2 (ja EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. PT. ill. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



SCIENCE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (CONTINUED). 



Benjamin Franklin, born 1706 His Early Life Du Faye discovers 

 two kinds of Electricity Franklin proves that Electricity exists in 

 all bodies, and is only developed by Friction Positive and Nega- 

 tive Electricity Franklin draws down Electricity from the Sky 

 Invents Lightning-conductors Discovery of Animal Electricity by 

 Galvani Controversy between Galvani and Volta Volta proves 

 that Electricity can be produced by the Contact of two Metals 

 Electrical Batteries The Crown of Cups The Voltaic Pile. 



Benjamin Franklin, born 1706. He Investigates the 

 Nature of Electricity, 1746. Benjamin Franklin, the 

 printer and man of science, was born at Boston, in America, 

 in the year 1706. He was the son of a tallow-chandler, 

 and had so many hard struggles in his early life that 

 he does not seem to have turned his thoughts to science till 

 he was nearly forty years of age. His father inten'ded 

 him for the Church, but there was not enough money to 

 pay for his education, so he was apprenticed to his brother, 

 who was a printer. Here he worked very hard, yet he used 

 to snatch every spare moment to read any bocks which 

 came within his reach ; but his brother being unkind and 

 harsh to him, a quarrel sprang up between them, and Ben- 

 jamin at last ran away to New York, and from there to 

 Philadelphia. In this last place he got a little work, but 

 hoping to do better in England, he came to London, where 



