Experiments and Observations on Electricity

{{short description|Book by Benjamin Franklin}}

{{italic title}}

[[File:Experiments 1751 color.jpg|thumb|upright 1.

|Title page of 1751 original publication]]

Experiments and Observations on Electricity is a treatise by Benjamin Franklin based on letters that he wrote to Peter Collinson, who communicated Franklin's ideas to the Royal Society.{{Cite journal |last=Guerlac |first=Henry |date=1942 |title=Review of Benjamin Franklin's Experiments: A New Edition of Franklin's Experiments and Observations on Electricity |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/360244 |journal=The New England Quarterly |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=158–161 |doi=10.2307/360244 |jstor=360244 |issn=0028-4866|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Krider |first=E. Philip |date=January 2006 |title=Benjamin Franklin and lightning rods |journal=Physics Today |language=en |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=42–48 |doi=10.1063/1.2180176 |bibcode=2006PhT....59a..42K |s2cid=110623159 |issn=0031-9228|doi-access=free }} The letters were published as a book in England in 1751, and over the following years the book was reissued in four more editions containing additional material, the last in 1774.{{Cite journal |last=Jorgenson |first=Chester E. |date=1942 |title=Review of Benjamin Franklin's Experiments. A New Edition of Franklin's "Experiments and Observations on electricity." |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2920680 |journal=American Literature |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=184–187 |doi=10.2307/2920680 |jstor=2920680 |issn=0002-9831|url-access=subscription }} Science historian I. Bernard Cohen crafted an edition with historical commentary that was published in 1941.{{cite journal|first=C. T. R. |last=Wilson |title=Benjamin Franklin's experiments |journal=Nature |volume=151 |pages=430–431 |year=1943 |issue=3833 |doi=10.1038/151430a0 |bibcode=1943Natur.151..430W |s2cid=38717309 |author-link=Charles Thomson Rees Wilson}}{{cite journal|doi=10.1086/597575 |last1=Dauben |first1=J. W. |author-link1=Joseph Dauben |last2=Gleason |first2=M. L. |last3=Smith |first3=G. E. |year=2009 |title=Seven Decades of History of Science: I. Bernard Cohen (1914–2003), Second Editor of Isis |journal=Isis |volume=100 |number=1 |pages=4–35|pmid=19554868 |s2cid=31401544 }}