OBITUARY NOTICES. 
419 
tia, which commission he held for seven years. He was well 
educated, early in life became interested in politics, and was 
elected to the Pennsylvania legislature. Having removed 
to his farm near Millville, New Jersey, for the benefit of his 
health, he was in 1843 elected to the legislature of that State. 
William’s mother died while he was quite young. His 
father provided him with a liberal education, sending him 
to a Baptist college at Haddington, Pennsylvania, then to 
an academy taught by Professor Walter E. Johnson, and 
subsequently to the University of Pennsylvania. Professor 
Johnson, one of the most learned men of that time, was sec¬ 
retary of the Academy of Natural Sciences, member of the 
National Institute, professor of physics and chemistry in the 
University of Pennsylvania, and an able writer on scientific 
and technological subjects. 
In 1835-1836 several gentlemen formed a society, with the 
name of The Franklin Kite Club, for the purpose of making 
electrical experiments. For a considerable time they met 
once a week at the Philadelphia City Hospital grounds and 
flew their kites. These were generally square in shape, made 
of muslin or silk, stretched over a framework of cane reeds, 
varying in size from 6 feet upward, some being 20 feet square. 
For flying the kites annealed copper wire was used, wound 
upon a heavy reel 2 or 3 feet in diameter, insulated by being 
placed on glass supports. When one kite was up, sometimes 
a number of others would be sent up on the same string. 
The reel being inside the fence, the wire from the kite some¬ 
times crossed the road. Upon one occasion, as a cartman 
passed, gazing at the kites, he stopped directly under the 
wire and was told to catch hold of it and see how hard it 
pulled. In order to reach it he stood up on his cart, putting 
one foot on the horse’s back. When he touched the wire the 
shock went through him, as also the horse, causing the latter 
to jump and the man to turn a somersault, much to the 
amusement of the lookers on, among whom was Taylor. 
It was this incident and others of a similar character con¬ 
nected with the kite club that turned his youthful mind to 
