Franklin, Benjamin | It's electric

From the Library of Clayre and Jay Michael Haft

Franklin, Benjamin

New Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at Philadelphia in America. By Benjamin Franklin, Esq; and Communicated in Several Letters to Peter Collinson, Esq.; of London, F.R.S. London D. Henry and R. Cave 1760 [1765]

Three parts in one volume, 4to (230 x 175 mm). Each part with a separate title page (dated 1760, 1762 and 1765) but with continuous pagination, engraved folding plate in first part, one woodcut illustration in the third part; a clean and very well-margined copy. Modern half morocco and marbled boards. 

Third Edition of Parts 1 and 2, Stated Fourth Edition of Part 3.

"The most dramatic result of Franklin's researches was the proof that lightning is really an electrical phenomenon. Others had made such a suggestion before him—even Newton himself—but it was he who provided the experimental proof. In 1752 he flew a kite in a thunderstorm and attached a key to its string. From this he collected electric charges in a Leiden jar and showed that atmospheric and frictional or machine-made electricity are the same ... His reputation as a scientist was immediately established by the publication of the results of his researches in a series of letters addressed to Peter Collinson, a London merchant and naturalist ..." (PMM).

A rare work and the first American scientific work of any consequence. 

REFERENCE:

Dibner 57; Horblit 31a; Howes F320; PMM 199 (all describing the 1751-54 original edition in 3 parts)