well every one knows about ben franklins kite tied to a key creating a lighting rod. well was this actually possible to fly a kite during a storm and was it just luck that he had lightning strike his so called "ligtning rode" only made of a kite and a key?
i would love to see this recreated!!!!

He didn't fly his kite during a storm, only when there was a storm nearby.

Lightning never struck his kite.

The experiment was repeated successfully many, many times in the years after Franklin's account was published.

they've done it the ballistics gel ben died

I really think this should not be considered a myth, it is American history. The assumption that Ben would have certainly died is ridiculous, many people are struck by lightning every year and a good number of them survive with no lasting effects.

I really believe that length of exposure to a lightning bolt has to do with the survival rate of lightning victims. If nobody could survive a lightning bolt, then the kid with the tongue piercing probably died on the spot (which he didn't). The way they tested the myth on the show had Ben completely rigid. If he had been a live person, his reflexes would have probably saved him from the full power of the lightning bolt.

The way they tested Ben on the show had nothing to do with Ben's actual experiment. As another poster already mentioned, Franklin's kite was never flown in a thunderstorm, and was never struck by lightning.

Later, less careful experimenters did fly their kites directly under storms, and it didn't end well for them at all. They were killed instantly when their kite was struck, exactly as you would expect.

My point was, that it seems wrong to take a documented historical event and call it a myth.
I mean what's next (Could the Wright brothers have really flown there plane?)or (Could the Mayflower have really made the voyage to America?) Were does it end? I am all for testing "myths" but if it's a documented event it's not a myth.
The lightning comment was just a side note about making statements like “ it would have killed him” because although it likely would have, a lightning strike does not necessarily mean death. It wasn’t intended to dispute the way the myth was tested.

if you study his original records you WILL find that he did not fly his kite during a storming day. He flew the kite on a sunny day.