3: Franklin's Kite. In 1751 Benjamin Franklin risked his life to prove that lightning is electrical, when, in the middle of a thunderstorm, he flew a kite with a metal rod attached to it. Ian Peacock talks to Victoria Glendinning about her novel Electricity, and to Joyce Snyder , who chose Franklin as the subject for her fiction debut. Plus new research which suggests that Franklin may have faked his famous experiment. For details see Monday