Benjamin Franklin in London 1757-1775

Joan Reid

Historian, Benjamin Franklin House, London

23 September 2004

The speaker has been Historian of the Benjamin Franklin House in London for five years and has lectured in Britain and America on Franklin’s life and activities. On this occasion she would concentrate on his relationships with the scientists of his time, which he developed mainly while he was living in London. Portraits and other illustrations would be used when appropriate.

In July 1757 Franklin, with his illegitimate son William and two black slaves, took lodgings with Mrs Margaret Stevenson in Craven Street, in the Strand, London. He was then to stay at that address for the remainder of his time in London. This is the house that is being restored as Benjamin Franklin House from the 1990s, at a cost so far of around £1 million. Franklin’s son became a barrister, then a King’s man and Governor of New Jersey. Thus, when Franklin supported the colonists in the War of Independence, father and son broke off relationships. Franklin did, however, exchange many letters with Polly Stevenson, daughter of Margaret, on scientific matters and the speaker now has over 130 letters from that correspondence. As a printer, publisher and supervisor of post-offices in the colonies, Franklin became wealthy enough to leave his business in the care of a partner while, in his forties, he achieved the status of ‘gentleman’. Before he arrived in London, however, he was seen as an alien colonial ‘electrician’, prior to achieving his later position as one of the leading Enlightenment Europeans then attempting to understand the natural world.

Before going to London, Franklin made some fundamental discoveries about the nature of electricity, which underpinned much of the subsequent development. The speaker said that he ‘turned electricity from a magical entertainment into a serious science’. He adopted an experimental method, which he set out in clear, brief and thorough English, unlike the current accounts rendered in academic Latin. He shared all of his results with whoever showed interest and wrote many hundreds of letters on a wide variety of subjects. The most important aspect of his achievements is probably the help afforded by a quiet friend named Peter Collinson, a Quaker trader in cloth and haberdashery who was also a botanist, who published Franklin’s work in many languages. Scientists initially scorned his work, believing that a mere ‘colonist’ could not contribute anything of value, but eventually his publications became standard texts in many universities. Views changed when Franklin was awarded the prestigious Copley Medal of the Royal Society. By the time Franklin went to stay in London he was already a Fellow of the Royal Society, which greatly aided his diplomatic and political activities then and later. Nevertheless, the role of Collinson was also crucial in developing his contacts and reputation.

Franklin’s pre-London activities centred on an institution which he and other tradespeople (lens grinders, bookbinders, printers, etc) founded in Philadelphia in order to pursue various studies- similar to those pursued at our Institution. Franklin began his experimentations and a number of machines for generating and storing static electricity were built. After restricting information on his results for four years, in order to confirm their significance, he published through Collinson and by 1752 became known as a scientist. By showing that stored electricity could serve as an independent agent, without human intervention, Franklin helped scientists to predict experimental outcomes. He was the first person to use the word ‘current’ and he substituted ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ for what had previously been termed ‘ resinous’ and ‘vitreous’, thus crucially acknowledging the nature of potential difference. He referred to his set of Leiden jars (illustrated by the speaker) as a ‘battery’.

The famous depiction of Franklin flying a kite in a thunderstorm represents much work he undertook with respect to lightning. He told Collinson that lightning is identical with what was being produced by his machines and he advocated earthed pointed rods on high buildings in order to ‘draw electrical fire’ harmlessly. The Church, however, saw lightning as God’s punishment of sinners, so refusals to use such rods were common. The large European cathedrals regularly experienced many thousands of casualties when bell ringers were electrocuted and gunpowder, commonly stored in crypts, exploded. Even more distress was common in America, where storms were often fiercer. Some people thought that earthed lightning would cause earthquakes and some thought that blunt rather than pointed rods should be used. Some attempted to collect the lightning charges- even in wine bottles! George 3^rd was unhappy with Franklin’s political activities and he banned lightning rods in pique. In 1752 Franklin arranged a picnic by a river in Philadelphia and killed turkeys by electrical charges, lit fires through their agency and even tickled guest’s lips through charged drinking glasses. In a storm he flew a kite, using a silk thread attached to a key held in his hand, which he later claimed gave him a mild shock. The speaker gave details of some of Franklin’s six meticulous experiments to investigate the efficacy of various materials and shapes in relation to degrees of deflection shown when rods were employed.

Eventually people became convinced by his work and opposition dwindled.

Franklin arrived in London to argue protractedly with officials about tax payments in Pennsylvania, but he spent much of his free time in discussion with scientists. Dr Fothergill, a Quaker herbalist, was helped by Franklin (always interested in medical matters) to distribute samples and information on herbal cures, but since he served royalty Franklin found him useful as a link. Franklin wrote a foreword to a pamphlet written by Dr William Hetherdon, who was pioneering inoculation against smallpox. He also made a catheter (illustrated by the speaker), which became a basis for modern instruments. Often asked to use electricity for curing diseases (particularly those of women) Franklin once remarked that ‘fear of the apparatus often brought a cure’! Another friend was John Pringle, doctor to both king and army, who discovered typhoid and greatly reduced its incidence by separating the conduits for water and sewage.

The speaker then discussed and illustrated several of the many pioneering activities with which Franklin was associated. He modified stoves being developed by the Dutch and Germans through the provision of convected hot air as well as direct heat – in his house now being restored vestiges of one such stove were found. With a friend named Ferguson, who became an established clockmaker, Franklin produced designs for clocks. Richard Pockridge, an Irish house-builder and bog-drainer, produced an ‘angelic organ’ using a bank of glass vessels in 1758, which Franklin greatly improved into an ‘harmonica’ (illustrated by the speaker). This was so sophisticated and effective that Mozart and Gluck wrote music for it.

Fascinated by both geology and meteorology, he investigated whirlwinds, waterspouts etc and similar phenomena- even chasing them on horses at times! When crossing the Atlantic he was prompted by study of the wake of the ship to undertake experiments involving viscosity, in order to determine the influence of oil in calming turbulent water. Through taking regular samples of water as he crossed, recording temperature, amount of algae, etc., Franklin worked out that the differing times of journeys encountered when travelling both ways was due to the presence of what he called the ‘Gulf Stream’, which led to the later avoidance of that effect by packet ships travelling across the Atlantic.

His business interests resulted in fonts still in use today and the speaker commented that he would have been enthusiastic about computers had they existed then. His concern with numbers led him to develop ‘magic squares’ and ‘magic circles’, significant in mathematical relationships, and he also reformed both the alphabet and the prayer book. In order to deal with close work, Franklin developed split-lens types, together with Dolland (a Dutchman who patented spectacle lens grinders) and Thomas Jefferson made use of his design.

While in London Franklin developed many relationships through the Royal Society, including one with John Compton, a schoolteacher, with whom Franklin discussed matters of serious scientific interest. He was friendly with James Boswell and many scientists, including Joseph Priestley, who wrote a history of electricity, and who joined with Franklin on the last day of Franklin’s stay in London to protest at the coming War of Independence.

In Paris Franklin continued to correspond freely with scientists, including those in the Lunar Society, such as Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood and in particular Erasmus Darwin, although by then they were technically the ‘enemy’. He continued his investigations through his later years - in order to relieve his gout he tried to develop an air balloon, which would pull him along. He played Scottish airs on his ‘harmonica’ to some acclaim. He was appointed, along with Lavoisier and others, to a committee investigating Anton Mesmer’s hypnotic séances. Eventually, elderly and ill, Franklin left Paris for America again, in 1784. Even then he was active during his crossing, trying to improve the anchor design and the rigging and other sea-related devices. Upon his return to Philadelphia he published more results, but in 1790 he died, at the age of 84. The speaker concluded by remarking that while much was to be developed from the 19^th century onwards, Franklin had made a ‘huge contribution to early modern science’.

Questioned on the reasons for Franklin’s stay in Britain, the speaker thought it was arranged in order to keep him away from the political scene in America, where he had been as busy with politics as he was with his studies of electricity, which were largely completed by 1754. In London he was active again, but his most effective political activity was probably to be seen in Paris, when he persuaded an impoverished French government to support the War of Independence (which helped bankrupt the French state and led ultimately to the French Revolution, in fact). Upon his return to Philadelphia he signed the Declaration of Independence and urged those drawing up the Constitution to persist but to be flexible. He was, said the speaker, ‘a great conciliator’.

Geoff Catchpole

(Joan Reid, 24 Ashley Gardens, Ambroseden Avenue, London SW1 –full postcode not known)