What Ben actually did in his famous 1752 experiment was to cause some excess electrical charge near a storm cloud to ground out through his kite string–still an impressive demonstration, but a much less powerful prospect than an actual lightning strike.
在1752年的这次著名实验中，富兰克林只是将暴风云附近的过量电荷通过风筝线引到地面上，虽然这比实际的雷击威力小很多，但此举仍然令人印象深刻。
Nor is it true that Franklin discovered electricity, as people tend to say.
事实上，富兰克林并不像人们所传的那样发现了电。
What he was trying to do was to demonstrate that lightning itself is simply a powerful electric discharge between the clouds and the earth. In this he was entirely correct.
他的行动就是要证明：闪电只是云与地球之间的一种强大的放电现象，在这一点上，他是完全正确的。
Now, did you know that two of the basic terms we use even today to describe electric charge were coined by Franklin? Next time.
如今，我们用来描述电荷的两个基本术语都是富兰克林创造的，你知道吗？且听下回分解。
译文为秀哈英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载!
