Samuel Damren
This is the second commentary in a series first describing the Founding Fathers’ perspectives on “thinking like a scientist” and second comparing those perspectives with present-day government actions and policy.
The focus of the prior commentary was on Benjamin Franklin’s introduction to scientific thinking while he was an apprentice printer at his brother’s newspaper. The paper covered the Boston smallpox epidemic of 1721 and the controversy and startling success of experimental smallpox vaccinations.
From that event Franklin learned the value of not fearing experimentation where potential benefits outweigh risks, of keeping an open mind during crisis, and to preferring facts over conventional dogma in decision-making.
This commentary focuses on the scientific lessons Franklin learned through his experiments with the properties of electricity.
Chapter four, titled “The Bolt from the Blue” of Tom Shachtman’s 2014 book “Gentlemen Scientists and Revolutionaries,” outlines Franklin’s experiments.
Franklin received little formal schooling and no training as a “scientist” as the term did not exist in the English language until 1833. Nonetheless, at an early age, Franklin demonstrated a consuming desire to learn how things work and to improve his station through self-taught education.
That drive and his ingenuity served him well when he began his own printing business at age 17 in Philadelphia. The business succeeded, and as he prospered, Franklin dedicated more of his time to inventing.
Lacking familiarity with the advanced mathematics that enabled Issac Newton to prove his grand exposition of the planetary and natural world, Franklin used experiments as his method of proof. Although not by name, Franklin practiced the “Scientific Method.” He carefully observed, saw patterns and possible explanations then devised experiments to test theories. He would refine and perfect experiments until identifying a solution that could be proven by successful repetition.
Based on the forces of attraction and repulsion exhibited by magnetized lodestones, Newton posited that those two forces comprised the “basic components of electric force.” He was wrong. Nevertheless, for decades natural philosophers fruitlessly sought to prove Newton’s “two-fluid theory” of electrical force: attraction and repulsion, which they termed “vitreous” and “resinous.”
Guided by the results of experiments, Franklin in 1747 proposed a “single-fluid-that-seeks-equilibrium theory” as an alternative. To fully express the theory, Franklin coined new but now familiar terms: “positive” and “negative” as well as “plus” and “minus.”
As Shachtman explained, these “pairs” described “not two kinds of electricity, but two phases of a single fluid.”
As a result of the much later discovery of electrons, positively and negatively charged electrons would substitute for Franklin’s “single fluid” with “electric spark” as the means to restore “equilibrium.” Franklin’s theory was correct.
In arriving at the single fluid theory over a period of several years, Franklin enjoyed the support of many collaborators and correspondents. In pursuit of a common goal, these individuals provided forthright communications and shared valuable insights to refine Franklin’s experiments. The efforts of this “ad hoc” group led to his success in ultimately identifying how electricity worked.
The single fluid theory of electricity had practical and immediate benefits. Franklin’s invention of the “lightning rod” to prevent fires in homes, buildings, and churches was one of these. Franklin did not patent the invention. As he had done before with the “Franklin stove,” he sought no profit from these inventions believing they were for “the benefit of mankind.”
In addition to deserved celebrity for placing American science on the world stage, Franklin learned lessons that would also serve him in his future role as a Founding Father.
Franklin learned that perfecting experiments to final fruition required time and perseverance in the face of short-term setbacks. He learned that revealing intermediate steps and results to a community of like-minded collaborators fostered creative synergy.
He learned that honest shared insights in a community dedicated to serving the greater good need not be motivated by individual profit to achieve success.
The next commentary in this series will focus on the scientific thinking of other Founding Fathers as a prelude to turning attention to present-day government actions and attitudes directed at the scientific community.
The focus of the prior commentary was on Benjamin Franklin’s introduction to scientific thinking while he was an apprentice printer at his brother’s newspaper. The paper covered the Boston smallpox epidemic of 1721 and the controversy and startling success of experimental smallpox vaccinations.
From that event Franklin learned the value of not fearing experimentation where potential benefits outweigh risks, of keeping an open mind during crisis, and to preferring facts over conventional dogma in decision-making.
This commentary focuses on the scientific lessons Franklin learned through his experiments with the properties of electricity.
Chapter four, titled “The Bolt from the Blue” of Tom Shachtman’s 2014 book “Gentlemen Scientists and Revolutionaries,” outlines Franklin’s experiments.
Franklin received little formal schooling and no training as a “scientist” as the term did not exist in the English language until 1833. Nonetheless, at an early age, Franklin demonstrated a consuming desire to learn how things work and to improve his station through self-taught education.
That drive and his ingenuity served him well when he began his own printing business at age 17 in Philadelphia. The business succeeded, and as he prospered, Franklin dedicated more of his time to inventing.
Lacking familiarity with the advanced mathematics that enabled Issac Newton to prove his grand exposition of the planetary and natural world, Franklin used experiments as his method of proof. Although not by name, Franklin practiced the “Scientific Method.” He carefully observed, saw patterns and possible explanations then devised experiments to test theories. He would refine and perfect experiments until identifying a solution that could be proven by successful repetition.
Based on the forces of attraction and repulsion exhibited by magnetized lodestones, Newton posited that those two forces comprised the “basic components of electric force.” He was wrong. Nevertheless, for decades natural philosophers fruitlessly sought to prove Newton’s “two-fluid theory” of electrical force: attraction and repulsion, which they termed “vitreous” and “resinous.”
Guided by the results of experiments, Franklin in 1747 proposed a “single-fluid-that-seeks-equilibrium theory” as an alternative. To fully express the theory, Franklin coined new but now familiar terms: “positive” and “negative” as well as “plus” and “minus.”
As Shachtman explained, these “pairs” described “not two kinds of electricity, but two phases of a single fluid.”
As a result of the much later discovery of electrons, positively and negatively charged electrons would substitute for Franklin’s “single fluid” with “electric spark” as the means to restore “equilibrium.” Franklin’s theory was correct.
In arriving at the single fluid theory over a period of several years, Franklin enjoyed the support of many collaborators and correspondents. In pursuit of a common goal, these individuals provided forthright communications and shared valuable insights to refine Franklin’s experiments. The efforts of this “ad hoc” group led to his success in ultimately identifying how electricity worked.
The single fluid theory of electricity had practical and immediate benefits. Franklin’s invention of the “lightning rod” to prevent fires in homes, buildings, and churches was one of these. Franklin did not patent the invention. As he had done before with the “Franklin stove,” he sought no profit from these inventions believing they were for “the benefit of mankind.”
In addition to deserved celebrity for placing American science on the world stage, Franklin learned lessons that would also serve him in his future role as a Founding Father.
Franklin learned that perfecting experiments to final fruition required time and perseverance in the face of short-term setbacks. He learned that revealing intermediate steps and results to a community of like-minded collaborators fostered creative synergy.
He learned that honest shared insights in a community dedicated to serving the greater good need not be motivated by individual profit to achieve success.
The next commentary in this series will focus on the scientific thinking of other Founding Fathers as a prelude to turning attention to present-day government actions and attitudes directed at the scientific community.
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