June 22, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



935 



but which were just then much in Frank- 

 lin's mind. A reference to the letters in 

 Sparks 's 'Life of Franklin' leaves no 

 doubt on this point. It there appears that 

 in 1747 Franklin wrote: 



We have frequently along the North American 

 coast storms from the northeast, which blow 

 violently sometimes three or four days. Of these 

 I have had a very singular opinion for some years, 

 viz: that, though the course of the wind is from 

 northeast to southewest, yet the course of the 

 storm is from southewest to northeast; the air is 

 in violent motion in Virginia before it moves in 

 Connecticut, and in Connecticut before it moves 

 at Cape Sable. 



It appears from the evidence of later let- 

 ters that Franklin's first attention was 

 ■ called to this matter in connection with 

 attempted observations on an eclipse of the 

 moon which occurred in 1743, and which 

 he failed to see because of the clouds of a 

 northeast storm, yet which was seen by his 

 brother in Boston, where the storm began 

 somewhat later. From this simple hint 

 Franklin followed up the matter with his 

 customary acuteness, and established the 

 point to his satisfaction. He seems to have 

 added the statement to Evans's map with 

 no claim whatever for recognition of his 

 discovery; and to have allowed its erasure 

 on the second edition of the map without 

 remonstrance. Generous as he thus showed 

 himself to the point of indifEerenee, it is 

 still fitting that we at this time should take 

 pains to give credit where credit is due. 

 Yet even if the source of the temporary 

 item about storms is transferred to Frank- 

 lin, the memory of Evans as a geographer 

 need not suffer, for his descriptions of the 

 'Middle British Colonies' are really ad- 

 mirable, and show great power of observa- 

 tion and generalization. 



Notes on the Production of Optical Planes 

 of Large Dimensions: Dr. John A. 

 Brashear, of Allegheny, Pa. 



A Neio Mountain Observatory: Professor 

 George E. Hale, Pasadena, Cal. 



Evening Session^S o'clock, at Wither- 

 spoon Hall. 

 Franklin's Besearches in Electricity: Pro- 

 fessor Edward L. Nichols, Ph.D., of 

 Ithaca. 



In the life of Franklin electricity was 

 merely an episode. He was forty years 

 of age at the time when the news of the 

 discovery of the Ley den jar reached Amer- 

 ica and he appears to have taken up the 

 subject as an amusement or hobby. That 

 Franklin, whose investigations were all per- 

 formed within a few years, should have 

 become the foremost electrician of his time 

 was extraordinary. The success of his 

 'Letters on Electricity,' which were trans- 

 lated into all the languages of Europe, was 

 doubtless due in great part to the epi-^ 

 grammatic terseness, the clearness and 

 simplicity of style, the naive frankness and 

 inimitable humor which characterize them. 

 Franklin 's experimental achievements 

 were confined chiefly to his observations on 

 the powers of pointed conductors to dis- 

 charge electrified bodies, his studies of the 

 Leyden jar and his determinations of the 

 character of the electrification of thunder 

 clouds. In spite of his strongly utilitarian 

 bent and his fondness for invention he 

 was able to find in the field of electricity 

 no application which could be of use to 

 mankind. It is true that he invented the 

 lightning rod, but this was a device for the 

 protection of man from injury and not for 

 the utilization of electricity. 



That Benjamin Franklin should be the 

 author of the one theory of electricity 

 which, of all the views entertained on this 

 subject by the men of his time, comes 

 nearest to our twentieth century idea may 

 seem strange, for electricity was with him 

 merely a form of intellectual diversion into 

 which he was drawn by accident in middle 



