<h4><SPAN name="XVIII" id="XVIII" />XVIII</h4>
<h4>SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS</h4>
<p><ANTIMG src="images/block-b.jpg" class="floatLeft" alt=
"block-b" />EFORE I proceed in relating the part I had in public
affairs under this new governor's administration, it may not be
amiss here to give some account of the rise and progress of my
philosophical reputation.</p>
<p>In 1746, being at Boston, I met there with a Dr. Spence, who was
lately arrived from Scotland, and show'd me some electric
experiments. They were imperfectly perform'd, as he was not very
expert; but, being on a subject quite new to me, they equally
surpris'd and pleased me. Soon after my return to Philadelphia, our
library company receiv'd from Mr. P. Collinson, Fellow of the Royal
Society<SPAN name="FNanchor_106" id="FNanchor_106" /><SPAN href=
"#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</SPAN> of London, a present of
a glass tube, with some account of the use of it in making such
experiments. I eagerly seized the opportunity of repeating what I
had seen at Boston; and, by much practice, acquired great readiness
in performing those, also, which we had an account of from England,
adding a number of new ones. I say much practice, for my house was
continually full, for some time, with people who came to see these
new wonders.</p>
<p>To divide a little this incumbrance among my friends, I caused a
number of similar tubes to be blown at our glass-house, with which
they furnish'd themselves, so that we had at length several
performers. Among these, the principal was Mr. Kinnersley, an
ingenious neighbour, who, being out of business, I encouraged to
undertake showing the experiments for money, and drew up for him
two lectures, in which the experiments were rang'd in such order,
and accompanied with such explanations in such method, as that the
foregoing should assist in comprehending the following. He procur'd
an elegant apparatus for the purpose, in which all the little
machines that I had roughly made for myself were nicely form'd by
instrument-makers. His lectures were well attended, and gave great
satisfaction; and after some time he went thro' the colonies,
exhibiting them in every capital town, and pick'd up some money. In
the West India islands, indeed, it was with difficulty the
experiments could be made, from the general moisture of the
air.</p>
<p>Oblig'd as we were to Mr. Collinson for his present of the tube,
etc., I thought it right he should be inform'd of our success in
using it, and wrote him several letters containing accounts of our
experiments. He got them read in the Royal Society, where they were
not at first thought worth so much notice as to be printed in their
Transactions. One paper, which I wrote for Mr. Kinnersley, on the
sameness of lightning with electricity,<SPAN name="FNanchor_107" id=
"FNanchor_107" /><SPAN href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</SPAN>
I sent to Dr. Mitchel, an acquaintance of mine, and one of the
members also of that society, who wrote me word that it had been
read, but was laughed at by the connoisseurs. The papers, however,
being shown to Dr. Fothergill, he thought them of too much value to
be stifled, and advis'd the printing of them. Mr. Collinson then
gave them to <i>Cave</i> for publication in his Gentleman's
Magazine; but he chose to print them separately in a pamphlet, and
Dr. Fothergill wrote the preface. Cave, it seems, judged rightly
for his profit, for by the additions that arrived afterward, they
swell'd to a quarto volume, which has had five editions, and cost
him nothing for copy-money.</p>
<p>It was, however, some time before those papers were much taken
notice of in England. A copy of them happening to fall into the
hands of the Count de Buffon,<SPAN name="FNanchor_108" id=
"FNanchor_108" /><SPAN href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</SPAN>
a philosopher deservedly of great reputation in France, and,
indeed, all over Europe, he prevailed with M. Dalibard<SPAN name=
"FNanchor_109" id="FNanchor_109" /><SPAN href="#Footnote_109" class=
"fnanchor">[109]</SPAN> to translate them into French, and they were
printed at Paris. The publication offended the Abbé Nollet,
preceptor in Natural Philosophy to the royal family, and an able
experimenter, who had form'd and publish'd a theory of electricity,
which then had the general vogue. He could not at first believe
that such a work came from America, and said it must have been
fabricated by his enemies at Paris, to decry his system.
Afterwards, having been assur'd that there really existed such a
person as Franklin at Philadelphia, which he had doubted, he wrote
and published a volume of Letters, chiefly address'd to me,
defending his theory, and denying the verity of my experiments, and
of the positions deduc'd from them.</p>
<p>I once purpos'd answering the abbé, and actually began
the answer; but, on consideration that my writings contained a
description of experiments which anyone might repeat and verify,
and if not to be verifi'd, could not be defended; or of
observations offer'd as conjectures, and not delivered
dogmatically, therefore not laying me under any obligation to
defend them; and reflecting that a dispute between two persons,
writing in different languages, might be lengthened greatly by
mistranslations, and thence misconceptions of one another's
meaning, much of one of the abbé's letters being founded on
an error in the translation, I concluded to let my papers shift for
themselves, believing it was better to spend what time I could
spare from public business in making new experiments, than in
disputing about those already made. I therefore never answered M.
Nollet, and the event gave me no cause to repent my silence; for my
friend M. le Roy, of the Royal Academy of Sciences, took up my
cause and refuted him; my book was translated into the Italian,
German, and Latin languages; and the doctrine it contain'd was by
degrees universally adopted by the philosophers of Europe, in
preference to that of the abbé; so that he lived to see
himself the last of his sect, except Monsieur B——, of
Paris, his <i>élève</i> and immediate disciple.</p>
<p>What gave my book the more sudden and general celebrity, was the
success of one of its proposed experiments, made by Messrs.
Dalibard and De Lor at Marly, for drawing lightning from the
clouds. This engag'd the public attention everywhere. M. de Lor,
who had an apparatus for experimental philosophy, and lectur'd in
that branch of science, undertook to repeat what he called the
<i>Philadelphia Experiments</i>; and, after they were performed
before the king and court, all the curious of Paris flocked to see
them. I will not swell this narrative with an account of that
capital experiment, nor of the infinite pleasure I receiv'd in the
success of a similar one I made soon after with a kite at
Philadelphia, as both are to be found in the histories of
electricity.</p>
<p>Dr. Wright, an English physician, when at Paris, wrote to a
friend, who was of the Royal Society, an account of the high esteem
my experiments were in among the learned abroad, and of their
wonder that my writings had been so little noticed in England. The
society, on this, resum'd the consideration of the letters that had
been read to them; and the celebrated Dr. Watson drew up a summary
account of them, and of all I had afterwards sent to England on the
subject, which he accompanied with some praise of the writer. This
summary was then printed in their Transactions; and some members of
the society in London, particularly the very ingenious Mr. Canton,
having verified the experiment of procuring lightning from the
clouds by a pointed rod, and acquainting them with the success,
they soon made me more than amends for the slight with which they
had before treated me. Without my having made any application for
that honour, they chose me a member, and voted that I should be
excus'd the customary payments, which would have amounted to
twenty-five guineas; and ever since have given me their
Transactions gratis. They also presented me with the gold medal of
Sir Godfrey Copley<SPAN name="FNanchor_110" id="FNanchor_110" /><SPAN href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</SPAN> for the year 1753,
the delivery of which was accompanied by a very handsome speech of
the president, Lord Macclesfield, wherein I was highly
honoured.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_106" id="Footnote_106" /><SPAN href=
"#FNanchor_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></SPAN> The Royal
Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge was founded in
1660 and holds the foremost place among English societies for the
advancement of science.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_107" id="Footnote_107" /><SPAN href=
"#FNanchor_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></SPAN>See page <SPAN href="#ELECTRICAL_KITE">327.</SPAN></p>
</div>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_108" id="Footnote_108" /><SPAN href=
"#FNanchor_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></SPAN> A celebrated
French naturalist (1707-1788).</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_109" id="Footnote_109" /><SPAN href=
"#FNanchor_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></SPAN> Dalibard, who
had translated Franklin's letters to Collinson into French, was the
first to demonstrate, in a practical application of Franklin's
experiment, that lightning and electricity are the same. "This was
May 10th, 1752, one month before Franklin flew his famous kite at
Philadelphia and proved the fact himself."—McMaster.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_110" id="Footnote_110" /><SPAN href=
"#FNanchor_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></SPAN> An English
baronet (died in 1709), donator of a fund of £100, "in trust
for the Royal Society of London for improving natural
knowledge."</p>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"><ANTIMG width-obs="50%" src= "images/illus-032-red.jpg" alt= "the gold medal of Sir Godfrey Copley" title= "the gold medal of Sir Godfrey Copley" /></div>
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