Chapter I: Front Matter

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

This is Volume 1 of a 3-volume set. The other two volumes are also
accessible in Project Gutenberg using
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48137 and
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48138.

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.

More detail can be found at the end of the book.

_Publish'd April 1, 1806; by Longman, Rees, Hurst, & Orme,
Paternoster Row._]

The
WORKS
Of
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, L.L.D.

VOL. 1.

PRINTED,

for Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, Paternoster Row, London.

THE
COMPLETE
WORKS,
IN
PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS, AND MORALS,
OF THE LATE
DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
NOW FIRST COLLECTED AND ARRANGED:
WITH
MEMOIRS OF HIS EARLY LIFE,
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

London:

PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD;
AND LONGMAN, HURST, REES AND ORME,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1806.

ADVERTISEMENT.

_The works of Dr. Franklin have been often partially collected, never before brought together in one uniform publication._

_The first collection was made by Mr. Peter Collinson in the year 1751. It consisted of letters, communicated by the author to the editor, on one subject, electricity, and formed a pamphlet only, of which the price was half-a-crown. It was enlarged in 1752, by a second communication on the same subject, and in 1754, by a third, till, in 1766, by the addition of letters and papers on other philosophical subjects, it amounted to a quarto volume of 500 pages._

_Ten years after, in 1779, another collection was made, by a different editor, in one volume, printed both in quarto and octavo, of papers not contained in the preceding collection, under the title of Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces._

_In 1787, a third collection appeared in a thin octavo volume, entitled Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers._

_And lastly, in 1793, a fourth was published, in two volumes, crown octavo, consisting of Memoirs of Dr. Franklin's Life, and Essays humourous, moral and literary, chiefly in the Manner of the Spectator._

_In the present volumes will be found all the different collections we have enumerated, together with the various papers of the same author, that have been published in separate pamphlets, or inserted in foreign collections of his works, or in the Transactions of our own or of foreign philosophical societies, or in our own or foreign newspapers and magazines, as far as discoverable by the editor, who has been assisted in the research by a gentleman in America. Among these papers some, we conceive, will be new to the English reader on this side of the Atlantic; particularly a series of essays entitled The Busy-Body, written, as Dr. Franklin tells us in his Life, when he was an assiduous imitator of Addison; and a pamphlet, entitled Plain Truth, with which he is said to have commenced his political career as a writer. We hoped to have been enabled to add, what would have been equally new, and still more acceptable, a genuine copy of the Life of our author, as written by himself; but in this hope we are disappointed, and we are in consequence obliged to content ourselves with a translation, which has been already before the public, from a copy in the French language, coming no farther down than the year 1731; and a continuation of his history from that period, by the late Dr. Stuber of Philadelphia._

_The character of Dr. Franklin, as a philosopher, a politician, and a moralist, is too well known to require illustration, and his writings, from their interesting nature, and the fascinating simplicity of their style, are too highly esteemed, for any apology to be necessary for so large a collection of them, unless it should be deemed necessary by the individual to whom Dr. Franklin in his will consigned his manuscripts: and to him our apology will consist in a reference to his own extraordinary conduct._

_In bequeathing his papers, it was no doubt the intention of the testator, that the world should have the chance of being benefited by their publication. It was so understood by the person in question, his grandson, who, accordingly, shortly after the death of his great relative, hastened to London, the best mart for literary property, employed an amanuensis for many months in copying, ransacked our public libraries that nothing might escape, and at length had so far prepared the works of Dr. Franklin for the press, that proposals were made by him to several of our principal booksellers for the sale of them. They were to form three quarto volumes, and were to contain all the writings, published and unpublished, of Franklin, with Memoirs of his Life, brought down by himself to the year 1757, and continued to his death by the legatee. They were to be published in three different languages, and the countries corresponding to those languages, France, Germany, and England, on the same day. The terms asked for the copyright of the English edition were high, amounting to several thousand pounds, which occasioned a little demur; but eventually they would no doubt have been obtained. Nothing more however was heard of the proposals or the work, in this its fair market. The proprietor, it seems, had found a bidder of a different description in some emissary of government, whose object was to withhold the manuscripts from the world, not to benefit it by their publication; and they thus either passed into other hands, or the person to whom they were bequeathed received a remuneration for suppressing them. This at least has been asserted, by a variety of persons, both in this country and America, of whom some were at the time intimate with the grandson, and not wholly unacquainted with the machinations of the ministry; and the silence, which has been observed for so many years respecting the publication, gives additional credibility to the report._

_What the manuscripts contained, that should have excited the jealousy of government, we are unable, as we have never seen them, positively to affirm; but, from the conspicuous part acted by the author in the American revolution and the wars connected with it, it is by no means difficult to guess; and of this we are sure, from his character, that no disposition of his writings could have been more contrary to his intentions or wishes._

_We have only to add, that in the present collection, which is probably all that will ever be published of the works of this extraordinary man, the papers are methodically arranged, the moral and philosophical ones according to their subjects, the political ones, as nearly as may be, according to their dates; that we have given, in notes, the authorities for ascribing the different pieces to Franklin; that where no title existed, to indicate the nature of a letter or paper, we have prefixed a title; and lastly, that we have compiled an index to the whole, which is placed at the beginning, instead of, as is usual, at the end of the work, to render the volumes more equal._

_April 7, 1806._

CONTENTS.

VOL. I.

_Page._

LIFE of Dr. FRANKLIN 1

LETTERS AND PAPERS ON ELECTRICITY.

Introductory Letter. 169

Wonderful effect of points.--Positive and negative
electricity.--Electrical kiss.--Counterfeit spider.--Simple and
commodious electrical machine. 170

Observations on the Leyden bottle, with experiments proving the
different electrical state of its different surfaces. 179

Further experiments confirming the preceding observations.--Leyden
bottle analysed.--Electrical battery.--Magical Picture.--Electrical
wheel or jack.--Electrical feast. 187

Observations and suppositions, towards forming a new hypothesis,
for explaining the several phenomena of thunder-gusts. 203

Introductory letter to some additional papers. 216

Opinions and conjectures, concerning the properties and effects
of the electrical matter, and the means of preserving buildings,
ships, &c. from lightning, arising from experiments and
observations made at Philadelphia, 1749.--Golden fish.--Extraction
of effluvial virtues by electricity impracticable. 217

Additional experiments: proving that the Leyden bottle has no more
electrical fire in it when charged, than before: nor less when
discharged: that in discharging, the fire does not issue from the
wire and the coating at the same time, as some have thought, but
that the coating always receives what is discharged by the wire,
or an equal quantity: the outer surface being always in a negative
state of electricity, when the inner surface is in a positive
state. 245

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. 247

Unlimited nature of the electric force. 250

The terms, electric per se, and non-electric, improper.--New
relation between metals and water.--Effects of air in electrical
experiments.--Experiment for discovering more of the qualities of
the electric fluid. 252

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. 256

New experiments.--Paradoxes inferred from them.--Difference in
the electricity of a globe of glass charged, and a globe of
sulphur.--Difficulty of ascertaining which is positive and which
negative. 261

Probable cause of the different attractions and repulsions of the
two electrified globes mentioned in the two preceding letters. 264

Reasons for supposing, that the glass globe charges positively,
and the sulphur negatively.--Hint respecting a leather globe for
experiments when travelling. _ibid._

Electrical kite. 267

Hypothesis, of the sea being the grand source of lightning,
retracted.--Positive, and sometimes negative, electricity of the
clouds discovered.--New experiments and conjectures in support of
this discovery.--Observations recommended for ascertaining the
direction of the electric fluid.--Size of rods for conductors to
buildings.--Appearance of a thunder-cloud described. 269

Additional proofs of the positive and negative state of electricity
in the clouds.--New method of ascertaining it. 284

Electrical experiments, with an attempt to account for their
several phenomena, &c. 286

Experiments made in pursuance of those made by Mr. Canton, dated
December 6, 1753; with explanations, by Mr. Benjamin Franklin. 294

Turkey killed by electricity.--Effect of a shock on the operator
in making the experiment. 299

Differences in the qualities of glass.--Account of Domien, an
electrician and traveller.--Conjectures respecting the pores of
glass.--Origin of the author's idea of drawing down lightning.--No
satisfactory hypothesis respecting the manner in which clouds
become electrified.--Six men knocked down at once by an electrical
shock.--Reflections on the spirit of invention. 301

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. 309

Notice of another packet of letters. 313

Extract of a letter from a gentleman in Boston, to Benjamin
Franklin, Esq. concerning the crooked direction, and the source of
lightning, and the swiftness of the electric fire. 314

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. 320

Effect of lightning on captain Waddel's compass, and the Dutch
church at New York. 324

Proposal of an experiment to measure the time taken up by an
Electric spark, in moving through any given space. 327

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. 331

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. 343

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. 361

Mr. William Maine's account of the effects of the lightning on his
rod, dated at Indian Land, in South Carolina, Aug. 28, 1760. 362

On the electricity of the tourmalin. 369

New observation relating to electricity in the atmosphere. 373

Flash of lightning that struck St. Bride's steeple. 374

Best method of securing a powder magazine from lightning. 375

Of lightning, and the methods (now used in America) of securing
buildings and persons from its mischievous effects. 377

St. Bride's steeple.--Utility of electrical conductors to
Steeples.--Singular kind of glass tube. 382

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. 383

On the utility of electrical conductors. 400

On the effects of electricity in paralytic cases. 401

Electrical experiments on amber. 403

On the electricity of the fogs in Ireland. 405

Mode of ascertaining, whether the power, giving a shock to those
who touch either the Surinam eel, or the torpedo, be electrical. 408

On the analogy between magnetism and electricity. 410

Concerning the mode of rendering meat tender by electricity. 413

Answer to some queries concerning the choice of glass for the
Leyden experiment. 416

Concerning the Leyden bottle. 418