106 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. 



curious anticipation of the investigations of his later 

 years. At Nantwich, where he set up a school, Priestley 

 informs us that he bought an air pump, an electrical 

 machine, and other instruments, in the use of which 

 he instructed his scholars. But he does not seem to 

 have devoted himself seriously to physical science until 

 1766, when he had the great good fortune to meet Ben- 

 jamin Franklin, whose friendship he ever afterwards 

 enjoyed. Encouraged by Franklin, he wrote a "His- 

 tory of Electricity," which was published in 1767, and 

 appears to have met with considerable success. 



In the same year, Priestley left Warrington to be- 

 come the minister of a congregation at Leeds; and, 

 here, happening to live next door to a public brewery, 

 as he says, 



" I, at first, amused myself with making experiments on the fixed 

 air which I found ready-made in the process of fermentation. When 

 I removed from that house I was under the necessity of making 

 fixed air for myself ; and one experiment leading to another, as I 

 have distinctly and faithfully noted in my various puhlications on 

 the subject, I hy degrees contrived a convenient apparatus for the 

 purpose, but of the cheapest kind. 



" When I began these experiments I knew very little of chem- 

 istry r , and had, in a manner, no idea on the subject before I at- 

 tended a course of chemical lectures, delivered in the Academy at 

 Warrington, by Dr. Turner of Liverpool. But I have often thought 

 that, upon the whole, this circumstance was no disadvantage to me ; 

 as, in this situation, I was led to devise an apparatus and processes 

 of my own, adapted to my peculiar views ; whereas, if I had been 

 previously accustomed to the usual chemical processes, I should not 

 have so easily thought of any other, and without new modes of oper- 

 ation, I should hardly have discovered anything materially new." * 



* "Autobiography," 100, 101. 



