Hans G. Schantz on Matt Ehret's Insights

Excellent piece. That's a side of Franklin with which I was unfamiliar. Even the more narrow, physics-oriented story of how the colonial bumpkin became heralded as one of leading scientific lights of his day makes fascinating reading. "The Abbé Nollet developed an elaborate two-fluid theory of electricity based upon duFay’s concept of vitreous and resinous electricity. A few years after Nollet published his theory, he was astonished to discover a book packed with experimental observations and arguments refuting his ideas. Clearly the work of his enemies and rivals at the French court, the book purported to be a translation into French of work performed in the obscure colonial hamlet of “Philadelphia” in the colony of Pennsylvania by one “Benjamin Franklin” [[xxi], [xxii]]. "Benjamin Franklin (1705–1790) rejected the two-fluid theory of du Fay and Nollet with its confusing requirement that an equal mixture of vitreous and resinous electricity annihilate each other. Franklin proposed a one-fluid theory [[xxiii]]. Franklin argued that “vitreous electricity” represented an excess of electrification or a “positive” charge, and “resinous electricity” represented a deficit of electricity or a “negative” charge. Franklin himself acknowledged that this identification was speculative, but the interested reader may pursue the reasons further in the references [[xxiv]]." https://aetherczar.substack.com/p/422-fluid-theories-of-electricity