A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



the same manner as bodies of water. Lengthening his 

 wires he continued his experiments until a circuit of 

 four miles was made, and still the electricity seemed to 

 traverse the course instantaneously, and with appar- 

 ently undiminished force, if the insulation was perfect. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



Watson's writings now carried the field of active dis- 

 covery across the Atlantic, and for the first time an 

 American scientist appeared a scientist who not only 

 rivalled, but excelled, his European contemporaries. 

 Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia, coming into pos- 

 session of scms of Watson's books, became so interested 

 in the experiments described in them that he began at 

 once experimenting with electricity. In Watson's 

 book were given directions for making various experi- 

 ments, and these assisted Franklin in repeating the 

 old experiments, and eventually adding new ones. 

 Associated with Franklin, and equally interested and 

 enthusiastic, if not equally successful in making dis- 

 coveries, were three other men, Thomas Hopkinson, 

 Philip Sing, and Ebenezer Kinnersley. These men 

 worked together constantly, although it appears to 

 have been Franklin who made independently the im- 

 portant discoveries, and formulated the famous Frank- 

 linian theory. 



Working steadily, and keeping constantly in touch 

 with the progress of the European investigators, 

 Franklin soon made some experiments which he 

 thought demonstrated some hitherto unknown phases 

 of electrical manifestation. This was the effect of 

 pointed bodies "in drawing off and throwing off the 



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