Franklin / Classics Delphi Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin (Illustrated)

1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-80170-102-0
Verlag: Delphi Publishing Ltd
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band 10, 5265 Seiten

Reihe: Delphi Series Thirteen

One of the foremost of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin was a printer, author, inventor, scientist and diplomat. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and was one of its chief signers. Franklin made important contributions to science, especially in the understanding of electricity, and is remembered for the wit, wisdom and the supreme elegance of his prose technique. This eBook presents Franklin's complete works, with numerous illustrations, introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)
* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Franklin's life and works
* All the major works, with the original hyperlinked footnotes
* Texts based on the Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme 1806 edition of Franklin's works
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* Rare letters and treatises
* Includes Franklin's seminal autobiography
* Special criticism section, with 14 essays evaluating Franklin's contribution to literature, science, politics and philosophy
* Features six biographies - discover Franklin's incredible life
* Ordering of texts into chronological order and genres
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CONTENTS:
The Works
Letters and Papers on Electricity
Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects
Papers on Subjects of General Politics
Papers on American Subjects before the Revolutionary Troubles
Papers on American Subjects during the Revolutionary Troubles
Papers, Descriptive of America, or Relating to that Country, Written Subsequent to the Revolution
Papers on Moral Subjects and the Economy of Life
The Autobiography
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1793)
The Criticism
Anecdotes of Doctor Franklin (1818) by Thomas Jefferson
The Late Benjamin Franklin (1870) by Mark Twain
Benjamin Franklin (1884) by Osgood E. Fuller
Benjamin Franklin (1884) by Carl Schurz
Benjamin Franklin (1885) by William Garnett
Benjamin Franklin (1888) by Sarah Knowles Bolton
Benjamin Franklin (1893) by Philip Gengembre Hubert
Benjamin Franklin (1900) by Paul Elmer More
Benjamin Franklin and Aid from France (1901) by Wilbur Fisk Gordy
Franklin (1906) by Charles William Eliot
Benjamin Franklin (1916) by Hamilton W. Mabie
Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed (1917) by Wiliam Cabell Bruce
Science and the Struggle for Liberty: Benjamin Franklin (1917) by Walter Libby
Benjamin Franklin (1923) by D. H. Lawrence
The Biographies
The Life of Benjamin Franklin (1829) by Mason Locke Weems
Benjamin Franklin (1839) by L. Carroll Judson
Benjamin Franklin (1876) by John S. C. Abbott
Franklin: A Sketch (1879) by John Bigelow
The True Benjamin Franklin (1898) by Sydney George Fisher
Benjamin Franklin (1911) by Richard Webster
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Autoren/Hrsg.

Franklin, Benjamin

Classics, Delphi

Leseproben

Wonderful Effect of Points. — Positive and negative Electricity. — Electrical Kiss. — Counterfeit Spider. — Simple and commodious electrical Machine.
TO PETER COLLINSON, ESQ. F. R. S. LONDON. PHILADELPHIA, JULY 11, 1747. Sir, In my last I informed you that, in pursuing our electrical enquiries, we had observed some particular phenomena, which we looked upon to be new, and of which I promised to give you some account, though I apprehended they might not possibly be new to you, as so many hands are daily employed in electrical experiments on your side the water, some or other of which would probably hit on the same observations. The first is the wonderful effect of pointed bodies, both in drawing off and throwing off the electrical fire. For example, Place an iron shot of three or four inches diameter on the mouth of a clean dry glass bottle. By a fine silken thread from the cieling, right over the mouth of the bottle, suspend a small cork-ball, about the bigness of a marble; the thread of such a length, as that the cork-ball may rest against the side of the shot. Electrify the shot, and the ball will be repelled to the distance of four or five inches, more or less, according to the quantity of electricity. — When in this state, if you present to the shot the point of a long, slender, sharp bodkin, at six or eight inches distance, the repellency is instantly destroyed, and the cork flies to the shot. A blunt body must be brought within an inch, and draw a spark to produce the same effect. To prove that the electrical fire is drawn off by the point, if you take the blade of the bodkin out of the wooden handle, and fix it in a stick of sealing-wax, and then present it at the distance aforesaid, or if you bring it very near, no such effect follows; but sliding one finger along the wax till you touch the blade, and the ball flies to the shot immediately. — If you present the point in the dark, you will see, sometimes at a foot distance and more, a light gather upon it, like that of a fire-fly, or glow-worm; the less sharp the point, the nearer you must bring it to observe the light; and at whatever distance you see the light, you may draw off the electrical fire, and destroy the repellency. — If a cork-ball so suspended be repelled by the tube, and a point be presented quick to it, though at a considerable distance, it is surprising to see how suddenly it flies back to the tube. Points of wood will do near as well as those of iron, provided the wood is not dry; for perfectly dry wood will no more conduct electricity than sealing-wax. To shew that points will throw off2 as well as draw off the electrical fire; lay a long sharp needle upon the shot, and you cannot electrise the shot so as to make it repel the cork-ball. — Or fix a needle to the end of a suspended gun-barrel, or iron-rod, so as to point beyond it like a little bayonet3; and while it remains there, the gun-barrel, or rod, cannot by applying the tube to the other end be electrised so as to give a spark, the fire continually running out silently at the point. In the dark you may see it make the same appearance as it does in the case before-mentioned. The repellency between the cork-ball and the shot is likewise destroyed. 1. By sifting fine sand on it; this does it gradually. 2. By breathing on it. 3. By making a smoke about it from burning wood4. 4. By candle-light, even though the candle is at a foot distance:  these do it suddenly. — The light of a bright coal from a wood fire; and the light of a red-hot iron do it likewise; but not at so great a distance. Smoke from dry rosin dropt on hot iron, does not destroy the repellency; but is attracted by both shot and cork-ball, forming proportionable atmospheres round them, making them look beautifully, somewhat like some of the figures in Burnet’s or Whiston’s Theory of the Earth. N.B. This experiment should be made in a closet, where the air is very still, or it will be apt to fail. The light of the sun thrown strongly on both cork and shot by a looking-glass for a long time together, does not impair the repellency in the least. This difference between fire-light and sun-light is another thing that seems new and extraordinary to us5. We had for some time been of opinion, that the electrical fire was not created by friction, but collected, being really an element diffused among, and attracted by other matter, particularly by water and metals. We had even discovered and demonstrated its afflux to the electrical sphere, as well as its efflux, by means of little light windmill-wheels made of stiff paper vanes, fixed obliquely, and turning freely on fine wire axes. Also by little wheels of the same matter, but formed like water-wheels. Of the disposition and application of which wheels, and the various phenomena resulting, I could, if I had time, fill you a sheet6. The impossibility of electrising one’s self (though standing on wax) by rubbing the tube, and drawing the fire from it; and the manner of doing it, by passing the tube near a person or thing standing on the floor, &c. had also occurred to us some months before Mr. Watson’s ingenious Sequel came to hand, and these were some of the new things I intended to have communicated to you. — But now I need only mention some particulars not hinted in that piece, with our reasonings thereupon: though perhaps the latter might well enough be spared. 1. A person standing on wax, and rubbing the tube, and another person on wax drawing the fire, they will both of them (provided they do not stand so as to touch one another) appear to be electrised, to a person standing on the floor; that is, he will perceive a spark on approaching each of them with his knuckle. 2. But if the persons on wax touch one another during the exciting of the tube, neither of them will appear to be electrised. 3. If they touch one another after exciting the tube, and drawing the fire as aforesaid, there will be a stronger spark between them than was between either of them and the person on the floor. 4. After such strong spark, neither of them discover any electricity. These appearances we attempt to account for thus: We suppose, as aforesaid, that electrical fire is a common element, of which every one of the three persons abovementioned has his equal share, before any operation is begun with the tube. A, who stands on wax and rubs the tube, collects the electrical fire from himself into the glass; and his communication with the common stock being cut off by the wax, his body is not again immediately supplied. B,(who stands on wax likewise) passing his knuckle along near the tube, receives the fire which was collected by the glass from A; and his communication with the common stock being likewise cut off, he retains the additional quantity received. — To C, standing on the floor, both appear to be electrised: for he having only the middle quantity of electrical fire, receives a spark upon approaching B, who has an over quantity; but gives one to A, who has an under quantity. If A and B approach to touch each other, the spark is stronger, because the difference between them is greater: After such touch there is no spark between either of them and C, because the electrical fire in all is reduced to the original equality. If they touch while electrising, the equality is never destroyed, the fire only circulating. Hence have arisen some new terms among us; we say B, (and bodies like circumstanced) is electrised positively; A, negatively. Or rather, B is electrised plus; A, minus. And we daily in our experiments electrise bodies plus or minus, as we think proper. — To electrise plus or minus, no more needs to be known than this, that the parts of the tube or sphere that are rubbed, do, in the instant of the friction, attract the electrical fire, and therefore take it from the thing rubbing: the same parts immediately, as the friction upon them ceases, are disposed to give the fire they have received, to any body that has less. Thus you may circulate it, as Mr. Watson has shewn; you may also accumulate or subtract it, upon, or from any body, as you connect that body with the rubber or with the receiver, the communication with the common stock being cut off. We think that ingenious gentleman was deceived when he imagined (in his Sequel) that the electrical fire came down the wire from the cieling to the gun-barrel, thence to the sphere, and so electrised the machine and the man turning the wheel, &c. We suppose it was driven off, and not brought on through that wire; and that the machine and man, &c. were electrised minus; i. e. had less electrical fire in them than things in common. As the vessel is just upon sailing, I cannot give you so large an account of American electricity as I intended: I shall only mention a few particulars more. — We find granulated lead better to fill the phial with, than water, being easily warmed, and keeping warm and dry in damp air. — We fire spirits with the wire of the phial. — We light candles, just blown out, by drawing a spark among the smoke between the wire and snuffers. — We...