Researches in Electricity m 



the satisfaction which comes only from the contempla- 

 tion of a masterpiece. 



Although Franklin was without scientific training in 

 the modern sense, it was his life-long habit to observe 

 the phenomena of nature and to reason about them. His 

 native ability was so unusual as to compensate for his 

 lack of an academic education and to fit him in rare 

 degree for scientific pursuits. 



Franklin's earliest achievement in electricity was his 

 discovery of the power of a pointed conductor to dis- 

 charge an electrified body when brought near the same, 

 and to prevent the accumulation of charge upon a con- 

 ductor to which it was attached. Of this property he 

 later made application in the lightning rod. During 

 the summer of 1847 he performed a series of experi- 

 ments with the Leyden jar which were described with 

 admirable brevity and lucidity in his third letter to 

 Peter Collinson, dated September first of that year. 

 Nothing could serve better to demonstrate the qualities 

 of Franklin as a man of science than this little inves- 

 tigation which occupied but a few weeks. The eleven 

 experiments, to each of which a single brief paragraph 

 is given, cover the essential phenomena of the condenser. 

 As statements of fact they will stand almost without 

 revision or amendment at the present day. 



Upon this device " M. Muschenbroek's wonderful 

 bottle," as Franklin called it in his third letter,— of the 



