Go Fly A Kite! Why Thank You. I Will.

Go fly a kite!

Happy Thursday!

And today is Fly a Kite Day.

#FlyAKiteDay

How to Observe Fly a Kite Day
Both kites and Benjamin Franklin may be celebrated today. Probably the best way to celebrate is to fly a kite. If you don’t have a kite, you could make your own. You could make a diamond kite or tetrahedral kite. You could search for some kite festivals or events in your area or plan a trip to some of the other big kite festivals around the world. You also could join the American Kitefliers Association, find kite clubs and retailers in your area, or visit the World Kite Museum.

You could visit Benjamin Franklin’s grave, which just so happens to be located in Christ Church Cemetery. While there, you could look up at the steeple that Franklin was once waiting for to be built before he decided to use a kite for his experiment instead. You could also visit the nearby Benjamin Franklin Museum.

It’s probably not best to try Franklin’s experiment at home, but his own description of what he did was published in the Pennsylvania Gazette on October 19, 1752, and can be read here:

“Make a small Cross of two light Strips of Cedar, the Arms so long as to reach to the four Corners of a large thin Silk Handkerchief when extended; tie the Corners of the Handkerchief to the Extremities of the Cross, so you have the Body of a Kite; which being properly accommodated with a Tail, Loop and String, will rise in the Air, like those made of Paper; but this being of Silk is fitter to bear the Wet and Wind of a Thunder Gust without tearing. To the Top of the upright Stick of the Cross is to be fixed a very sharp pointed Wire, rising a Foot or more above the Wood. To the End of the Twine, next the Hand, is to be tied a silk Ribbon, and where the Twine and the silk join, a Key may be fastened. This Kite is to be raised when a Thunder Gust appears to be coming on, and the Person who holds the String must stand within a Door, or Window, or under some Cover, so that the Silk Ribbon may not be wet; and Care must be taken that the Twine does not touch the Frame of the Door or Window. As soon as any of the Thunder Clouds come over the Kite, the pointed Wire will draw the Electric Fire from them, and the Kite, with all the Twine, will be electrified, and the loose Filaments of the Twine will stand out every Way, and be attracted by an approaching Finger. And when the Rain has wet the Kite and Twine, so that it can conduct the Electric Fire freely, you will find it stream out plentifully from the Key on the Approach of your Knuckle. At this Key the Phial may be charg’d; and from Electric Fire thus obtain’d, Spirits may be kindled, and all the other Electric Experiments be perform’d, which are usually done by the Help of a rubbed Glass Globe or Tube; and thereby the Sameness of the Electric Matter with that of Lightning compleatly demonstrated.”

nd you can check out one of local wineries here in NH The Summit Winery.