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Benjamin Franklin in Europe: electrician, academician, politician

2007; Royal Society; Volume: 61; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Romeno

10.1098/rsnr.2007.0021

1743-0178

J.L. Heilbron,

Historical and Literary Studies

Restricted accessMoreSectionsView Full TextView PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Cite this article Heilbron J.L 2007Benjamin Franklin in Europe: electrician, academician, politicianNotes Rec. R. Soc.61353–373http://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2007.0021SectionRestricted accessResearch articleBenjamin Franklin in Europe: electrician, academician, politician J.L Heilbron J.L Heilbron [email protected] Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author J.L Heilbron J.L Heilbron [email protected] Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Published:24 July 2007https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2007.0021ReferencesNotes1Walpole to William Mason, 27 February 1777, WC, vol. 28, p. 287. The government went along with the rumour in order to blacken Franklin's image; BFP, vol. 24, pp. 84, 405. Cf. Joyce E. Chaplin, The first scientific American. Benjamin Franklin and the pursuit of genius (Basic Books, New York, NY, 2006), p. 256. Google Scholar2The most detailed and reliable account of Franklin's life up to his first experiments on electricity was published last year as the first two of a projected seven-volume biography: J. A. L. Lemay, The life of Benjamin Franklin (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 2006). Google Scholar3BF, Poor Richards almanacks (Limited Editions Club, Philadelphia, PA, 1976), pp. 3–4, 13–14, 15–26. Google Scholar4BF, op. cit. (note 3), p. 97 (1742); Jonathan Swift, 'The Bickerstaff papers [1708]', in A tale of a tub and other satires (ed. Louis Melville), pp. 200, 209–211 (Dent, London, 1955). Google Scholar5BF, op. cit. (note 3), p. 18 (1734). Google Scholar6BF, 'Autobiography, Pt 1', in BFW, p. 1393. Google Scholar7Father Abraham's speech (BF, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 278–285) reappeared as 'The way to wealth'; for its effect in France, Alfred Owen Aldridge, Franklin and his French contemporaries, pp. 39–40, 48–50, 59 (quote) (New York University Press, 1957). The French also swallowed Franklin's hoax of Polly Baker, who successfully defended herself against a charge of promiscuity by pointing to the good work she was doing to propagate the human race. Aldridge, ibid., pp. 95–104. Google Scholar8'The greatest philosopher of the age', as the Académie des sciences of Turin styled him, BF belonged to 12 major European learned societies eager to associate themselves with his 'sublime genius'. Quotes from J. F. Cigna to BF, 28 July 1783, in Antonio Pace, Benjamin Franklin and Italy (American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA, 1958), p. 383. Google Scholar9EO, p. 222 (BF's proposal of 1749), pp. 257–262 (report of the French experiment); ESEC, p. 348. Google Scholar10ESEC, pp. 346–352. Google Scholar11EO, pp. 259–261; Tom Tucker, Bolt of fate. Benjamin Franklin and his electric kite hoax (Public Affairs, New York, NY, 2003), pp. 118–119. Google Scholar12Aldridge, op. cit. (note 7), pp. 74–75. Google Scholar13ESEC, pp. 344–346. Google Scholar14BF to Priestley, 4 May 1772, BFP, vol. 19, pp. 126–127. Google Scholar15Tucker, op. cit. (note 11), pp. 129–130, from Wilson, 'Memoirs', pp. 26–27 (typescript transcription of Wilson's autobiography, Heinz Archive, National Portrait Gallery); Watson, in EO, pp. 262–264. Google Scholar16BF, 'Autobiography, Pt 3', in BFW, p. 1455. Google Scholar17Richard Bache to BF, 14 July 1778, BFP, vol. 27, p. 89; reproductions in Page Talbot, Benjamin Franklin. In search of a better world, pp. 142–143 (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2005). Google Scholar18BFP, vol. 8, pp. 239–241 (28 January 1759). Google Scholar19BFP, vol. 8, p. 279 (12 February 1759); Wilson to Franklin, 8 April 1759, ibid., p. 323; BFP, vol. 10, pp. 76–78 (Oxford degree). Google Scholar20ESSC, pp. 431–433; BF to Ebenezer Kinnersley, 28 July 1759, BFP, vol. 8, p. 416; Robert Symmer, 'New experiments and observations on electricity', Phil. Trans. R. Soc.51, 340–389 (1759), at pp. 374–377. Google Scholar21Symmer to John Michell, 30 January 1761, in ESEC, p. 114; BF to Ebenezer Kinnersley, 28 July 1759, BFP, vol. 8, p. 416. Google Scholar22BFP, vol. 8, pp. 36, 184, 187, 235–236. Google Scholar23BF to Isaac Norris, 19 January 1759, BFP, vol. 8, p. 233; Robert Middelkauf, Benjamin Franklin and his enemies (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1988), p. 75. Apparently Penn regarded the 'compleat electrical apparatus' he had sent Franklin a decade earlier as a set of parlour tricks; BFP, vol. 3, pp. 157–158, 168. Google Scholar24Middelkauf, op. cit. (note 23), pp. 112–113, 116; BF, op. cit. (note 3), p. 263 (1757). Google Scholar25Archibald Geikie, Annals of the Royal Society Club (Macmillan, London, 1917), pp. 118–122; BF to Joseph Priestley, 7 June 1782, BFP, vol. 37, p. 445. Google Scholar26BFP, vol. 8, pp. 359–360. Google Scholar27Thomas Penn to Governor James Hamilton, 13 April 1761, in BF, The works (ed. Jared Sparks), vol. 7, pp. 242–244 (10 vols; Boston, 1840–47); on the armonica, BFP, vol. 10, pp. 116–130, and Pace, op. cit. (note 8), pp. 268–283. Google Scholar28Depicted in Talbot, op. cit. (note 17), p. 213. Google Scholar29Middelkauf, op. cit. (note 23), pp. 125–129; Talbot, op. cit. (note 17), pp. 214, 216. Google Scholar30Chaplin, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 237–238. Google Scholar31Walpole to Mason, 23 March 1774 and 18 July 1778, in WC, vol. 28, pp. 141, 417. Google Scholar32BF to William Strahan, 5 July 1775, BFP, vol. 22, p. 85; Middlekauff, op. cit. (note 23), pp. 133–137. Strahan sent BF a Stilton cheese in reply; they later reconciled. J. Bennett Nolan, Benjamin Franklin in Scotland and Ireland, 1759 and 1771 (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1938), p. 16. Google Scholar33BF to Priestley, 7 June 1782, BFP, vol. 37, pp. 444–445. Other English friends retained throughout the war were David Hartley and Richard Price, both pro-American. BFP, vol. 37, pp. 363, 407–408. Google Scholar34BFP, vol. 21, p. 113n. Pringle was thought to oppose the American cause; John Fothergill to BF, 19 March 1775, BFP, vol. 21, p. 758. Google Scholar35BFP, vol. 8, 356–358; Geikie, op. cit. (note 25), pp. 91, 95, 102–103, 107, 118–119, 122; Nolan, op. cit. (note 32), pp. 43, 62–63, 123–124. Google Scholar36Valltravers to BF, 4 December 1777, BFP, vol. 28, 241–244. Cf. Gavin R. de Beer, 'Rudolf Valltravers, F.R.S.', Notes Rec. R. Soc.4, 216–226 (1946), and 'Addendum', Notes Rec. R. Soc.8, 116–119 (1950). Google Scholar37Valltravers to BF, 14 April, 17 May, 14 October, 23 December 1778, BFP, vol. 26, pp. 292–294, 496, vol. 27, pp. 556–557, vol. 28, pp. 267–271. Google Scholar38BFP, vol. 23, p. 611n; J. L. Heilbron, 'Jean-André Deluc: Citoyen de Genève and philosopher to the Queen of England', Arch. Sci. Soc. Phys. Hist. Nat. Gen. 58, 75–92 (2005), at p. 84. Google Scholar39BF, letter of ca. 3 October 1775, BFP, vol. 22, pp. 215–216. Google Scholar40Walpole to Mason, WC, vol. 29, p. 139, re the chance and perhaps fictional encounter of BF and Gibbon at a hotel in France. Google Scholar41London Chronicle, 22–24 November 1759, in BFP, vol. 8, p. 447. Google Scholar42BF to Académie des sciences, 16 November 1772, BFP, vol. 19, p. 372. Google Scholar43Aldridge, op. cit. (note 7), pp. 26–27. Google Scholar44Condorcet, Eloge (1791), in L'apothéose de Benjamin Franklin. Collection des texts (ed. Gilbert Chinard), p. 133 (Librairie orientale et americaine, Paris, 1955). Google Scholar45Stacy Schiff, A great improvisation. Franklin, France, and the birth of America (Henry Holt, New York, NY, 2005), pp. 24–29, 62–63, 68, 94–98; Aldridge, op. cit. (note 7), pp. 61, 64. Google Scholar46Mme du Deffand to Walpole, 23 and 31 December 1776, 26 January 1777, WC, vol. 6, pp. 385–386, and 30 August and 3 September 1779, WC, vol. 7, pp. 170–171. Franklin's associate, Silas Deane, who was present, thought the rendezvous arranged (WC, vol. 24, p. 273n). Google Scholar47Schiff, op. cit. (note 45), pp. 230–236; C. A. Lopez, Mon cher papa: Franklin and the ladies of Paris (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1990), chs 1–2, 9–10. Google Scholar48Nolan, op. cit. (note 22), p. 204. Google Scholar49Mme du Deffand to Walpole, 22 March 1778, WC, vol. 7, p. 33. Google Scholar50Schiff, op. cit. (note 45), pp. 141–164; Aldridge, op. cit. (note 7), p. 65. Google Scholar51For example BFP, vol. 34, p. 239; vol. 36, pp. lxii; vol. 37, pp. 150, 445–446. Google Scholar52BFP, vol. 2, p. 440; BF to Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, 28 July 1768, BFP, vol. 15, p. 180, and in BFW, pp. 834–835; W. Mann to Walpole, 19 December 1778, WC, vol. 24, p. 430: 'Whenever he finds any inconvenience from the stoppage of perspiration, he gets up in the coldest night, and walks quite naked around his room for an hour or two … perhaps this may do well with an American constitution, but I believe that he will not make any proselytes with it in Europe.'. Google Scholar53BF to George Whately, 23 May 1785, BFW, pp. 1109–1110. Google Scholar54M. Faesch to BF, 25 July 1782, BFP, vol. 37, pp. 676–677 (quote); cf. BFP, vol. 19, p. 305. Google Scholar55Jessica Riskin, Science in the age of sensibility (University of Chicago Press, 2002), pp. 189–225; C. C. Gillispie, Science and polity in France. The end of the old regime (Princeton University Press, 1980), pp. 261–290. Mesmer presented BF with 13 copies of the Précis of his system published in 1781, one for each of the new United States. Le Roy to BF, 22 October 1781?, BFP, vol. 35, p. 634. Google Scholar56Marcus Manilius, Astronomica (transl. G. P. Goold) (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1977), i.105; Aldridge, op. cit. (note 7), pp. 126–132. Manilius' phrase means 'took away Jove's lightning and powers of thundering'. Cf. BFP, vol. 26, p. 670; vol. 34, p. 419. Google Scholar57Cf. BFP, vol. 19, pp. 153–154, 260–262, 424–425, 429–430; vol. 21, pp. 222–224; vol. 24, p. 163n; vol. 25, p. 5n. Google Scholar58I. B. Cohen, 'Prejudice against the introduction of lightning rods', J. Frank. Inst.253, 393–440 (1952), at pp. 402–404, 412–414. Google Scholar59Benjamin Wilson, 'Observations on lightning, and the method of securing buildings from its effects', Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 63, 49–65 (1773). Google Scholar60BF to Jean-Baptiste Leroy (the leading French Franklinist), 30 March 1773, BFP, vol. 20, p. 119 (quote), and to Jan Ingenhousz, 30 September 1773, ibid., p. 434. Later BF and Leroy advised the authorities of the Strasbourg cathedral to arm their church with points; but the authorities decided against them and the church remained without lightning defence for another 50 years (BFP, vol. 32, pp. 373–376). Google Scholar61Wilson, 'Further propositions on lightning' (1774), BFP, vol. 20, pp. 165–168; vol. 21, pp. 222–224. Google Scholar62Wilson, op. cit. (note 15), pp. 46–47. Google Scholar63Letter of 8 January [1763?], in David Garrick, Letters (ed. D. M. Little and G. M. Kahrl), vol. 1, pp. 369–370 (3 vols.; Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1963); Garrick to Wilson, [1761?], ibid., vol. 2, p. 508. Google Scholar64Garrick to Richard Cox, May 1767, in Garrick, op. cit. (note 63), vol. 2, p. 576, and to Francis Delaval, 22 April [1767?], ibid., p. 566, respectively. Google Scholar65William Henley et al., 'Report of the Committee appointed by the Royal Society, for examining the effect of lightning, May 15, 1777 … at Purfleet', Phil. Trans. R. Soc.68, 236–238 (1778). Google Scholar66Herbert Randolph, Life of General Robert Wilson (London, 1862), vol. 1, pp. 34–35. Wilson scaled up a demonstration of Franklin's that employed a gilded pasteboard tube 10 feet long and 1 foot in diameter as a cloud, and a needle held 12 inches away as a lightning rod; EO, 219–220 (1749). The Pantheon's site on Oxford street is now occupied by Marks and Spencer's main London shop; Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert, London encyclopedia (Macmillan, London, 1983), pp. 580–581. Google Scholar67Benjamin Wilson, 'New experiments and observations on the nature and use of conductors', Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 68, 245–313 (1777), on 247–249. Google Scholar68Randolph, op. cit. (note 66), vol. 1, p. 36. Google Scholar69Lichtenberg to J. H. A. Reimarus, 2 September 1779, in Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Briefwechsel (ed. Ulrich Joost and Albrecht Schöne), vol. 1, p. 976 ('Der stumpfe Wilson') (4 vols; C. H. Beck, Munich, 1983–98); Edward Nairne, 'Experiments on electricity, being an attempt to shew the advantage of elevated pointed conductors', Phil. Trans. R. Soc.68, 823–860 (1778); Jan Ingenhousz to BF, 6 March 1778, BFP, vol. 26, p. 70 (quote). Google Scholar70Letters to BF from Ingenhousz, 15 June, Benjamin Vaughan, 29 May, and Magellan [de Magalhaens], 20 June 1778, in BFP, vol. 26, pp. 625, 545 and 663, respectively. Google Scholar71Andrew Kippis, 'Life of the author', in John Pringle, Six discourses, pp. xxx–xxxi, lvi–lvii (London, 1783). Kippis ascribed the resignation to Pringle's ill health. The rumour surfaced in Cuvier's éloge of Pringle's successor Joseph Banks; G. F. Cuvier, 'Eloge historique de M. Banks', Hist. Acad. Sci. Paris5, 220–221 (1821–22). Google Scholar72BF to A. G. Lebègue de Presle, 4 October 1777, BFP, vol. 25, pp. 25–26. Google Scholar73Garrick, op. cit. (note 63), vol. 3, p. 1189. Google Scholar74Randolph, op. cit. (note 66), vol. 1, p. 37. Google Scholar75Eloge, in Chinard, op. cit. (note 44), p. 143. Google Scholar76Maximilien Robespierre, Oeuvres complètes, vol. 2 (Oeuvres judiciaires), pp. 149–152, 165 (quote) (Revue historique de la Revoution française, Paris, 1910). Cf. Riskin, op. cit. (note 55), ch. 5. Google Scholar77Chaplin, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 196–200, 289–290, 319–322. Google Scholar78Gentleman's Magazine60 (1), 572 (1790); Mirabeau, in Chinard, op. cit. (note 44), p. 18; Condorcet, ibid., p. 143. Google Scholar79G. L. Lichtenberg, Schriften und Briefe (ed. F. H. Mautner) (5 vols; Insel, Frankfurt, 1983), vol. 1, pp. 415, 430. Google Scholar80BF to R. E. Raspe, 9 September 1766, BFP, vol. 13, p. 406; Samuel Vaughan Jr to BF, 27 December 1783 (unpublished: 041-u062.html); Paul Szymank, 'Benjamin Franklin als Gast in Niedersachsen', Veröff. Gesch. Gött. Umg. 4, 3–13 (1941), at pp. 8, 10. Google Scholar81Lichtenberg to F. E. Wolff, 1 August 1782, in Lichtenberg, op. cit. (note 69), vol. 2, p. 393. Google Scholar82Georg Forster, Erinnerungen (1792), in Werke, vol. 8, (Kleine Schriften zu Philosophie und Zeitgeschichte) (ed. Siegfried Scheibe), pp. 209–213 (Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 1991). Cf. ibid., p. 275; R. L. Kahn, 'Georg Forster and Benjamin Franklin', Proc. Am. Phil. Soc.102, 1–6 (1958); and Thomas Höhle, 'Aufklärung–Revolution—Gewalt. Benjamin Franklin, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing und Georg Forster zu einem wichtigsten Themen des 18. Jahrhunderts', in Ethik in der Geschichte der Medizin und Naturwissenschaften (ed. Wolfgang Kaiser and Arina Völker), pp. 246–253 (Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 1985), at pp. 247–248. Google Scholar83Thomas Grossar, 'Die Bedeutung Georg Forsters als Kulturvermittler im Zeitalter der Französischen Revolution', in Georg Forster in interdisziplinärer Perspektive (ed. Claus-Volker Klenke et al.), pp. 211–254 (Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 1994), at pp. 228–255; Marta Gilli, 'Forster und Frankreich', in ibid., pp. 255–272; T. C. W. Blanning, Reform and revolution in Mainz, 1743–1803 (Cambridge University Press, 1974), pp. 171, 278–279, 298–302. Google Scholar84Wrisberg to Soc. Wiss., 27 April 1793, and Heyne to same, same date, in Lichtenberg, op. cit. (note 69), vol. 4, pp. 75–77; cf. Ulrich Joos, 'Die Respublica litteraris. … Nachrichten über Forster, Lichtenberg und einige ihrer Zeitgenossen', Gött. Jb., pp. 159–175 (1979), at pp. 170–172. Google Scholar85Dashkova to BF, 30 January 1781, BFP, vol. 34, p. 327. Google Scholar86Lichtenberg, op. cit. (note 69), vol. 4, pp. 76–78. Google Scholar87Kästner to Soc. Wiss., 26 December 1798, in Lichtenberg, op. cit. 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This Issue22 September 2007Volume 61Issue 3 Article InformationDOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2007.0021Published by:Royal SocietyPrint ISSN:0035-9149Online ISSN:1743-0178History: Manuscript received27/06/2007Manuscript accepted03/07/2007Published online24/07/2007Published in print22/09/2007 License:© 2007 The Royal Society Citations and impact PDF Download