to the conversation.
I don't think it's irrelevant that a brilliant man like Benjamin Franklin may not have been able to achieve as much as he unmistakably did WITHOUT the heavy assistance of forced slave labor in his life, from cradle to grave.
Pretending like these things can be separated is ignorance. Ignoring its brutality does a disservice to our history and that man's legacy
People are better judged by the mores of their time, not our time.
Besides, without Franklin, there would be no United States, the free-est country in history.
Plenty of people at the time thought slavery was evil. Franklin was even one of them, calling it "cancer." He said this while still owning slaves, which is rather peculiar, but people are complicated.
Yeah no, Norway and a few others are the free-est country in history, just because someone declares US is "free" doesn't make it true, we disappear citizens all the time, police can seize your property without cause, government can seize your land for datacenters and women lose more and more rights every year
Again, Franklin knew slavery was wrong, literally campaigned to end it for that reason, yet did it himself for decades in the meanwhile, not a difficult horror to grasp in any time
Franklin also invented the lightning rod, something which we take for granted these days.