214 FOTHERGILL'S SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS CHAP. 



beyond the time appointed ; but his patron showed him 

 much patience and liberality. 1 



The production of silk was shown in a series of Chinese 

 drawings in FothergiU's possession, displaying the process 

 of raising it from the beginning to the end. In conjunc- 

 tion with Franklin, Fothergill promoted a Silk Company 

 in Pennsylvania : two crops were obtained in each year. 

 Some trunks containing the produce were sent over in 

 1772, and much approved : samples were set aside for 

 presentation to the queen and to the proprietary ladies 

 of the province. 2 



FothergiU's interest in Franklin's discoveries in static 

 electricity has already received some notice. Dr. Gowin 

 Knight, Librarian to the British Museum, and Copley 

 medallist in 1747, had devoted much attention to magnet- 

 ism, and had greatly improved the faulty mariner's 

 compass which was in use. He constructed a large and 

 powerful " magnetical machine," the steel bars of which 

 were highly magnetised by a new method, and he was 

 able by its means to magnetise artificial loadstones which 

 he composed of particles of iron and linseed oil. Knight 

 received much kindness and help from Fothergill, and 



1 A copy of Smeathman's paper on the Termites, inscribed in his hand to 

 Lettsom, is in the British Museum : at the end is a printed letter, in which 

 he offers to teach elocution and polite literature in London ; also a prospectus 

 in French of a large work on his travels in Africa and America to be brought 

 out by subscription doubtless never published. In 1783 he was in Paris, 

 his affairs being involved, and was occupied on the prevailing subject of 

 balloons. He projected an aerostatic machine, and saw clearly that it must 

 be heavier than air in order to obtain due control. He showed it to Franklin, 

 who approved the principle. The Medical Society of London elected him a 

 Corresponding Member in 1784. In 1786 Smeathman had another scheme, 

 for forming a settlement of Poor Blacks near Sierra Leone, in which he was 

 supported by Jonas Hanway, Samuel Hoare and others, with a promise of assist- 

 ance from the Commissioners of the Treasury. But he died before the party 

 could set out ; another leader, Irvine, was found, with surgeons, chaplain 

 and others, Lettsom interesting himself in the venture. About 500 free 

 negroes of both sexes, besides whites, set sail, but the expedition was doomed 

 to failure from the outset : they quarrelled and fought on the passage : sick- 

 ness played havoc among them : the leaders died, and soon most of the party 

 perished in the tract of land they had purchased from " King Tom." The 

 white ants ate up the seeds and stores. See Phil. Trans. Ixxi. 1 39 ; Smeathman, 

 History of the Termites, 1781 ; and Plan of a Settlement near Sierra Leona, etc., 

 1786 ; Corresp. Linn. i. 66 ; Foth., Works, iii. p. liii, 183 ff. ; and MS. Letters 

 to W. Logan, 1741, 1745 ; Mem. Lettsom, i. Corresp. 119, 132 ; Nichols, 

 Illust. v. 757, viii. 201 ; The Cumberland Letters, 1771-1784, pp. 315, 321 ; 

 Amer. Phil. Soc. Franklin Calendar, xxix. 64. 



2 Letter, Franklin to Cadwallader Evans. Smyth, Franklin, v. 388. 



