1 Catching Lightning in a Bottle

Chapter 1 Catching Lightning a Bottle On a June day in 1752, a storm approached Philadelphia. The sky grew dark. As thunder rattled the windows, people ran inside. But in a house at the corner of Race and Second streets, two people were getting ready to go outside. One was forty-six-year-old Benjamin Franklin. The other was Ben's twenty-one-year-old son William.

1752年6月的一天，一场暴风雨逼近费城。 天空变暗了。当雷声震得窗户嘎嘎作响时，人们跑了进去。 但是在种族街和第二街拐角处的一所房子里，有两个人正准备出门。 其中一位是46岁的本杰明·富兰克林。 另一个是本21岁的儿子威廉。

Billy picked up a strange-looking kite. His father had made it for just such a stormy day as this. A metal wire stuck out of the top of the kite. A metal house key was tied to the end of

比利捡起了一只看起来很奇怪的风筝。 他的父亲正是为这样一个暴风雨的日子准备的。 一根金属线从风筝的顶端伸出来。 一头系着一把金属钥匙

the kite string. Ben grabbed a jar and put it under his coat. The pair dashed through the rain with the kite and the bottle. They stopped when they came to a field. Billy ran across the field three times trying to fly the kite. Finally, the wind did its work. Up soared the kite, higher and higher. Soon it was just a speck in the clouds. Ben took the kite string from his son. Then they went into a nearby shed and waited.

风筝线。本抓起一个罐子，把它放在外套下面。 两人带着风筝和瓶子冲进雨中。 他们来到一块田地时停了下来。 比利跑过田野三次试图放风筝。 最后，风起了作用。 风筝飞得越来越高。 很快它就变成了云中的一个小点。 本从儿子手里接过风筝线。 然后，他们走进附近的一间棚屋，等待着。

As Ben held the kite string, they both felt

本拿着风筝线，他们俩都感觉

excited—and scared. With his son's help, Ben was trying to answer an old question. Were lightning and electricity the same thing? Ben suspected that they were. He hoped that flying the kite in the storm would prove it. Ben believed that electricity in thunderclouds could cause lightning. The wire on their kite would draw electricity from a cloud, Benjamin hoped. The electricity

兴奋和害怕。在儿子的帮助下，本试图回答一个老问题。 闪电和电是一回事吗？ 本怀疑他们是。 他希望在暴风雨中放风筝能证明这一点。 本相信雷雨云中的电流会引起闪电。 本杰明希望风筝上的电线能从云中吸取电力。 电

would run down the kite string to the key. There it would make a spark that he would feel. But the experiment was dangerous. What if a giant lightning bolt struck the kite? The current might kill Ben—and perhaps Billy as well. As the lightning flashed nearer, Benjamin touched the key. He felt no electric spark. He tried again. Still he felt nothing. Finally, the storm seemed to be overhead. Ben and Billy held their breath as a black cloud swallowed the kite. Benjamin pressed the key. Nothing. Then suddenly he felt a tingle. He had felt shocks like this before in his lab. A spark from the cloud had electrified the kite. The spark had zoomed down the wet string into the metal key, where Ben could feel it. With Billy's help, he had proved that lightning was electricity!

会顺着风筝线跑到钥匙那里。 在那里它会产生火花，他会感觉到。 但这个实验是危险的。 如果一个巨大的闪电击中了风筝呢？ 水流可能会杀死本——也许还有比利。 闪电越闪越近，本杰明摸到了钥匙。 他没有感觉到电火花。 他又试了一次。他仍然没有感觉。 最后，暴风雨似乎就要来了。 乌云吞没了风筝，本和比利屏住了呼吸。 本杰明按下了键。什么都没有。 突然，他感到一阵刺痛。 他以前在实验室里也感受过这样的电击。 云中的火花使风筝通电了。 火花沿着湿漉漉的琴弦迅速地窜到金属钥匙上，本可以感觉到。 在比利的帮助下，他证明了闪电是电！