HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY IN AMERICA 113 



The real 'Thiladelphian experiments" were made about 

 a month later, and were modestly announced to Peter Col- 

 linson by Franklin, under date of October 19th, 1752. 



Franklin gives a characteristic account of the foreign 

 publication of his letters, the close of which reminds us, 

 though in much better temper, of certain recent complaints 

 in literary quarters on both sides of the Atlantic. After 

 saying that the papers were first shown to Dr. Fothergill 

 and that he ''advised the printing of them," he adds: 



''Mr. Collinson gave them to Mr. Cave for publication 

 in his Gentleman's Magazine; but he chose to print them 

 separately in a pamphlet, and Dr. Fothergill wrote the pref- 

 ace. Cave, it seems, judged rightly for his profession; 

 for, by the additions that arrived aftenvards, they swelled 

 to a quarto volume, which has had five editions, and cost 

 him nothing for copy money." 



In his new discovery, Franklin immediately saw the 

 means for producing something "of use to mankind," which, 

 as he had written to Collinson in April, 1749, he was "chagrined 

 a little" that he had hitherto been unable to do. His speedy 

 invention of the lightning rod gave to the world the only 

 apparatus directly applicable to the service of man that has 

 ever yet been devised for utilizing or controlling any of the 

 forms of electricity known to Franklin and his contempo- 

 raries. In this haste of the philosopher to make his discovery 

 serve a practical end, we recognize the man, Franklin — 

 the man who exhibited in so many ways the characteristics 

 of a later time — the twentieth centur}^ American. Scientist 

 and engineer, literary man' and journalist, philosopher and 

 man of affairs, Franklin was by nature what society and 

 the growth of the great newspapers, and the stimulating re- 

 wards of the patent system make so many of his successors. 

 Franklin's discussions of the single fluid theor}- of electricity 

 and his whole writing upon the subject of his electrical labors 

 show that he possessed in a large degree the scientific mind. 

 But he also had the inventive faculty and the will to exercise 

 it. The natural union of these attributes is not so common 

 as might seem to one of our generation. The modern way 

 of life tempts every scientific searcher to turn his laboratory 



Vol. 7-« 



