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The Complete Works in Philosophy, Politics and Morals of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 1 [of 3] cover

The Complete Works in Philosophy, Politics and Morals of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 1 [of 3]

Chapter 16: FOOTNOTES:
By Benjamin Franklin
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About This Book

This volume gathers autobiographical memoirs and a wide selection of essays, letters, and papers that range from detailed experimental correspondence on electricity and natural philosophy to political, moral, and miscellaneous reflections and pamphlets. It includes first-person reminiscences of the author's early life, methodical accounts of experiments and conjectures, practical proposals and civic commentary, and satirical and didactic pieces. The material is arranged thematically for scientific and moral writings and approximately chronologically for political papers, with editorial notes and an index to clarify attribution and context. The collection emphasizes empirical inquiry, practical reasoning, and an engaged public voice.

FOOTNOTES:

[33] This was a discovery of the very ingenious Mr. Kinnersley, and by him communicated to me.

[34] To charge a bottle commodiously through the coating, place it on a glass stand; form a communication from the prime conductor to the coating, and another from the hook to the wall or floor. When it is charged, remove the latter communication before you take hold of the bottle, otherwise great part of the fire will escape by it.

[35] I have since heard that Mr. Smeaton was the first who made use of panes of glass for that purpose.

[36] Contrived by Mr. Kinnersley.

[37] We have since found it fatal to small animals, though not to large ones. The biggest we have yet killed is a hen. 1750.

[38] This was afterwards done with success by Mr. Kinnersley.

[39] Probably the ground is never so dry.

[40] We afterwards found that it failed after one stroke with a large bottle; and the continuity of the gold appearing broken, and many of its parts dissipated, the electricity could not pass the remaining parts without leaping from part to part through the air, which always resists the motion of this fluid, and was probably the cause of the gold's not conducting so well as before; the number of interruptions in the line of gold, making, when added together, a space larger, perhaps, than the striking distance.

[41] The river that washes one side of Philadelphia, as the Delaware does the other; both are ornamented with the summer habitations of the citizens, and the agreeable mansions of the principal people of this colony.

[42] As the possibility of this experiment has not been easily conceived, I shall here describe it.—Two iron rods, about three feet long, were planted just within the margin of the river, on the opposite sides. A thick piece of wire, with a small round knob at its end, was fixed on the top of one of the rods, bending downwards, so as to deliver commodiously the spark upon the surface of the spirit. A small wire fastened by one end to the handle of the spoon, containing the spirit, was carried a-cross the river, and supported in the air by the rope commonly used to hold by, in drawing the ferry-boats over. The other end of this wire was tied round the coating of the bottle; which being charged, the spark was delivered from the hook to the top of the rod standing in the water on that side. At the same instant the rod on the other side delivered a spark into the spoon, and fired the spirit; the electric fire returning to the coating of the bottle, through the handle of the spoon and the supported wire connected with them.

That the electric fire thus actually passes through the water, has since been satisfactorily demonstrated to many by an experiment of Mr. Kinnersley's, performed in a trough of water about ten feet long. The hand being placed under water in the direction of the spark (which always takes the strait or shortest course, if sufficient, and other circumstances are equal) is struck and penetrated by it as it passes.