BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 37 



as well as upon the cylinder, since it had rendered him in- 

 capable of being electrified by a process by which, in other 

 circumstances, he would have been so. It was plain, in short, 

 that the electricity had passed, in the first instance, out of his 

 body into the cylinder ; which, therefore, in communicating it 

 to him in the second instance, only gave him back what it had 

 received, and, instead of electrifying him, merely restored him 

 to his usual state — to that in which he had been before the 

 experiment was begun. 



This accordingly was the conclusion to which Franklin 

 came; but, to confirm it, he next insulated two individuals, 

 one of whom he made to rub the cylinder, while the other 

 drew the electricity from it. In this case, it was not the latter 

 merely that was affected ; both were electrified. The one had 

 given out as much electricity to the cylinder in rubbing it, as 

 the other had drawn from it. To prove this still further, he 

 made them touch one another, when both were instantly re- 

 stored to their usual state, the redundant electricity thrown off 

 by the one exactly making up the deficiency of the other. The 

 spark produced by their contact was also, as was to have been 

 expected, greater than that which took place when either of 

 them was touched by any third person who had not been 

 electrified. 



Proceeding upon the inferences which these results seemed 

 so evidently to indicate, Franklin constructed the general 

 outlines of his theory. Every body in nature he considered 

 to have its natural quantity of electricity, which may, however, 

 be either diminished, by part of it being given out to another 

 body, as that of the rubber, in the operation of the electrical 

 machine, is given out to the cylinder ; or increased, as when 

 the body is made to receive the electricity from the cylinder. 



