To Benjamin Franklin from [H.] Sykes, 26 January 1779
From [H.] Sykes7
ALS: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Paris Jany. the 26th: 1779
Mr. Sykes presents his Respectfull Compliments to Mr: Franklin, and at the Request of a Friend, begs to be inform’d Whether in the Course of last Year he Receiv’d a Globe, (in Plaister of Paris) Sent him by Mr: Haywood of London.8
Mr: Franklin’s Answer will much Oblige Mr: Sykes9
Sykes,
Opticien Privilegié du Roi,
Place du Palais Royall á Paris
7. An Englishman who had a store in the Place du Palais Royal. There he sold all kinds of scientific instruments as well as eyeglasses and served as a go-between for his French clients and the English manufacturers. See Maurice Daumas, Les instruments scientifiques aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris, 1953), pp. 228, 317–18.
8. Perhaps James Haywood, an eighteenth-century draughtsman who is listed in Ronald V. Tooley, Tooley’s Dictionary of Mapmakers (Tring, Hertfordshire, 1979), p. 289.
9. BF apparently asked for more information, in a letter now missing. Sykes wrote again, in response to that letter, on March 13 (APS).