The Complete Works in Philosophy, Politics and Morals of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 2 [of 3]

I have executed here an easy simple contrivance, that I have long since had in speculation, for keeping rooms warmer in cold weather than they generally are, and with less fire....

When I was in England, the last time, you also made for me a little achromatic pocket telescope, the body was brass, and it had a round case (I think of thin wood) covered with...

(iv iv) The air-box is composed of the two middle plates, D E and F G. The first has five thin ledges or partitions cast on it, two inches deep, the edges of which are received...

He says, No. 2. "Let a given body or mass of matter be called _a_, and let any given celerity be called c. That _celerity_ doubled, tripled, &c. or halved, thirded, &c. will be...

"Near the islands Paul and Amsterdam, we met with a storm, which had nothing particular in it worthy of being communicated to you, except that the captain found himself obliged...

But I shall now endeavour to explain what I said to you about the tide in rivers, and to that end shall make a figure, which though not very like a river, may serve to convey my...

In making the first fire in a morning with this grate, there is nothing particular to be observed. It is made as in other grates, the coals being put in above, after taking out...

I cannot be of opinion with you that it is too late in life for you to learn to swim. The river near the bottom of your garden affords a most convenient place for the purpose. A...

To remedy this, methinks it would be well to have a kind of large pulley wheel, fixed in the hause-hole, suppose of two feet diameter, over which the cable might pass; and being...

In America I have often observed, that on the roofs of our shingled-houses, where moss is apt to grow in northern exposures, if there be any thing on the roof painted with white...

You have received the common notion of water-spouts, which, from my own ocular observation, I am persuaded is a false conception. In a voyage to the West-Indies, I had an opport...

Whirlwinds and spouts, are not always, though most commonly, in the day time. The terrible whirlwind which damaged a great part of Rome, June 11, 1749, happened in the night of...

An ingenious old mariner, whom I formerly knew, proposed, as a swimming anchor for a large ship, to have a stem of wood twenty-five feet long and four inches square, with four b...

By your news-papers we are told, that God had sent a very short harvest to some other countries of Europe. I thought this might be in favour of Old England; and that now we shou...

The mass of earth, to the depth perhaps of thirty feet, being thus heated to a certain degree, continues to retain its heat for some time. Thus the first snows that fall in the...

This, indeed, I have not tried, but I should guess it would rather be driven off through the vessel, especially if the vessel be metal, as being a better conductor than air; and...

It seems plain, by these few instances, that whirlwinds do not always attend spouts; and that the water really descends in some of them. But the following consideration, in conf...

Is it not this sphere of fire which kindles the wandering globes that sometimes pass through it in our course round the sun, have their surface kindled by it, and burst when the...

The air in sultry weather, though not cloudy, has a kind of haziness in it, which makes objects at a distance appear dull and indistinct. This haziness is occasioned by the grea...

B 2, figure 4, shows the upper side of the same plate, with a square impression or groove for receiving the bottom mouldings T T T T of the three-sided box C, figure 5, which is...

I once promised myself the pleasure of seeing you at Turin, but as that is not now likely to happen, being just about returning to my native country, America, I sit down to take...

1. _Smoky chimneys in a new house, are such, frequently from mere want of air._ The workmanship of the rooms being all good, and just out of the workman's hand, the joints of th...

Let the pieces read by the scholars in this class be short; such as Croxal's fables, and little stories. In giving the lesson, let it be read to them; let the meaning of the dif...

I would not however be supposed to allow in what I have just said, that cheating the king is a less offence against honesty, than cheating the public. The king and the public in...

17. Some European nations prudently refuse to consume the manufactures of East India:--they should likewise forbid them to their colonies; for the gain to the merchant is not to...

8. A room, that has no fire in its chimney, is sometimes filled with _smoke which is received at the top of its funnel and descends into the room_. In a former paper[54] I have...

The chimney being first well swept and cleansed from soot, &c. lay the bottom plate down on the hearth, in the place where the fire-place is to stand, which may be as forward as...

On mature reflection, this scheme appears the more honourable to the national character of any which can be conceived, as it is grounded on the noblest principle of benevolence....

"Have these erika considered the consequences of granting their petition? If we cease our cruises against the christians, how shall we be furnished with the commodities their co...

There is, however, one late instance of an English merchant, who will not profit by such ill-gotten gain. He was, it seems, part-owner of a ship, which the other owners thought...

|Characters | | |_Sounded_ respectively, as in | |the Words in the Column below. | | | | |_Names_ of Letters as expressed in | | |the reformed Sounds and Characters. | | | | | |...

**** I like your ballad, and think it well adapted for your purpose of discountenancing expensive foppery, and encouraging industry and frugality. If you can get it generally su...

This is Volume 2 of a 3-volume set. The other two volumes are also accessible in Project Gutenberg using https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48136 and https://www.gutenberg.org/ebo...

_Heat_, produced by electricity and by lightning, i. 338, 339. better conducted by some substances than others, ii. 56, 58. how propagated, 58. the pain it occasions, how produc...

After these trifles, permit the addition of a few general reflections. Navigation, when employed in supplying necessary provisions to a country in want, and thereby preventing f...

_Chimnies_, different kinds of, enumerated, ii. 228. inconvenience of the old-fashioned ones, 229. defect of more modern ones, 230. have not long been in use in England, 277. St...

_Rivers_, from the Andes, how formed, i. 209. motion of the tides in, explained, ii. 96, 102. do not run into the sea, 105. evaporate before they reach the sea, 106. inflammabil...