Existing comment:
On Electricity:
"[Franklin's Experiments and Observations in Electricity will] be handed down to posterity as expressive of the true principles of electricity; just as the Newtonian philosophy is of the true system of nature in general."
-- Joseph Priestley, The History and Present State of Electricity, 1755
Franklin rose rapidly to prominence in the scientific world with the London publication of his Experiments and Observations on Electricity in 1751, with supplements in 1753 and 1754. Included in this collection of letters was Franklin's innovative single-fluid theory of electricity, as well as details of his proposed experiment to test the hypothesis that lightning was electrical. One of the most widely reprinted books of the Enlightenment, Experiments and Observations kick-started the electrical sciences and won Franklin both friends and detractors. |