FRANKLIN (Benjamin). Experiments and observations on electri - Lot 28

FRANKLIN (Benjamin). Experiments and observations on electricity made in Philadelphia, America. Paris, Durand, 1752. Small in-8, 24-lxx-(10)-222-(2 blanks)-(32 of which the last 2 blanks) pp. in speckled fawn basane, ribbed spine with partitions and flowers and garnet-red title page, triple gilt fillet framing the covers with gilt corner knobs, decorated edges, red edges (period binding). FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION. One copper-engraved folding plate hors texte. Benjamin Franklin wrote a series of letters on the subject of electricity to naturalist Peter Collinson of the Royal Society of London, staggered from 1747 to 1753. His correspondent delivered them for publication in London in installments from 1751 to 1754. Communicated to Buffon from 1752 onwards, he suggested a translation, which was entrusted to the physicist and naturalist Thomas-François Dalibard, who went so far as to conduct Benjamin Franklin's experiments himself (it was he who suggested replacing the kite with a piece of metal to attract lightning). He published the present translation of the first eight letters in 1752, together with an "Abridged History of Electricity" inspired in part by that compiled by Jean-Baptiste de Secondat (son of Montesquieu) in his Observations de physique et d'histoire naturelle (1750). In 1756, he would publish an expanded edition of the last five letters. "FRANKLIN'S MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION" (Norman, I, p. 299, for the original English edition). In it, the American scientist developed a new concept of electricity, described as a fluid present in all bodies, which does not disappear but passes from one body to another, which can therefore be in deficit (negatively charged) or in surplus (positively charged). In his second letter of July 29, 1750, included in this volume, he was the first to propose an experimental method for demonstrating the electrical nature of lightning.