From Benjamin Franklin to François Steinsky, 23 November 1782
To François Steinsky8
LS:9 National Museum, Prague
Passy le 23. Novembre 1782.
J’ai reçu, Monsieur, la Lettre très obligeante que vous m’avez fait l’honneur de m’écrire le 12. Septembre 1781, par la quelle je suis charmé d’apprendre que vous étez arrivé en bonne Santé chez vous. Une longue et pénible Indisposition m’a privé du plaisir de vous repondre plustôt et de vous remercier de l’élégant et beau Présent de la Nape à Caffé que vous avez eu la bonté de m’envoyer. J’en admire beaucoup le Travail ingenieux, et pense que les Manufacturiers de votre Pays ont porté leur art à une grande Perfection. Les seules Nouvelles en Physique dans ce Pays icy depuis votre Depart, sont la Chaleur violente produite en souflant de l’air dephologistiqué sur du Charbon de bois, qui a fondu la platine en peu de minutes, et qu’on regarde comme le Feu le plus chaud que l’art ait encore pu produire.1 Et la Méthode pour alumer une Chandelle en cassant un Tube de Verre; dont vous verrez les Descriptions dans le Journal de Physique de l’Abbé Rosier.2 La Corde sans fin du Sr. Verra pour élever l’eau a aussi attiré l’attention et l’Etonnement des Physiciens.3 Vous m’obligeriez infiniment en m’informant des nouvelles Decouvertes utiles faites en votre Pays, et Je serai fort aise de recevoir de tems en tems de vos Nouvelles. J’ai l’honneur de vous souhaiter une bonne Santé et toutes Sortes de Prosperités, et vous prie de me croire avec beaucoup de Consideration, Monsieur, Votre très humble et très obeissant Serviteur./.
B Franklin
Mr. Steinsky.
8. In reply to Steinsky’s letter of Sept. 12, 1781: XXXV, 468–70. We said there that we would publish in vol. 38 BF’s undated notes for a reply, which were drafted on Steinsky’s letter but could not have been written before October, 1782. In the meantime, we located this LS. We nonetheless offer BF’s notes here, because they will allow readers a rare opportunity to compare an English draft by BF to a polished French text that was probably composed by L’Air de Lamotte:
That I have receiv’d his very obliging Letter of the 12th 7bre. That a long Indisposition has prevented my answering sooner, and thanking him for his kind & elegant Present of the Nape a Caffé. I admire much the Ingenuity of the Workmanship, and think the Manufacturers of his Country have arriv’d at great Perfection in their Art. That I am glad to hear of his safe Return after so long a Voyage. That the only Novelties in Physics since his being here, are the violent Heat produc’d by blowing with dephlogisticated Air on Charcoal, which melted Platina in a few minutes, and is thought the hottest Fire Art has yet been able to make. And the Method of lighting a Candle by breaking a small Glass Tube. You will see the Descriptions in Rosier’s Journal de Physique. That I wish him Health & Prosperity, and shall be glad to learn from him any new Discoveries made in his Country that are useful. &c
9. In the hand of L’Air de Lamotte.
1. On June 5, 1782, Lavoisier demonstrated this experiment to the Académie des sciences. BF reported it to both Priestley (XXXVII, 446) and Ingenhousz (XXXV, 551).
2. See Bettally & Noseda, Oct. 1, above.
3. The “corde sans fin” was a deceptively simple device, operated by a crank, that could raise water to surprising heights by means of a rope that ran between two pulleys, one submerged in a vat of water and the other directly above it. The inventor, a postal employee named Charles Vincent Vera, had observed that water molecules would adhere to the saturated rope and form a “column” that could travel vertically; the spray that issued from the rope as it turned around the upper pulley was collected in a hood that drained into a vat. The Académie des sciences appointed Le Roy and Bossut to investigate these claims (XXXVI, 352n). They confirmed Vera’s findings and publicly announced their results: a rope of esparto, the width of a finger, yielded 250 pints of water in 7 minutes, 45 seconds, at a height of 63 feet. Jour. de Paris, issues of Oct. 20 and 23, and Dec. 29, 1781. Pilatre de Rozier described this invention in the August, 1782, Jour. de Physique, pp. 132–43, and plate III. Vera received a government pension for this invention in 1784: Shelby T. McCoy, French Inventions of the Eighteenth Century ([Lexington, Ky.], 1952), p. 116.