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Ben Franklin: Scientist or Magician?
zooba ^ | 1/28/2002 | Alison Freisinger

Posted on 01/28/2002 4:47:08 PM PST by Exigence

Ben Franklin: Scientist or Magician?
by Alison Freisinger

Electricity was, for the most part, a useless parlor diversion in Benjamin Franklin's time. Men called "electricians" performed like magicians. Dr. Archibald Spencer, for example, would suspend a boy from the ceiling and coax static electric sparks from the child's limbs. Franklin, however, was one of the first people to realize that so-called "electrical fluid" might have practical uses.

Experiments, which ran from roasting a turkey with electricity to designing bells that heralded the presence of lightning (and irritated his wife to no end), helped Franklin define attributes of electricity. He recognized it as a potential source of energy, and was the first person to use terms like condenser, conductor, charge, battery, and electric shock. Franklin discovered the lightning rod, though some of his contemporaries refused to use it. They feared that it might cause earthquakes by drawing the violent power of electricity into the ground, and some believed that to avoid lightning was to deny the punishment or warnings of God.

Electricity was not Franklin's only scientific interest. He invented the Franklin stove, bifocals, plaster, a clothes-pressing machine, and an odometer. His studies of the world around him led to discoveries in meteorology, engineering, and other practical fields, eventually prompting Robert Millikan, who won the 1923 Nobel Prize for physics, to rank Franklin fifth among great scientists--after Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Huygens. In a truly democratic gesture, Franklin refused to patent any of his inventions, believing they should be available to all.

A serious scientist, Franklin was not above using science to perform a little "magic" now and then. At an English estate in 1772, Franklin boasted that he could quiet the river. Walking to the water's edge, he made sweeping passes over the river with his bamboo cane, and the waters ran smooth. His astonished viewers didn't know his cane was filled with oil, which had coated the water.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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To: Faith_j
I asked you to look at a thread and defend your actions, and you won't do it. You can't.

No one can defend his or herself against someone else's unfounded accusations and wild imaginings.

Move on, Faith. You're out of line and off topic.

21 posted on 01/28/2002 9:35:22 PM PST by Exigence
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To: Faith_j
No, I said that you've spent several months now posting threads trying to make witchcraft look cute

Who has to try? She's cute as all get out.


22 posted on 01/28/2002 9:37:38 PM PST by Doctor Doom
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Comment #23 Removed by Moderator

To: Faith_j

24 posted on 01/28/2002 9:41:38 PM PST by Doctor Doom
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To: Faith_j
that magic is more rightly linked to evil than 'science'.

Spreading oil on the water is hardly "evil." When you toss that word around so carelessly you devalue it. Much in the same way when you accuse someone you don't even know of murder. Then, for some reason, you can't understand why no one reacts to your diatribes. You do more harm to your own "cause" than anyone else possibly could.

Try reading the fable about the boy who called "wolf." You might find it applicable -- or you won't. But, nutty websites about murders are hardly applicable to Ben Franklin's explorations into electricity and parlor tricks with oil and water. It was that kind of thinking that led to the Salem Witch trials where innocent people *were* murdered by those who could only see evil -- even where there was only innocence. I had hoped we'd learned from history. But, I guess not all of us have.

25 posted on 01/28/2002 9:49:38 PM PST by Exigence
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Comment #26 Removed by Moderator

To: Exigence
In addition to being a Trilateralist, CFR member, and Mason, Franklin served as an adjunct professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry teaching defense against the dark arts. To this day, wizards and witches credit Franklin with the invention of the invisibility cloak.
27 posted on 01/28/2002 9:51:07 PM PST by Young Rhino
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To: Young Rhino
To this day, wizards and witches credit Franklin with the invention of the invisibility cloak.

I'm wearing one now. And nothing else.

28 posted on 01/28/2002 9:52:28 PM PST by Doctor Doom
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To: Faith_j
Apparently you haven't the sophistication required to discern a sham concocted as an insanity defense. It's nothing more than a modern version of "the devil made me do it."
30 posted on 01/28/2002 10:11:50 PM PST by Jolly Rodgers
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To: Jolly Rodgers
I heard that all of our founding fathers were queers. Any comment?
31 posted on 01/28/2002 10:16:16 PM PST by Buckeroo
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To: Buckeroo
I heard that all of our founding fathers were queers. Any comment?

They may have seemed queer at the time, but in retrospect they were actually quite stodgy. Well, Ben was a naturist, but that's a whole different story...

32 posted on 01/28/2002 10:19:00 PM PST by Jolly Rodgers
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To: Buckeroo
I heard that all of our founding fathers were queers.

Queer:
Pronunciation: 'kwir Function: adjective
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1508
a : differing in some odd way from what is usual or normal

Yep - they were queer. Thank Galt.

33 posted on 01/28/2002 10:19:41 PM PST by Doctor Doom
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To: Buckeroo
On the other hand -- British royalty -- they are a queer lot.
34 posted on 01/28/2002 10:20:13 PM PST by Jolly Rodgers
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To: Jolly Rodgers
The liberal press actually portrays our nation's fathers as "fondling. I pray the liberal press eats their own agenda.
35 posted on 01/28/2002 10:22:46 PM PST by Buckeroo
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To: Buckeroo
Fondling? Probably niggardly, too. Some of them might have even been thespians. I even heard that George Washington masticated with wooden dentures!
36 posted on 01/28/2002 10:25:55 PM PST by Jolly Rodgers
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To: Exigence
A serious scientist, Franklin was not above using science to perform a little "magic" now and then. At an English estate in 1772, Franklin boasted that he could quiet the river. Walking to the water's edge, he made sweeping passes over the river with his bamboo cane, and the waters ran smooth. His astonished viewers didn't know his cane was filled with oil, which had coated the water.

He found out how to do that trick by watching what happened to the sea when the ships cook threw oily water into it. He was on his way to merry 'ol England to convince the King and his ilk to let PA people vote about their own taxes :-)

37 posted on 01/28/2002 10:25:59 PM PST by Born in a Rage
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To: Jolly Rodgers
I even heard that George Washington masticated with wooden dentures!

In front of women and children, no less.

38 posted on 01/28/2002 10:28:53 PM PST by Doctor Doom
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To: Jolly Rodgers
Yup!
39 posted on 01/28/2002 10:29:52 PM PST by Buckeroo
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To: Doctor Doom
I really shouldn't give dictionary.com free hits like that. ;-)
40 posted on 01/28/2002 10:29:59 PM PST by Jolly Rodgers
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