Opinions and Conjectures Concerning the Properties of Electrical Matter

”The Electrical Matter consists of Particles extreamly subtile, since it can permeate common Matter, even the densest Mettals, with such Ease and Freedom, as not to receive any perceptible Resistance.”

So starts Franklin his discussion of electricity in “Opinions.” The emerging and revolutionary idea of electricity as a fluid is clear in his argument and interpretation of findings (the “Stream of Electrical Effluvia”). This text is one of the earliest examples of an American scientific art...