Chapter XVII: Appendix: No. 193

_The early_ LETTERS _of Dr. Franklin on Electricity having been
translated into French, and printed at Paris; the Abbé Mazeas, in a
Letter to Dr. Stephen Hales, dated St. Germain, May 20, 1752, gives
the following Account (printed in the Philosophical Transactions)
of the Experiment made at Marly, in Pursuance of that proposed by
Mr. Franklin, Pages 227, 228._

SIR,

The Philadelphian experiments, that Mr. Collinson, a member of the Royal Society, was so kind as to communicate to the public, having been universally admired in France, the king desired to see them performed. Wherefore the Duke D'Ayen offered his majesty his country-house at St. Germain, where M. de Lor, master of experimental philosophy, should put those of Philadelphia in execution. His majesty saw them with great satisfaction, and greatly applauded Messieurs Franklin and Collinson. These applauses of his majesty having excited in Messieurs de Buffon, D'Alibard, and de Lor, a desire of verifying the conjectures of Mr. Franklin, upon the analogy of thunder and electricity, they prepared themselves for making the experiment.