Getting back to Franklin, he pioneered many aspects of electricity. In one of his less successful experiments, he almost killed himself with electricity from a battery, in 1750. It sounds like a cold fusion experiment gone bad. He was trying to electrocute a turkey. He wrote:
"I have lately made an Experiment in Electricity that I desire never to repeat. Two nights ago being about to kill a Turkey by the Shock from two large Glass Jarrs containing as much electrical fire as forty common Phials, I inadvertently took the whole thro' my own Arms and Body. [. . . although self-electrocution had not been his intention, he still maintained a scientific interest in the results. . . . Nonetheless, he also felt some chagrin over the accident.] "You may Communicate this to Mr. Bowdoin As A Caution to him, but do not make it mor Publick, for I am Ashamed to have been Guilty of so Notorious A Blunder." https://www.masshist.org/objects/cabinet/december2002/december2002.htm His research papers and correspondence about electricity are collected here: http://www.compadre.org/psrc/franklin/pdf/franklin_electricity_print.pdf - Jed
