Bolt of Fate by Tom Tucker (Sutton, £20)
BENJAMIN Franklin is an undisputed hero of the United States, and indeed, of Western democracy.
The son of a candle-maker, he used his talents and abilities to rise in colonial American society and became a politician, philanthropist, scientist, author, newspaperman, inventor - and a master hoaxer.
The latter theory forms the main theme of this intriguing work. And a very convincing argument it is, too.
Told by the Royal Society in London that his communications were not wanted, Franklin subsequently discovered they had stolen his ideas on electricity and passed them off as their own.
He vowed to have his revenge...
It is generally believed that Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1752. Electricity from the clouds above travelled down the kite's twine and threw a spark from a key that Franklin had attached to the string.
He thereby proved that lightning and electricity were one.
Or did he? What no one has successfully proven until now, and what few have suggested, is that Franklin never flew the kite at all.
His kite hoax was both his triumph over the silk-coat connoisseurs who then ruled over international science and a crucial tool in the success of the American Revolution and the establishment of the Republic.
If ever there was a case of he who laughs last laughs longest, then this was it...
John Phillpott
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