Delphi Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin (Illustrated) E-Book

Benjamin Franklin

• Herausgeber: Delphi Publishing Ltd
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Delphi Series Thirteen
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 6135

Beschreibung

One of the foremost of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin was a printer, author, inventor, scientist and diplomat. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and was one of its chief signers. Franklin made important contributions to science, especially in the understanding of electricity, and is remembered for the wit, wisdom and the supreme elegance of his prose technique. This eBook presents Franklin’s complete works, with numerous illustrations, introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)

* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Franklin’s life and works
* All the major works, with the original hyperlinked footnotes
* Texts based on the Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme 1806 edition of Franklin’s works
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* Rare letters and treatises
* Includes Franklin’s seminal autobiography
* Special criticism section, with 14 essays evaluating Franklin’s contribution to literature, science, politics and philosophy
* Features six biographies – discover Franklin’s incredible life
* Ordering of texts into chronological order and genres

Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles

CONTENTS:

The Works
Letters and Papers on Electricity
Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects
Papers on Subjects of General Politics
Papers on American Subjects before the Revolutionary Troubles
Papers on American Subjects during the Revolutionary Troubles
Papers, Descriptive of America, or Relating to that Country, Written Subsequent to the Revolution
Papers on Moral Subjects and the Economy of Life
The Autobiography
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1793)

The Criticism
Anecdotes of Doctor Franklin (1818) by Thomas Jefferson
The Late Benjamin Franklin (1870) by Mark Twain
Benjamin Franklin (1884) by Osgood E. Fuller
Benjamin Franklin (1884) by Carl Schurz
Benjamin Franklin (1885) by William Garnett
Benjamin Franklin (1888) by Sarah Knowles Bolton
Benjamin Franklin (1893) by Philip Gengembre Hubert
Benjamin Franklin (1900) by Paul Elmer More
Benjamin Franklin and Aid from France (1901) by Wilbur Fisk Gordy
Franklin (1906) by Charles William Eliot
Benjamin Franklin (1916) by Hamilton W. Mabie
Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed (1917) by Wiliam Cabell Bruce
Science and the Struggle for Liberty: Benjamin Franklin (1917) by Walter Libby
Benjamin Franklin (1923) by D. H. Lawrence

The Biographies
The Life of Benjamin Franklin (1829) by Mason Locke Weems
Benjamin Franklin (1839) by L. Carroll Judson
Benjamin Franklin (1876) by John S. C. Abbott
Franklin: A Sketch (1879) by John Bigelow
The True Benjamin Franklin (1898) by Sydney George Fisher
Benjamin Franklin (1911) by Richard Webster

Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to purchase this eBook as a Parts Edition of individual eBooks

Leseprobe

The Complete Works of

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

(1706-1790)

Contents

The Works

Letters and Papers on Electricity

Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects

Papers on Subjects of General Politics

Papers on American Subjects before the Revolutionary Troubles

Papers on American Subjects during the Revolutionary Troubles

Papers, Descriptive of America, or Relating to that Country, Written Subsequent to the Revolution

Papers on Moral Subjects and the Economy of Life

The Autobiography

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1793)

The Criticism

Anecdotes of Doctor Franklin (1818) by Thomas Jefferson

The Late Benjamin Franklin (1870) by Mark Twain

Benjamin Franklin (1884) by Osgood E. Fuller

Benjamin Franklin (1884) by Carl Schurz

Benjamin Franklin (1885) by William Garnett

Benjamin Franklin (1888) by Sarah Knowles Bolton

Benjamin Franklin (1893) by Philip Gengembre Hubert

Benjamin Franklin (1900) by Paul Elmer More

Benjamin Franklin and Aid from France (1901) by Wilbur Fisk Gordy

Franklin (1906) by Charles William Eliot

Benjamin Franklin (1916) by Hamilton W. Mabie

Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed (1917) by Wiliam Cabell Bruce

Science and the Struggle for Liberty: Benjamin Franklin (1917) by Walter Libby

Benjamin Franklin (1923) by D. H. Lawrence

The Biographies

The Life of Benjamin Franklin (1829) by Mason Locke Weems

Benjamin Franklin (1839) by L. Carroll Judson

Benjamin Franklin (1876) by John S. C. Abbott

Franklin: A Sketch (1879) by John Bigelow

The True Benjamin Franklin (1898) by Sydney George Fisher

Benjamin Franklin (1911) by Richard Webster

The Delphi Classics Catalogue

© Delphi Classics 2023

Version 1

Browse our Main Series

Browse our Ancient Classics

Browse our Poets

Browse our Art eBooks

Browse our Classical Music series

The Complete Works of

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

By Delphi Classics, 2023

COPYRIGHT

Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin

First published in the United Kingdom in 2023 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2023.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 80170 102 0

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [email protected]

www.delphiclassics.com

The Works

Boston, Massachusetts, 1801 — Benjamin Franklin’s birthplace

Milk Street, Boston, late nineteenth century — Franklin was born on Milk Street on 17 January 1706. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler from Northamptonshire, England. His mother, Abiah, was the daughter of a miller and schoolteacher.

The birthplace, Milk Street

The site of birthplace is commemorated by a bust above the second floor facade of this building.

Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by Robert Feke, c. 1746. This is widely believed to be the earliest known painting of Franklin.

Letters and Papers on Electricity

TEXT FROM LONGMAN, HURST, REES, & ORME 1806 EDITION

Benjamin Franklin had started exploring the phenomenon of electricity in 1746 when he saw some of Archibald Spencer’s lectures using static electricity for illustrations. Franklin went on to argue that “vitreous” and “resinous” electricity were not different types of “electrical fluid” (as electricity was called then), but the same “fluid” under different pressures. He was the first to label them as positive and negative respectively, and he was the first to discover the principle of conservation of charge. In 1748, Franklin constructed a multiple plate capacitor, that he called an “electrical battery” by placing eleven panes of glass sandwiched between lead plates, suspended with silk cords and connected by wires.

In pursuit of more pragmatic uses for electricity, he began preparations for a practical demonstration. He proposed a dinner party where a turkey was to be killed via electric shock and roasted on an electrical spit. Having prepared several turkeys this way, he noted that “the birds kill’d in this manner eat uncommonly tender.” Franklin recounted that in the process of one of these experiments, he was shocked by a pair of Leyden jars, resulting in numbness in his arms that persisted for one evening.

He also briefly investigated electrotherapy, including the use of the electric bath. This work led to the field becoming widely known. In recognition of his work with electricity, he received the Royal Society’s Copley Medal in 1753, and in 1756, he became one of the few eighteenth-century Americans elected a fellow of the Society. The CGS unit of electric charge has been named after him: one franklin (Fr) is equal to one statcoulomb. Franklin went on to advise Harvard University in its acquisition of new electrical laboratory apparatus after the complete loss of its original collection in a fire that destroyed the original Harvard Hall in 1764. The collection he assembled became part of the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, now on public display in its noted Science Center.

‘Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky’ by Benjamin West, c. 1816, Philadelphia Museum of Art

CONTENTS

LETTERS AND PAPERS ON ELECTRICITY.

INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO PETER COLLINSON, ESQ. F. R. S. LONDON.

Wonderful Effect of Points. — Positive and negative Electricity. — Electrical Kiss. — Counterfeit Spider. — Simple and commodious electrical Machine.

Observations on the Leyden Bottle, with Experiments proving the different electrical State of its different Surfaces.

Farther Experiments confirming the preceding Observations. — Leyden Bottle analysed. — Electrical Battery. — Magical Picture. — Electrical Wheel or Jack. — Electrical Feast.

Observations and Suppositions, towards forming a new Hypothesis, for explaining the several Phenomena of Thunder-Gusts.29

Introductory Letter to some additional Papers.

Opinions and Conjectures, concerning the Properties and Effects of the electrical Matter

Proving that the Leyden Bottle has no more electrical Fire in it when charged, than before

Accumulation of the electrical Fire proved to be in the electrified Glass. — Effect of Lightning on the Needle of Compasses, explained. — Gunpowder fired by the electric Flame.

Unlimited Nature of the electric Force.

The Terms, electric per se, and non-electric, improper. — New Relation between Metals and Water.

Mistake, that only Metals and Water were Conductors, rectified. — Supposition of a Region of electric Fire above our Atmosphere. — Theorem concerning Light. — Poke-Weed a Cure for Cancers.

New Experiments.

Probable Cause of the Different Attractions and Repulsions of the two electrified Globes mentioned in the two preceding Letters.

Reasons for supposing, that the glass Globe charges positively, and the Sulphur negatively. — Hint respecting a leather Globe for Experiments when travelling.

Electrical Kite.

Hypothesis, of the Sea being the grand Source of Lightning, retracted.

Additional Proofs of the positive and negative State of Electricity in the Clouds. — New Method of ascertaining it.

Electrical experiments, with an attempt to account for their several phenomena &c.

Experiments Made in Pursuance of those made by Mr. Canton, dated December 6, 1753; with Explanations, by Mr. Benjamin Franklin.

Turkey killed by Electricity. — Effect of a Shock on the Operator in making the Experiment.

Differences in the Qualities of Glass.

Beccaria’s Work on Electricity. — Sentiments of Franklin on pointed Rods, not fully understood in Europe. — Effect of Lightning on the Church of Newbury, in New England. — Remarks on the Subject.

Notice of another Packet of Letters.

Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman in Boston57, to Benjamin Franklin, Esq. concerning the crooked Direction, and the Source of Lightning, and the Swiftness of the electric Fire.

Observations on the Subjects of the preceding Letter. — Reasons for supposing the Sea to be the grand source of Lightning. — Reasons for doubting this hypothesis. — Improvement in a Globe for raising the Electric Fire.

Effect of Lightning on Captain Waddel’s Compass, and the Dutch Church at New York.

Proposal of an Experiment to measure the Time taken up by an Electric Spark, in moving through any given Space. By J. A.60 Esq. of New-York.

Answer to the foregoing.

Experiments on boiling Water, and Glass heated by boiling Water. — Doctrine of Repulsion in electrised Bodies doubted. — Electricity of the Atmosphere at different Heights. — Electrical Horse-race. — Electrical Thermometer. — In what Cases the electrical Fire produces Heat. — Wire lengthened by Electricity. — Good Effect of a Rod on the House of Mr. West, of Philadelphia.

Answer to some of the foregoing Subjects. — How long the Leyden Bottle may be kept charged. — Heated Glass rendered permeable by the electric Fluid. — Electrical Attraction and Repulsion. — Reply to other Subjects in the preceding Paper. — Numerous Ways of kindling Fire. — Explosion of Water. — Knobs and Points.

Accounts from Carolina (mentioned in the foregoing Letter) of the Effects of Lightning on two of the Rods commonly affixed to Houses there, for securing them against Lightning.

Mr. William Maine’s Account of the Effects of the Lightning on his Rod, dated at Indian Land, in South Carolina, Aug. 28, 1760.

On the Electricity of the Tourmalin.

New Observation relating to Electricity in the Atmosphere.

Flash of Lightning that struck St. Bride’s Steeple.

Best Method of securing a Powder Magazine from Lightning.

Of Lightning, and the Methods (now used in America) of securing Buildings and Persons from its mischievous Effects.

St. Bride’s Steeple. — Utility of Electrical Conductors to Steeples. — Singular kind of Glass tube.

Experiments, Observations, and Facts, tending to support the Opinion of the Utility of long pointed Rods, for securing Buildings from Damage by Strokes of Lightning.

On the Utility of Electrical Conductors.

On the Effects of Electricity in paralytic Cases.

Electrical Experiments on Amber.

On the Electricity of the Fogs in Ireland.

Mode of ascertaining, whether the Power, giving a Shock to those who touch either the Surinam Eel, or the Torpedo, be electrical.

On the Analogy between Magnetism and Electricity.

Concerning the Mode of rendering Meat tender by Electricity.

In Answer to some Queries concerning the Choice of Glass for the Leyden Experiment.

Concerning the Leyden Bottle.

APPENDIX.

No. 1 78. Account of experiments made in electricity at Marly.

A more particular Account of the Circumstances and Success of this extraordinary Experiment was laid before the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, three Days afterwards, in a Memorial by M. D’Alibard, viz.

Letter of Mr. W. Watson, F. R. S. to the Royal Society, concerning the electrical Experiments in England upon Thunder-Clouds.

No. 2. Remarks on the Abbé Nollet’s Letters to Benjamin Franklin, Esq. of Philadelphia, on Electricity: by Mr. David Colden, of New York.

LETTERS AND PAPERS ON ELECTRICITY.

ITMAYNOTbe improper to present the reader with the following extract from the preface to the first edition of Dr. Franklin’s papers on electricity, which, as we have stated in the advertisement, formed a pamphlet only.

“The following observations and experiments were not drawn up with a view to their being made public, but were communicated at different times, and most of them in letters, written on various topics, as matters only of private amusement.

“But some persons, to whom they were read, and who had themselves been conversant in electrical disquisitions, were of opinion, they contained so many curious and interesting particulars relative to this affair, that it would be doing a kind of injustice to the public, to confine them solely to the limits of a private acquaintance.

“The editor was therefore prevailed upon to commit such extracts of letters and other detached pieces as were in his hands to the press, without waiting for the ingenious author’s permission so to do; and this was done with the less hesitation, as it was apprehended the author’s engagements in other affairs would scarce afford him leisure to give the public his reflections and experiments on the subject, finished with that care and precision, of which the treatise before us shows he is alike studious and capable.”

With respect to the general merit and originality of the experiments and hypothesis of Dr. Franklin, as described and explained in these letters, the following is the testimony of one of the first natural philosophers of his age — the late Dr. Priestly, in his History of Electricity.

“Nothing was ever written upon the subject of electricity which was more generally read and admired in all parts of Europe than these letters. There is hardly any European language into which they have not been translated; and, as if this were not sufficient to make them properly known, a translation of them has lately been made into Latin. It is not easy to say, whether we are most pleased with the simplicity and perspicuity with which these letters are written, the modesty with which the author proposes every hypothesis of his own, or the noble frankness with which he relates his mistakes, when they were corrected by subsequent experiments.

“Though the English have not been backward in acknowledging the great merit of this philosopher, he has had the singular good fortune to be, perhaps, even more celebrated abroad than at home; so that, to form a just idea of the great and deserved reputation of Dr. Franklin, we must read the foreign publications on the subject of electricity; in many of which the terms Franklinism, Franklinist, and the Franklinian system, occur in almost every page. In consequence of this, Dr. Franklin’s principles bid fair to be handed down to posterity as equally expressive of the true principles of electricity, as the Newtonian philosophy is of the true system of nature in general.”

INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO PETER COLLINSON, ESQ. F. R. S. LONDON.

PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 28, 1747.

Sir,

Your kind present of an electric tube, with directions for using it, has put several of us1 on making electrical experiments, in which we have observed some particular phenomena that we look upon to be new. I shall therefore communicate them to you in my next, though possibly they may not be new to you, as among the numbers daily employed in those experiments on your side the water, it is probable some one or other has hit on the same observations. For my own part, I never was before engaged in any study that so totally engrossed my attention and my time as this has lately done; for what with making experiments when I can be alone, and repeating them to my friends and acquaintance, who, from the novelty of the thing, come continually in crowds to see them, I have, during some months past, had little leisure for any thing else.

I am, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

1 i. e. of the Library-Company, an institution of the author’s, founded 1730. To which company the present was made.

Wonderful Effect of Points. — Positive and negative Electricity. — Electrical Kiss. — Counterfeit Spider. — Simple and commodious electrical Machine.

TO PETER COLLINSON, ESQ. F. R. S. LONDON.

PHILADELPHIA, JULY 11, 1747.

Sir,

In my last I informed you that, in pursuing our electrical enquiries, we had observed some particular phenomena, which we looked upon to be new, and of which I promised to give you some account, though I apprehended they might not possibly be new to you, as so many hands are daily employed in electrical experiments on your side the water, some or other of which would probably hit on the same observations.

The first is the wonderful effect of pointed bodies, both in drawing off and throwing off the electrical fire. For example,

Place an iron shot of three or four inches diameter on the mouth of a clean dry glass bottle. By a fine silken thread from the cieling, right over the mouth of the bottle, suspend a small cork-ball, about the bigness of a marble; the thread of such a length, as that the cork-ball may rest against the side of the shot. Electrify the shot, and the ball will be repelled to the distance of four or five inches, more or less, according to the quantity of electricity. — When in this state, if you present to the shot the point of a long, slender, sharp bodkin, at six or eight inches distance, the repellency is instantly destroyed, and the cork flies to the shot. A blunt body must be brought within an inch, and draw a spark to produce the same effect. To prove that the electrical fire is drawn off by the point, if you take the blade of the bodkin out of the wooden handle, and fix it in a stick of sealing-wax, and then present it at the distance aforesaid, or if you bring it very near, no such effect follows; but sliding one finger along the wax till you touch the blade, and the ball flies to the shot immediately. — If you present the point in the dark, you will see, sometimes at a foot distance and more, a light gather upon it, like that of a fire-fly, or glow-worm; the less sharp the point, the nearer you must bring it to observe the light; and at whatever distance you see the light, you may draw off the electrical fire, and destroy the repellency. — If a cork-ball so suspended be repelled by the tube, and a point be presented quick to it, though at a considerable distance, it is surprising to see how suddenly it flies back to the tube. Points of wood will do near as well as those of iron, provided the wood is not dry; for perfectly dry wood will no more conduct electricity than sealing-wax.

To shew that points will throw off2 as well as draw off the electrical fire; lay a long sharp needle upon the shot, and you cannot electrise the shot so as to make it repel the cork-ball. — Or fix a needle to the end of a suspended gun-barrel, or iron-rod, so as to point beyond it like a little bayonet3; and while it remains there, the gun-barrel, or rod, cannot by applying the tube to the other end be electrised so as to give a spark, the fire continually running out silently at the point. In the dark you may see it make the same appearance as it does in the case before-mentioned.

The repellency between the cork-ball and the shot is likewise destroyed. 1. By sifting fine sand on it; this does it gradually. 2. By breathing on it. 3. By making a smoke about it from burning wood4. 4. By candle-light, even though the candle is at a foot distance:  these do it suddenly. — The light of a bright coal from a wood fire; and the light of a red-hot iron do it likewise; but not at so great a distance. Smoke from dry rosin dropt on hot iron, does not destroy the repellency; but is attracted by both shot and cork-ball, forming proportionable atmospheres round them, making them look beautifully, somewhat like some of the figures in Burnet’s or Whiston’s Theory of the Earth.

N.B. This experiment should be made in a closet, where the air is very still, or it will be apt to fail.

The light of the sun thrown strongly on both cork and shot by a looking-glass for a long time together, does not impair the repellency in the least. This difference between fire-light and sun-light is another thing that seems new and extraordinary to us5.

We had for some time been of opinion, that the electrical fire was not created by friction, but collected, being really an element diffused among, and attracted by other matter, particularly by water and metals. We had even discovered and demonstrated its afflux to the electrical sphere, as well as its efflux, by means of little light windmill-wheels made of stiff paper vanes, fixed obliquely, and turning freely on fine wire axes.

Also by little wheels of the same matter, but formed like water-wheels. Of the disposition and application of which wheels, and the various phenomena resulting, I could, if I had time, fill you a sheet6. The impossibility of electrising one’s self (though standing on wax) by rubbing the tube, and drawing the fire from it; and the manner of doing it, by passing the tube near a person or thing standing on the floor, &c. had also occurred to us some months before Mr. Watson’s ingenious Sequel came to hand, and these were some of the new things I intended to have communicated to you. — But now I need only mention some particulars not hinted in that piece, with our reasonings thereupon: though perhaps the latter might well enough be spared.

1. A person standing on wax, and rubbing the tube, and another person on wax drawing the fire, they will both of them (provided they do not stand so as to touch one another) appear to be electrised, to a person standing on the floor; that is, he will perceive a spark on approaching each of them with his knuckle.

2. But if the persons on wax touch one another during the exciting of the tube, neither of them will appear to be electrised.

3. If they touch one another after exciting the tube, and drawing the fire as aforesaid, there will be a stronger spark between them than was between either of them and the person on the floor.

4. After such strong spark, neither of them discover any electricity.

These appearances we attempt to account for thus: We suppose, as aforesaid, that electrical fire is a common element, of which every one of the three persons abovementioned has his equal share, before any operation is begun with the tube. A, who stands on wax and rubs the tube, collects the electrical fire from himself into the glass; and his communication with the common stock being cut off by the wax, his body is not again immediately supplied. B,(who stands on wax likewise) passing his knuckle along near the tube, receives the fire which was collected by the glass from A; and his communication with the common stock being likewise cut off, he retains the additional quantity received. — To C, standing on the floor, both appear to be electrised: for he having only the middle quantity of electrical fire, receives a spark upon approaching B, who has an over quantity; but gives one to A, who has an under quantity. If A and B approach to touch each other, the spark is stronger, because the difference between them is greater: After such touch there is no spark between either of them and C, because the electrical fire in all is reduced to the original equality. If they touch while electrising, the equality is never destroyed, the fire only circulating. Hence have arisen some new terms among us; we say B, (and bodies like circumstanced) is electrised positively; A, negatively. Or rather, B is electrised plus; A, minus. And we daily in our experiments electrise bodies plus or minus, as we think proper. — To electrise plus or minus, no more needs to be known than this, that the parts of the tube or sphere that are rubbed, do, in the instant of the friction, attract the electrical fire, and therefore take it from the thing rubbing: the same parts immediately, as the friction upon them ceases, are disposed to give the fire they have received, to any body that has less. Thus you may circulate it, as Mr. Watson has shewn; you may also accumulate or subtract it, upon, or from any body, as you connect that body with the rubber or with the receiver, the communication with the common stock being cut off. We think that ingenious gentleman was deceived when he imagined (in his Sequel) that the electrical fire came down the wire from the cieling to the gun-barrel, thence to the sphere, and so electrised the machine and the man turning the wheel, &c. We suppose it was driven off, and not brought on through that wire; and that the machine and man, &c. were electrised minus; i. e. had less electrical fire in them than things in common.

As the vessel is just upon sailing, I cannot give you so large an account of American electricity as I intended: I shall only mention a few particulars more. — We find granulated lead better to fill the phial with, than water, being easily warmed, and keeping warm and dry in damp air. — We fire spirits with the wire of the phial. — We light candles, just blown out, by drawing a spark among the smoke between the wire and snuffers. — We represent lightning, by passing the wire in the dark, over a china plate that has gilt flowers, or applying it to gilt frames of looking-glasses, &c. — We electrise a person twenty or more times running, with a touch of the finger on the wire, thus: He stands on wax. Give him the electrised bottle in his hand. Touch the wire with your finger, and then touch his hand or face; there are sparks every time7. — We encrease the force of the electrical kiss vastly, thus: Let A and B stand on wax; or A on wax, and B on the floor; give one of them the electrised phial in hand; let the other take hold of the wire; there will be a small spark; but when their lips approach, they will be struck and shock’d. The same if another gentleman and lady, C and D, standing also on wax, and joining hands with A and B, salute or shake hands. We suspend by fine silk thread a counterfeit spider, made of a small piece of burnt cork, with legs of linnen thread, and a grain or two of lead stuck in him, to give him more weight. Upon the table, over which he hangs, we stick a wire upright, as high as the phial and wire, four or five inches from the spider: then we animate him, by setting the electrified phial at the same distance on the other side of him; he will immediately fly to the wire of the phial, bend his legs in touching it, then spring off, and fly to the wire in the table, thence again to the wire of the phial, playing with his legs against both, in a very entertaining manner, appearing perfectly alive to persons unacquainted. He will continue this motion an hour or more in dry weather. — We electrify, upon wax in the dark, a book that has a double line of gold round upon the covers, and then apply a knuckle to the gilding; the fire appears every where upon the gold like a flash of lightning: not upon the leather, nor, if you touch the leather instead of the gold. We rub our tubes with buckskin, and observe always to keep the same side to the tube, and never to sully the tube by handling; thus they work readily and easily, without the least fatigue, especially if kept in tight pasteboard cases, lined with flannel, and sitting close to the tube8. This I mention, because the European papers on electricity frequently speak of rubbing the tube as a fatiguing exercise. Our spheres are fixed on iron axes, which pass through them. At one end of the axis there is a small handle, with which you turn the sphere like a common grind-stone. This we find very commodious, as the machine takes up but little room, is portable, and may be enclosed in a tight box, when not in use. It is true, the sphere does not turn so swift as when the great wheel is used: but swiftness we think of little importance, since a few turns will charge the phial, &c. sufficiently9.

I am, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

2 This power of points to throw off the electrical fire, was first communicated to me by my ingenious friend Mr. Thomas Hopkinson, since deceased, whose virtue and integrity, in every station of life, public and private, will ever make his memory dear to those who knew him, and knew how to value him.

3 This was Mr. Hopkinson’s experiment, made with an expectation of drawing a more sharp and powerful spark from the point, as from a kind of focus, and he was surprised to find little or none.

4 We suppose every particle of sand, moisture, or smoke, being first attracted and then repelled, carries off with it a portion of the electrical fire; but that the same still subsists in those particles, till they communicate it to something else, and that it is never really destroyed. So when water is thrown on common fire, we do not imagine the element is thereby destroyed or annihilated, but only dispersed, each particle of water carrying off in vapour its portion of the fire, which it had attracted and attached to itself.

5 This different effect probably did not arise from any difference in the light, but rather from the particles separated from the candle, being first attracted and then repelled, carrying off the electric matter with them; and from the rarefying the air, between the glowing coal or red-hot iron, and the electrised shot, through which rarefied air the electric fluid could more readily pass.

6 These experiments with the wheels, were made and communicated to me by my worthy and ingenious friend Mr. Philip Syng; but we afterwards discovered that the motion of those wheels was not owing to any afflux or efflux of the electric fluid, but to various circumstances of attraction and repulsion. 1750.

7 By taking a spark from the wire, the electricity within the bottle is diminished; the outside of the bottle then draws some from the person holding it, and leaves him in the negative state. Then when his hand or face is touched, an equal quantity is restored to him from the person touching.

8 Our tubes are made here of green glass, 27 or 30 inches long, as big as can be grasped.

9 This simple easily-made machine was a contrivance of Mr. Syng’s.

Observations on the Leyden Bottle, with Experiments proving the different electrical State of its different Surfaces.

TO PETER COLLINSON, ESQ. F. R. S. LONDON.

PHILADELPHIA, SEPT. 1, 1747.

Sir,

The necessary trouble of copying long letters, which, perhaps, when they come to your hands, may contain nothing new, or worth your reading, (so quick is the progress made with you in electricity) half discourages me from writing any more on that subject. Yet I cannot forbear adding a few observations on M. Muschenbroek’s wonderful bottle.

1. The non-electric contained in the bottle differs, when electrised, from a non-electric electrised out of the bottle, in this: that the electrical fire of the latter is accumulated on its surface, and forms an electrical atmosphere round it of considerable extent; but the electrical fire is crowded into the substance of the former, the glass confining it10.

2. At the same time that the wire and the top of the bottle, &c. is electrised positively or plus, the bottom of the bottle is electrised negatively or minus, in exact proportion: i. e. whatever quantity of electrical fire is thrown in at the top, an equal quantity goes out of the bottom11. To understand this, suppose the common quantity of electricity in each part of the bottle, before the operation begins, is equal to 20; and at every stroke of the tube, suppose a quantity equal to 1 is thrown in; then, after the first stroke, the quantity contained in the wire and upper part of the bottle will be 21, in the bottom 19. After the second, the upper part will have 22, the lower 18, and so on, till, after 20 strokes, the upper part will have a quantity of electrical fire equal to 40, the lower part none: and then the operation ends: for no more can be thrown into the upper part, when no more can be driven out of the lower part. If you attempt to throw more in, it is spewed back through the wire, or flies out in loud cracks through the sides of the bottle.

3. The equilibrium cannot be restored in the bottle by inward communication or contact of the parts; but it must be done by a communication formed without the bottle, between the top and bottom, by some non-electric, touching or approaching both at the same time; in which case it is restored with a violence and quickness inexpressible; or, touching each alternately, in which case the equilibrium is restored by degrees.

4. As no more electrical fire can be thrown into the top of the bottle, when all is driven out of the bottom, so in a bottle not yet electrised, none can be thrown into the top, when none can get out at the bottom; which happens either when the bottom is too thick, or when the bottle is placed on an electric per se. Again, when the bottle is electrised, but little of the electrical fire can be drawn out from the top, by touching the wire, unless an equal quantity can at the same time get in at the bottom12. Thus, place an electrised bottle on clean glass or dry wax, and you will not, by touching the wire, get out the fire from the top. Place it on a non-electric, and touch the wire, you will get it out in a short time; but soonest when you form a direct communication as above.

So wonderfully are these two states of electricity, the plus and minus, combined and balanced in this miraculous bottle! situated and related to each other in a manner that I can by no means comprehend! If it were possible that a bottle should in one part contain a quantity of air strongly comprest, and in another part a perfect vacuum, we know the equilibrium would be instantly restored within. But here we have a bottle containing at the same time a plenum of electrical fire, and a vacuum of the same fire; and yet the equilibrium cannot be restored between them but by a communication without! though the plenum presses violently to expand, and the hungry vacuum seems to attract as violently in order to be filled.

5. The shock to the nerves (or convulsion rather) is occasioned by the sudden passing of the fire through the body in its way from the top to the bottom of the bottle. The fire takes the shortest13 course, as Mr. Watson justly observes: But it does not appear from experiment that in order for a person to be shocked, a communication with the floor is necessary: for he that holds the bottle with one hand, and touches the wire with the other, will be shocked as much, though his shoes be dry, or even standing on wax, as otherwise. And on the touch of the wire, (or of the gun-barrel, which is the same thing) the fire does not proceed from the touching finger to the wire, as is supposed, but from the wire to the finger, and passes through the body to the other hand, and so into the bottom of the bottle.

Experiments confirming the above.

EXPERIMENT I.

Place an electrised phial on wax; a small cork-ball suspended by a dry silk thread held in your hand, and brought near to the wire, will first be attracted, and then repelled: when in this state of repellency, sink your hand, that the ball may be brought towards the bottom of the bottle; it will be there instantly and strongly attracted, till it has parted with its fire.

If the bottle had a positive electrical atmosphere, as well as the wire, an electrified cork would be repelled from one as well as from the other.

Vol. I. page 182.

Plate I.

Published as the Act directs, April 1, 1806, by Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, Paternoster Row.

EXPERIMENT II.

Fig. 1. From a bent wire (a) sticking in the table, let a small linen thread (b) hang down within half an inch of the electrised phial (c). Touch the wire or the phial repeatedly with your finger, and at every touch you will see the thread instantly attracted by the bottle. (This is best done by a vinegar cruet, or some such bellied-bottle). As soon as you draw any fire out from the upper part, by touching the wire, the lower part of the bottle draws an equal quantity in by the thread.

EXPERIMENT III.

Fig. 2. Fix a wire in the lead, with which the bottom of the bottle is armed (d) so as that bending upwards, its ring-end may be level with the top or ring-end of the wire in the cork (e) and at three or four inches distance. Then electrise the bottle, and place it on wax. If a cork suspended by a silk thread (f) hang between these two wires, it will play incessantly from one to the other, till the bottle is no longer electrised; that is, it fetches and carries fire from the top to the bottom14 of the bottle, till the equilibrium is restored.

EXPERIMENT IV.

Fig. 3. Place an electrised phial on wax; take a wire (g) in form of a C, the ends at such a distance when bent, as that the upper may touch the wire of the bottle, when the lower touches the bottom: stick the outer part on a stick of sealing-wax (h), which will serve as a handle; then apply the lower end to the bottom of the bottle, and gradually bring the upper end near the wire in the cork. The consequence is, spark follows spark till the equilibrium is restored. Touch the top first, and on approaching the bottom, with the other end, you have a constant stream of fire from the wire entering the bottle. Touch the top and bottom together, and the equilibrium will instantly be restored, the crooked wire forming the communication.

EXPERIMENT V.

Fig. 4. Let a ring of thin lead, or paper, surround a bottle (i) even at some distance from or above the bottom. From that ring let a wire proceed up, till it touch the wire of the cork (k). A bottle so fixt cannot by any means be electrised: the equilibrium is never destroyed: for while the communication between the upper and lower parts of the bottle is continued by the outside wire, the fire only circulates: what is driven out at bottom, is constantly supplied from the top15. Hence a bottle cannot be electrised that is foul or moist on the outside, if such moisture continue up to the cork or wire.

EXPERIMENT VI.

Place a man on a cake of wax, and present him the wire of the electrified phial to touch, you standing on the floor, and holding it in your hand. As often as he touches it, he will be electrified plus; and any one standing on the floor may draw a spark from him. The fire in this experiment passes out of the wire into him; and at the same time out of your hand into the bottom of the bottle.

EXPERIMENT VII.

Give him the electrical phial to hold; and do you touch the wire; as often as you touch it he will be electrified minus, and may draw a spark from any one standing on the floor. The fire now passes from the wire to you, and from him into the bottom of the bottle.

EXPERIMENT VIII.

Lay two books on two glasses, back towards back, two or three inches distant. Set the electrified phial on one, and then touch the wire; that book will be electrified minus; the electrical fire being drawn out of it by the bottom of the bottle. Take off the bottle, and holding it in your hand, touch the other with the wire; that book will be electrified plus; the fire passing into it from the wire, and the bottle at the same time supplied from your hand. A suspended small cork-ball will play between these books till the equilibrium is restored.

EXPERIMENT IX.

When a body is electrised plus, it will repel a positively electrified feather or small cork-ball. When minus (or when in the common state) it will attract them, but stronger when minus than when in the common state, the difference being greater.

EXPERIMENT X.

Though, as in Experiment VI, a man standing on wax may be electrised a number of times by repeatedly touching the wire of an electrised bottle (held in the hand of one standing on the floor) he receiving the fire from the wire each time: yet holding it in his own hand, and touching the wire, though he draws a strong spark, and is violently shocked, no electricity remains in him; the fire only passing through him, from the upper to the lower part of the bottle. Observe, before the shock, to let some one on the floor touch him to restore the equilibrium in his body; for in taking hold of the bottom of the bottle, he sometimes becomes a little electrised minus, which will continue after the shock, as would also any plus electricity, which he might have given him before the shock. For restoring the equilibrium in the bottle, does not at all affect the electricity in the man through whom the fire passes; that electricity is neither increased nor diminished.

EXPERIMENT XI.

The passing of the electrical fire from the upper to the lower part16 of the bottle, to restore the equilibrium, is rendered strongly visible by the following pretty experiment. Take a book whose covering is filletted with gold; bend a wire of eight or ten inches long, in the form of (m) Fig. 5; slip it on the end of the cover of the book, over the gold line, so as that the shoulder of it may press upon one end of the gold line, the ring up, but leaning towards the other end of the book. Lay the book on a glass or wax17, and on the other end of the gold lines set the bottle electrised; then bend the springing wire, by pressing it with a stick of wax till its ring approaches the ring of the bottle wire, instantly there is a strong spark and stroke, and the whole line of gold, which completes the communication, between the top and bottom of the bottle, will appear a vivid flame, like the sharpest lightning. The closer the contact between the shoulder of the wire, and the gold at one end of the line, and between the bottom of the bottle and the gold at the other end, the better the experiment succeeds. The room should be darkened. If you would have the whole filletting round the cover appear in fire at once, let the bottle and wire touch the gold in the diagonally opposite corners.

I am, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

10 See this opinion rectified in § 16 and 17 of the next letter. The fire in the bottle was found by subsequent experiments not to be contained in the non-electric, but in the glass. 1748.

11 What is said here, and after, of the top and bottom of the bottle, is true of the inside and outside surfaces, and should have been so expressed.

12 See the preceding note, relating to top and bottom.

13 Other circumstances being equal.

14i. e. from the inside to the outside.

15 See the preceding note, relating to top and bottom.

16i. e. From the inside to the outside.

17 Placing the book on glass or wax is not necessary to produce the appearance; it is only to show that the visible electricity is not brought up from the common stock in the earth.

Farther Experiments confirming the preceding Observations. — Leyden Bottle analysed. — Electrical Battery. — Magical Picture. — Electrical Wheel or Jack. — Electrical Feast.

TO PETER COLLINSON, ESQ. F. R. S. LONDON.

PHILADELPHIA, 1748.

SIR,

§ 1. There will be the same explosion and shock if the electrified phial is held in one hand by the hook, and the coating touched with the other, as when held by the coating, and touched at the hook.

2. To take the charged phial safely by the hook, and not at the same time diminish its force, it must first be set down on an electric per se.

3. The phial will be electrified as strongly, if held by the hook, and the coating applied to the globe or tube; as when held by the coating, and the hook applied18.

4. But the direction of the electrical fire being different in the charging, will also be different in the explosion. The bottle charged through the hook, will be discharged through the hook; the bottle charged through the coating, will be discharged through the coating, and not otherways; for the fire must come out the same way it went in.

5. To prove this, take two bottles that were equally charged through the hooks, one in each hand: bring their hooks near each other, and no spark or shock will follow; because each hook is disposed to give fire, and neither to receive it. Set one of the bottles down on glass, take it up by the hook, and apply its coating to the hook of the other; then there will be an explosion and shock, and both bottles will be discharged.

6. Vary the experiment, by charging two phials equally, one through the hook, the other through the coating: hold that by the coating which was charged through the hook; and that by the hook which was charged through the coating: apply the hook of the first to the coating of the other, and there will be no shock or spark. Set that down on glass which you held by the hook, take it up by the coating, and bring the two hooks together: a spark and shock will follow, and both phials be discharged.

In this experiment the bottles are totally discharged, or the equilibrium within them restored. The abounding of fire in one of the hooks (or rather in the internal surface of one bottle) being exactly equal to the wanting of the other: and therefore, as each bottle has in itself the abounding as well as the wanting, the wanting and abounding must be equal in each bottle. See § 8, 9, 10, 11. But if a man holds in his hands two bottles, one fully electrified, the other not at all, and brings their hooks together, he has but half a shock, and the bottles will both remain half electrified, the one being half discharged, and the other half charged.

7. Place two phials equally charged on a table at five or six inches distance. Let a cork-ball, suspended by a silk thread, hang between them. If the phials were both charged through their hooks, the cork, when it has been attracted and repelled by the one, will not be attracted, but equally repelled by the other. But if the phials were charged, the one through the hook, and the other19 through the coating, the ball, when it is repelled from one hook, will be as strongly attracted by the other, and play vigorously between them, fetching the electric fluid from the one, and delivering it to the other, till both phials are nearly discharged.

8. When we use the terms of charging and discharging the phial, it is in compliance with custom, and for want of others more suitable. Since we are of opinion that there is really no more electrical fire in the phial after what is called its charging, than before, nor less after its discharging; excepting only the small spark that might be given to, and taken from the non-electric matter, if separated from the bottle, which spark may not be equal to a five hundredth part of what is called the explosion.

For if, on the explosion, the electrical fire came out of the bottle by one part, and did not enter in again by another, then, if a man, standing on wax, and holding the bottle in one hand, takes the spark by touching the wire hook with the other, the bottle being thereby discharged, the man would be charged; or whatever fire was lost by one, would be found in the other, since there was no way for its escape: but the contrary is true.

9. Besides, the phial will not suffer what is called a charging, unless as much fire can go out of it one way, as is thrown in by another. A phial cannot be charged standing on wax or glass, or hanging on the prime conductor, unless a communication be formed between its coating and the floor.

10. But suspend two or more phials on the prime conductor, one hanging on the tail of the other; and a wire from the last to the floor, an equal number of turns of the wheel shall charge them all equally, and every one as much as one alone would have been. What is driven out at the tail of the first, serving to charge the second; what is driven out of the second charging the third; and so on. By this means a great number of bottles might be charged with the same labour, and equally high, with one alone; were it not that every bottle receives new fire, and loses its old with some reluctance, or rather gives some small resistance to the charging, which in a number of bottles becomes more equal to the charging power, and so repels the fire back again on the globe, sooner in proportion than a single bottle would do.

11. When a bottle is charged in the common way, its inside and outside surfaces stand ready, the one to give fire by the hook, the other to receive it by the coating; the one is full, and ready to throw out, the other empty and extremely hungry; yet as the first will not give out, unless the other can at the same instant receive in; so neither will the latter receive in, unless the first can at the same instant give out. When both can be done at once, it is done with inconceivable quickness and violence.

12. So a straight spring (though the comparison does not agree in every particular) when forcibly bent, must, to restore itself, contract that side which in the bending was extended, and extend that which was contracted; if either of these two operations be hindered, the other cannot be done. But the spring is not said to be charged with elasticity when bent, and discharged when unbent; its quantity of elasticity is always the same.

13. Glass, in like manner, has, within its substance, always the same quantity of electrical fire, and that a very great quantity in proportion to the mass of glass, as shall be shewn hereafter.

14. This quantity, proportioned to the glass, it strongly and obstinately retains, and will have neither more nor less, though it will suffer a change to be made in its parts and situation; i. e. we may take away part of it from one of the sides, provided we throw an equal quantity into the other.

15. Yet when the situation of the electrical fire is thus altered in the glass; when some has been taken from one side, and some added to the other, it will not be at rest or in its natural state, till it is restored to its original equality. And this restitution cannot be made through the substance of the glass, but must be done by a non-electric communication formed without, from surface to surface.

16. Thus, the whole force of the bottle, and power of giving a shock, is in the GLASS ITSELF; the non-electrics in contact with the two surfaces, serving only to give and receive to and from the several parts of the glass; that is, to give on one side, and take away from the other.

17. This was discovered here in the following manner: Purposing to analyse the electrified bottle, in order to find wherein its strength lay, we placed it on glass, and drew out the cork and wire which for that purpose had been loosely put in. Then taking the bottle in one hand, and bringing a finger of the other near its mouth, a strong spark came from the water, and the shock was as violent as if the wire had remained in it, which shewed that the force did not lie in the wire. Then to find if it resided in the water, being crowded into and condensed in it, as confined by the glass, which had been our former opinion, we electrified the bottle again, and placing it on glass, drew out the wire and cork as before; then taking up the bottle, we decanted all its water into an empty bottle, which likewise stood on glass; and taking up that other bottle, we expected, if the force resided in the water, to find a shock from it; but there was none. We judged then that it must either be lost in decanting, or remain in the first bottle. The latter we found to be true; for that bottle on trial gave the shock, though filled up as it stood with fresh unelectrified water from a tea-pot. — To find, then, whether glass had this property merely as glass, or whether the form contributed any thing to it; we took a pane of sash-glass, and laying it on the hand, placed a plate of lead on its upper surface; then electrified that plate, and bringing a finger to it, there was a spark and shock. We then took two plates of lead of equal dimensions, but less than the glass by two inches every way, and electrified the glass between them, by electrifying the uppermost lead; then separated the glass from the lead, in doing which, what little fire might be in the lead was taken out, and the glass being touched in the electrified parts with a finger, afforded only very small pricking sparks, but a great number of them might be taken from different places. Then dextrously placing it again between the leaden plates, and compleating a circle between the two surfaces, a violent shock ensued. — Which demonstrated the power to reside in glass as glass, and that the non-electrics in contact served only, like the armature of a loadstone, to unite the force of the several parts, and bring them at once to any point desired: it being the property of a non-electric, that the whole body instantly receives or gives what electrical fire is given to or taken from any one of its parts.

18. Upon this we made what we called an electrical-battery, consisting of eleven panes of large sash-glass, armed with thin leaden plates, pasted on each side, placed vertically, and supported at two inches distance on silk cords, with thick hooks of leaden wire, one from each side, standing upright, distant from each other, and convenient communications of wire and chain, from the giving side of one pane, to the receiving side of the other; that so the whole might be charged together, and with the same labour as one single pane; and another contrivance to bring the giving sides, after charging, in contact with one long wire, and the receivers with another, which two long wires would give the force of all the plates of glass at once through the body of any animal forming the circle with them. The plates may also be discharged separately, or any number together that is required. But this machine is not much used, as not perfectly answering our intention with regard to the ease of charging, for the reason given, Sec. 10. We made also of large glass panes, magical pictures, and self-moving animated wheels, presently to be described.

19. I perceive by the ingenious Mr. Watson’s last book, lately received, that Dr. Bevis had used, before we had, panes of glass to give a shock20; though, till that book came to hand, I thought to have communicated it to you as a novelty. The excuse for mentioning it here is, that we tried the experiment differently, drew different consequences from it (for Mr. Watson still seems to think the fire accumulated on the non-electric that is in contact with the glass, p. 72) and, as far as we hitherto know, have carried it farther.

20. The magical picture21 is made thus. Having a large metzotinto with a frame and glass, suppose of the KING (God preserve him) take out the print, and cut a pannel out of it near two inches distant from the frame all round. If the cut is through the picture it is not the worse. With thin paste, or gum-water, fix the border that is cut off on the inside the glass, pressing it smooth and close; then fill up the vacancy by gilding the glass well with leaf-gold, or brass. Gild likewise the inner edge of the back of the frame all round, except the top part, and form a communication between that gilding and the gilding behind the glass: then put in the board, and that side is finished. Turn up the glass, and gild the fore side exactly over the back gilding, and when it is dry, cover it, by pasting on the pannel of the picture that hath been cut out, observing to bring the correspondent parts of the border and picture together, by which the picture will appear of a piece, as at first, only part is behind the glass, and part before. Hold the picture horizontally by the top, and place a little moveable gilt crown on the king’s head. If now the picture be moderately electrified, and another person take hold of the frame with one hand, so that his fingers touch its inside gilding, and with the other hand endeavour to take off the crown, he will receive a terrible blow, and fail in the attempt. If the picture were highly charged, the consequence might perhaps be as fatal22 as that of high treason, for when the spark is taken through a quire of paper laid on the picture by means of a wire communication, it makes a fair hole through every sheet, that is, through forty-eight leaves, though a quire of paper is thought good armour against the push of a sword, or even against a pistol bullet, and the crack is exceeding loud. The operator, who holds the picture by the upper end, where the inside of the frame is not gilt, to prevent its falling, feels nothing of the shock, and may touch the face of the picture without danger, which he pretends is a test of his loyalty. — If a ring of persons take the shock among them, the experiment is called, The Conspirators.

21. On the principle, in Sec. 7, that hooks of bottles, differently charged, will attract and repel differently, is made an electrical wheel, that turns with considerable strength. A small upright shaft of wood passes at right angles through a thin round board, of about twelve inches diameter, and turns on a sharp point of iron, fixed in the lower end, while a strong wire in the upper end, passing through a small hole in a thin brass plate, keeps the shaft truly vertical. About thirty radii