Experiments and observations on electricity, made at Philadelphia in America, by Benjamin Franklin, L. L. D. and F. R. S. Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, of the Royal Society at Gottingen, and of the Batavian Society in Holland, and President of the Philosophical Society at Philadelphia. To which are added, letters and papers on philosophical subjects. The whole corrected, methodized, improved, and now collected into one volume, and illustrated with copper plates.

Benjamin Franklin

London : printed for F. Newbery, at the Corner of St. Paul’s Church-Yard, M.DCC.LXXIV, 1774

[The Most Important Contribution to Science During the Colonial Period] 24 cm. Bound in modern Spanish leather.  Neatly rebacked, with renewed spine. Red Moroccan spine label with gilt. v, [1], 514, [16] p. 7 engraved plates (4 folding), woodcut illustrations in the text.  Minor worming through quires Nn and Oo at lower margin.  Two perforations through lower cover and all leaves from quire Tt to end (including 4 of the plates).  Book plate of John Baker Holroyd, Lord Sheffield, 1735-1821. 

  Franklin's celebrated work on electricity was first published in 1751.  It includes his research to prove lightning as an electrical phenomenon: "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...." (PMM 199).  Franklin was inducted into the Royal Society and was acclaimed in Europe for this work which stood above his political achievements in the minds of his contemporaries.  Refs: Sabin 25506; Waller 11340; Wellcome III, p 62; Ford 307; Howes F320 (b).