
"I have lately made an Experiment in Electricity that I desire never to repeat." - heshiebee
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/that-time-benjamin-franklin-tried-and-failed-to-electrocute-a-turkey/
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jcl
Reminds me of a curiosity seen during a tour of the historic Filoli mansion:
An appliance that cooks food by running mains power through it. Apparently
someone in the early 20th century thought this was a good idea. I don't
remember the exact food it was used for -- maybe hotdogs, or bacon?

(Seen here, on the counter:)
[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a0/f7/35/a0f7352484c9426ea188...](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a0/f7/35/a0f7352484c9426ea188f63fb42d38b9.jpg)

~~~
benibela
In South America they run electricity through the shower head:
[https://i.redd.it/lsmtihn21d201.jpg](https://i.redd.it/lsmtihn21d201.jpg)

An in Germany a just guy convinced 88 people to try to electrocute themselves
and send him a video of it

~~~
wannabag
I had one of these in my student dorm in Shanghai ten years ago. If I'd raise
my hands too close when shampooing I could feel the shock coming... I took
cold showers most of the semester.

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raldi
The article never gives any context for the quote in the headline. It doesn’t
even quote it again in the body.

~~~
kyle-rb
It's the start of the letter to his brother, which is linked[0]. That part
isn't quoted in the body, but I thought the main part of the headline above
the quote made it clear what it referred to.

[0]
[https://www.masshist.org/objects/cabinet/december2002/decemb...](https://www.masshist.org/objects/cabinet/december2002/december2002.htm)

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twic
Poultry-related hazardous experimentation also did for Sir Francis Bacon:

[https://hauntedpalaceblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/the-
stran...](https://hauntedpalaceblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/the-strange-case-
of-sir-francis-bacon-and-the-frozen-chicken/)

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gadgetoid
> The Founding Father once infamously electrocuted himself while trying to
> kill a turkey with electricity.

I'm pretty sure you only get to "electrocute" yourself once. Especially in
1743.

I wonder- his lack of grounding may just be what saved his life. If the
mentioned chain connected to the outsides of both jars were grounded then
there might have been a short across his heart.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Electrocute may also mean to injure, not just to kill...

The chain was probably the cell ground? Unless the Leyden jar had a different
ground wire, which seems improbable. Likely he got it straight across the
chest.

~~~
bityard
"Electrocute" is a portmanteau of "electricity" and "execute".

~~~
r00fus
TIL. What other commonly understood words are portmanteaus?

~~~
kbutler
You'll see them all over now.

chortle (chuckle/snort) podcast (ipod/broadcast) newscast (news/broadcast)
sportscaster (sports/broadcaster) motel (motor/hotel) email (electronic/mail)
blog (web/log) bit (binary/digit) chunnel (channel/tunnel)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portmanteaus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portmanteaus)

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droithomme
What's really interesting about Franklin electrocuting chickens is that
electrocution went on to become the predominant method of killing chickens in
the US poultry industry until 2017 when the largest purchaser of chickens,
McDonalds, switched to using asphyxiating gas because activists were upset
about the electrocution. Non-McDonalds chicken though is still killed the "old
fashioned" way - through electrocution pioneered by Franklin. The
electrocution doesn't actually kill the birds, it stuns them and makes them
rigid prior to a giant saw cutting off their heads.

Here's a video of a typical poultry plant, though this one is in Mexico it's
identical to US operations:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMSNGZh60zY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMSNGZh60zY)

(Warning: do not watch if you can't handle it it's exactly as described.)

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dTal
>The Founding Father once infamously electrocuted himself while trying to kill
a turkey with electricity

Electrocution is death, or (more recently) serious injury, by electric shock.
It does not mean "harmlessly shocked".

I have seen this error more and more often. It seems that the word is evolving
to become more broad over time, since it's the only handy verb we have for
"the application of current to a living thing". It originally meant only
execution, hence the construction: electricity + execution. Then it broadened
to any death, and then serious injury, and now it's being used for harmless
shocks.

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ncmncm
I have seen assertions that he did not claim to have actually done the kite
experiment, but only proposed it, and was after assumed to have done it. Maybe
after a while he got embarrassed to correct people?

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ChuckMcM
Wow, 10 lb turkeys. He would be aghast at trying to knock off a 22 lb Foster
Farms turkey. :-)

One could make the argument that a turkey cooker that used an electrical
current would be both more efficient and result in a more even cooking.
Assuming the turkey was brined before cooking (fairly common), as the brine
evaporates the conductivity goes down and the current would redirect to lest
cooked areas. As a result cooking the entire bird evenly.

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pvaldes
Fortunately they did not give up, and today millions of chicken are instantly
killed with electricity followed by decapitation

~~~
chasd00
then cleaning, butchered, dipped in egg, dipped in flour/spices, and fried to
perfection.

~~~
dylan604
can't you just run the voltage longer to skip the cleaning/butchering/etc to
get straight to fried?

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microcolonel
And this is why you kill mechanically, even if you're going to use electrodes
to get better quality meat.

