The Time Benjamin Franklin Tried (And Failed) to Electrocute a Turkey

Benjamin Franklin loved electricity. He also loved the turkey. One day, he put the two together.

It all started as a party trick. Franklin had been dabbling with electricity for years, and he wanted to show off his newest electrical toys. On April 29, 1749, Franklin told scientist Peter Collinson about his dream to host the world’s first electric barbeque:

“A turkey,” Franklin wrote, “is to be killed for our dinners by the electrical shock; and roasted by the electrical jack, before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle.”

In the following months, Franklin spent his spare time electrocuting chickens and turkeys in his backyard with Leyden jars, primitive batteries that store static electricity. Toasting turkey, however, was hard. Most shocks knocked the birds unconscious, which freaked Franklin out, since they kept appearing to rise from the dead. But in the winter of 1750, Franklin finally fried a turkey, making him the first person to slaughter a living thing with electricity.

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On December 23, 1750, Franklin got a chance to show off his bird-obliterating death ray. A crowd gathered, the turkey was contained, and Franklin readied the lethal charge. Suddenly, a bright flash of light engulfed Franklin, shocking him senseless. The turkey gobbled away, and Franklin was numb for the rest of the evening. Although his chest was painfully sore, Franklin’s worst injury was a badly bruised ego.

He later wrote to his brother, “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 jars…I inadvertently took the whole through my own arms and body…Do not make [this] more public, for I am ashamed to have been guilty of so notorious a blunder."

But it did become “more public,” and it forever changed the way we eat.

In 1751, Franklin released his book Experiments and Observations on Electricity. In the Appendix, someone added all the embarrassing details of Franklin’s party-fail. The book fell into the hands of some savvy French chefs, who realized Franklin had accidentally discovered a way to tenderize meat: a strong electrical charge inhibits the effects of rigor mortis, making meat softer. Electricity has been used to preserve and tenderize meat products ever since.

And with that, Ben chalked up another feat for his “Yep, I invented that” list.