his hand. He was wild with delight. The sparks of fire were electricity;
he had drawn them from the clouds.

That experiment, if Franklin had only known it, was a very dangerous
one. It was fortunate for him, and for the world, that he suffered no
harm. More than one person who has since tried to draw electricity from
the clouds has been killed by the lightning that has flashed down the
hempen kite string.

When Franklin's discovery was made known it caused great excitement
among the learned men of Europe. They could not believe it was true
until some of them had proved it by similar experiments.

They could hardly believe that a man in the far-away city of
Philadelphia could make a discovery which they had never thought of as
possible. Indeed, how could an American do anything that was worth
doing?

Franklin soon became famous in foreign countries as a philosopher and
man of science. The universities of Oxford and Edinburgh honored him by
conferring upon him their highest degrees. He was now _Doctor_ Benjamin
Franklin. But in America people still thought of him only as a man of
affairs, as a great printer, and as the editor of _Poor Richard's
Almanac_.

All this happened before the beginning of his career as ambassador from
the colonies to the king and government of England.

I cannot tell you of all of his discoveries in science. He invented the
lightning-rod, and, by trying many experiments, he learned more about