Benjamin Franklin was a child of the Enlightenment who chased storms on horse-back and philosophized in an almanac, through his own created character "Poor Richard".  He was sufficiently mainstream to be appointed to the committee that wrote the American Declaration of Independence - and sufficiently beyond the mainstream to don a character costume - that of a rustic 'colonial' - when he served in the serious role of American Ambassador to the high courts of France.  He was a hands-on-printer at a time when a printing press employed movable type and a literal 'pressing' machine,

There was barely an area of science, nature, or human endeavor that did not excite Franklin's curiosity - and result in practical investigation, in search of utility and application. 

Perhaps anticipating 'open source', Franklin made his inventions freely available.  His inventions, of practical utility, included bifocals, the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, an early odometer, the 'long arm' to reach high books on a shelf, and

Franklin's well-known experiment with electricity involving a key, a string, and a kite is quintessential Franklin.  While it was widely theorized that lightning was electricity, Franklin was interested in a practical test.  The instructions, as written by Franklin in a letter in 1752, are set out below: 

Instructions for Testing for Electricity in an Electrical Storm
(using a kite, a key and a string)

as Written by Benjamin Franklin in a letter, October 19, 1752:

"Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arms so long as to reach to the four corners of a large thin silk handkerchief when extended; tie the corners of the handkerchief to the extremities of the cross, so you have the body of a kite; which being properly accommodated with a tail, loop, and string, will rise in the air, like those made of paper; but this being of silk is fitter to bear the wet and wind of a thunder gust without tearing. To the top of the upright stick of the cross is to be fixed a very sharp pointed wire, rising a foot or more above the wood. To the end of the twine, next the key may be fastened. This kite is to be raised when a thunder-gust appears to be coming on, and the person who holds the string must stand within a door or window, or under some cover, so that the silk ribbon may not be wet; and care must be taken that the twine does not touch the frame of the door or window. As soon as any of the thunder clouds come over the kite, the pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them, and the kite, with all the twine, will be electrified, and the loose filaments of the twine, will stand out every way, and be attracted by an approaching finger. And when the rain has wetted the kite and twine, so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it stream out plentifully from the key on the approach of your knuckle. At this key the phial may be charged: and from electric fire thus obtained, spirits may be kindled, and all the other electric experiments be performed, which are usually done by the help of a rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the sameness of the electric matter with that of lightning completely demonstrated."