540 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



scribes, probably very soon after the reading of Watson's 

 sequel to the Royal Society in October, 1746. He added 

 directions for using the glass. Franklin, being already 

 interested, eagerly seized the opportunity of repeating the 

 experiments which he had seen in Boston; and then, as he 

 gained skill, performed those described in Watson's 

 pamphlets. The attention of his friends to whom he ex- 

 hibited these wonders became enlisted to such a degree, 

 and the news of them spread so widely, that before long, 

 his house was continually filled with curiosity seekers. 

 As he had no fancy for indefinitely repeating these per- 

 formances merely as a show, and a very decided one for 

 pressing ahead to discover new marvels, he presented sev- 

 eral tubes which he had caused to be blown at the glass 

 house to his friends, and invited them to "divide a little 

 this incumbrance with him." The advice given by 

 Watson doubtless acted as a spur to others as well as to 

 Franklin; but instead of each pursuing his own researches, 

 those most interested came together, and before long, a 

 quartette composed of Franklin, Ebenezer Kinnersley, 

 Thomas Hopkinson and Philip Sing united their efforts. 

 If Kinnersley was not Franklin's equal, in point of scien- 

 tific knowledge and experimental ability, he ranked but 

 little below him. He had been educated in England, and 

 had emigrated to Philadelphia, where he was eking out a 

 rather precarious existence teaching school, at the time he 

 became Franklin's coadjutor. The letters of Franklin to 

 Collinson bear frequent testimony to his ingenuity, and as 

 will hereafter be seen, he played no inconsiderable part in 

 spreading knowledge of the new science throughout the 

 colonies. Hopkinson was the first president of the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society, and Sing was one of its mem- 

 bers. These four men were the u we" to whom Franklin 

 alludes in his early letters as directly participating in the 

 u Philadelphian experiments." 

 By the latter part of March, I747, 1 Franklin, having be- 



1 Experiments and Observations on Electricity made at Philadelphia, in 



