Sammelband of 45 papers on electricity extracted from Phil. Trans., including many by or relating to Frankin, Collinson, Wm. Watson and Benj. Wilson

Franklin, Benjamin (1706-990). A letter of Benjamin Franklin, Esq; to Mr. Peter Collinson, F.R.S. concerning an electrical kite. Extract from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 47 (1752): 565-567. 232 x 173 mm. In a Sammelband of extracts from the Philosophical Transactions containing 48 papers on electricity by Franklin and others, published between 1734 and 1764; complete listing available. Later half cloth, marbled boards, light wear, lower corners a bit bent. Light foxing and toning, occasional marginal dampstaining, but very good.

A virtually impossible to duplicate collection of rare English-language papers on electricity from the key early decades from 1734 to 1764. It includes the first edition of four key papers by Benjamin Franklin, including the one on his famous kite experiment.

"Until the middle of the eighteenth century electricity was known only in its static form, and the most important instrument in use was the Leiden jar for concentrating electricity, discovered accidentally by Pieter van Musschenbroek . . . With this and other instruments Franklin conducted a series of experiments during the years 1746-57 . . . The most dramatic result of Franklin's researches was the proof that lightning is really an electrical phenomenon. Others had made such a suggestion before him—even Newton himself—but it was [Franklin] who provided the experimental proof. In 1752 he flew a kite in a thunderstorm and attached a key to its string. From this he collected electric charges in a Leiden jar and showed that atmospheric and frictional or man-made electricity are the same" (Printing and the Mind of Man, p. 119). Franklin's lightning experiments made his name famous throughout Europe, and "marked the coming of age of electrical science" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography).

As is well known, Franklin communicated the results of his electricity experiments in a series of letters to the Royal Society in London. Our volume includes four additional Franklin papers, all of which first appeared in print in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions— "A letter from Mr. Franklin to Mr. Peter Collinson, F.R.S. concerning the effects of lightning" (1752); "Electrical experiments, made in pursuance of those by Mr. Canton" (1755); "Extract of a letter concerning electricity, from Mr. B. Franklin to Mons. Delibard" (1755); and "An account of the effects of electricity in paralytic cases" (1757). In addition, the volume contains 43 papers on electricity from the Philosophical Transactions by some of Franklin's most notable contemporary "electricians," including Charles Du Fay, Stephen Gray, Granville Wheler, William Watson, Guillaume Mazeas, Jean Antoine Nollet, Benjamin Wilson, John Canton and Ebenezer Kinnersley. The papers, published between 1734 and 1764, provide a good representation of both the lead-in to Franklin's electrical investigations and the enormous scientific interest inspired by his results.

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