There is some disagreement about whether the kite was actually struck by lightning or whether the string picked up electricity from the storm charged air. Some feel that Franklin was very lucky and that the lightning struck at just the right time in his heartbeat so that the shock did not kill him. Others think that he would have been killed if the lightning had struck the kite and this is certainly a dangerous experiment. When Georg Richmann, a professor at St. Petersburg tried to duplicate Franklin's experiment he was killed by the lightning that struck his electrical apparatus.
This is definitely not an experiment to try at home.
Franklin also invented the lightning rod which is used to protect buildings from catching on fire from a lightning strike. He also introduced the idea of positive and negative charges.