ORIGINS OF MODERNITY

natural philosophy

Franklin, Benjamin (1706-1790)
Experiments and observations on electricity, made at Philadelphia in America, by Benjamin Franklin, L.L.D. and F.R.S. To which are added, letters and papers on philosophical subjects. The whole corrected, methodized, improved, and now first collected into one volume ...
London: Printed for David Henry; and sold by Francis Newberry, MDCCLXIX.

Benjamin Franklin was the first American to win international repute for work in science and the first to gain recognition for work done solely on electricity. Perhaps his most important discovery was that lightning is a form of electrical discharge. This served to unite electrical and electro-static phenomena produced in the laboratory with natural phenomena. He is best known for his famous 'sentry-box experiment' of 1752 and his lightening rod. Experiments and observations on electricity is his major scientific publication.