Electrostatic machine (used by Benjamin Franklin)

Unknown maker
Electrostatic machine (used by Benjamin Franklin),
1742-1747.
Glass, walnut, iron, leather.
Gift of Benjamin Franklin Bache, 1792.

This electrical apparatus documents Benjamin Franklin’s experiments in electricity and the Library Company’s early role as a scientific institution. In the 1740s and 1750s, Franklin conducted many experiments in electricity which led to the discovery of positive and negative charges, the classification of lightning as an electrical phenomenon, and the development of the lightning rod. The Electrical Machine is a static energy generator that works by rubbing the leather pad against the spinning glass globe to produce a static electrical charge in the globe.

Franklin did not patent his discoveries or many inventions, and his philanthropy is obvious in his description of his civic duty: “we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.[1]”

[1] Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (New Haven: Yale University, 1964), 192.