Tale of the tee: Ben's Bolt

If you want to give God a laugh, they say, tell him your plans.

We intended to release our first Pittsburgh tee earlier this year. But that was before Covid-19 and quarantine and wondering whether we’d have any more pop-up shows in 2020.

Mercifully, we are back in business (of course, we’ve always maintained stayapparel.com). We’ll be at Market on Chocolate in downtown Hershey most Saturdays through Labor Day, with other appearances sprinkled in.

We’re still treading lightly when it comes to new-product launches. While the Pittsburgh tee is on hold, we just introduced a sticker version of our popular Pennsylvania Craft Beer Tee (also available in a pint glass) and two unstructured ball caps (in white or black) bearing embroidered Stay logos.

But the centerpiece is our new Ben’s Bolt Tee, featuring a bolt of lightning that helps to form a keystone. Pennsylvania is known as the Keystone State, reflecting the state’s essential role in the founding of the United States.

And one of the more essential people in America’s beginning was Ben Franklin, who besides being a Founding Father was an author, printer, inventor, humorist, statesman and all-around great Pennsylvanian.

It was 268 years ago this month that Franklin conducted his famous kite experiment, in which he proved a connection between a bolt of lightning and electricity.

“Franklin first sketched out his theories about lightning in April 1749, just before his end-of-season turkey fry,” according to Walter Isaacson’s book, “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life.” (It’s a myth that Franklin proposed making the turkey the national bird, although he compared it favorably to the bald eagle.)

Isaacson noted that for centuries, “the devastating scourge of lightning had generally been considered a supernatural phenomenon or expression of God’s will.”

Churches rang their bells to ward off approaching bolts, but evidence suggested its futility: During one 35-year period in Germany during the mid-1700s, lightning struck 386 churches and killed more than 100 bell ringers.

An American superhero

Franklin had been planning to use the steeple of Philadelphia’s Christ Church to conduct his experiment. But having grown impatient when construction wasn’t completed, in June 1752 he seized on the idea of using a silk kite to gain elevation.

With an assist from his son William, Franklin flew a kite with a sharp wire protruding from the top and a key near the base of the wet string.

“Franklin began to despair when he suddenly saw some of the strands of the string stiffen,” Isaacson wrote. “Putting his knuckle to the key, he was able to draw sparks (and, notably, to survive). He proceeded to collect some of the charge in a Leyden jar and found it had the same qualities as electricity produced in a lab.

“ ‘Thereby the sameness of electrical matter with that of lightning was completely demonstrated,’ ” Franklin reported in a letter the following October.

Lightning rods soon began appearing “across Europe and the colonies,” Isaacson wrote, and Franklin became the most celebrated scientist in America and Europe and a popular hero.

“In solving one of the universe’s greatest mysteries, he had conquered one of nature’s most terrifying dangers,” according to Isaacson.

Combined with his countless other achievements, Franklin is an American superhero, which is what we hope people feel like when they wear our Ben’s Bolt design.

We think it provides a jolt of energy that we all need in these interesting times.