In this Book
- The Ingenious Dr. Franklin: Selected Scientific Letters of Benjamin Franklin
- Book
- 2011
- Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
- Series: Pennsylvania Paperbacks
An outstanding collection of Benjamin Franklin's scientific correspondence, The Ingenious Dr. Franklin has long been unavailable yet deserves a place beside his Autobiography as essential reading for everyone interested in history, wit, and invention. Portioned into three sections, "Practical Schemes and Suggestions," "Diverse Experiments and Observations," and "Scientific Deductions and Conjectures," these letters discuss an extraordinary range of topics, including the art of procuring pleasant dreams, choosing eye glasses, the first human flight, the character of clouds, the behavior of oil and water, smallpox and cancer, the cause of colds, charting the Gulf Stream, and prehistoric animals of the Ohio.
Culled from ponderous volumes of collected works or private collections, these engaging and unabridged letters were assembled to allow readers to discover for themselves Benjamin Franklin's vigorous personality, his humanity, and his penetrating intelligence.
Table of Contents
- The Ingenious Dr. Franklin
- pp. 1-14
- PRACTICAL SCHEMES and SUGGESTIONS
- pp. 15-16
- RULES OF HEALTH AND LONG LIFE
- pp. 33-34
- LEARNING TO SWIM. To Oliver Neave
- pp. 41-45
- PENNSYLVANIAN FIREPLACES. 1774
- pp. 64-70
- INDIAN CORN
- pp. 76-78
- DIVERS EXPERIMENTS and OBSERVATIONS
- pp. 87-88
- MAGIC SQUARES. To Peter Collison: [c. 1750]
- pp. 106-109
- SCIENTIFIC DEDUCTIONS and CONJECTURES
- pp. 153-154
- DEFINITION of a COLD
- p. 157
- SOUND. To Oliver Neave: July 20, 1762
- pp. 232-234
- TOADS FOUND IN STONE
- pp. 237-238
- LETTERS and PAPERS in this VOLUME
- pp. 239-241
Additional Information
Copyright
1931