of
the hempen string a common key was suspended. With intense anxiety and
no slight apprehension of danger, he held the line. Soon he observed
the fibres of the hempen string to rise and separate themselves, as
was the case of the hair on the head, when any one was placed on an
insulating stool. He applied his knuckle to the key, and received an
unmistakable spark. As the story is generally told, with occasionally
slight contradictions, he applied his knuckle again and again to the
key with a similar result. He charged a Leyden jar with the fluid and
both he and his son took a shock. He then drew in his kite, packed up
his apparatus and returned to his laboratory probably the most
exultant and happy man in this wide world.

Most of the English and many of the French philosophers were very
unwilling to believe that an obscure American, in what they deemed the
savage and uncultivated wilds of the New World, was outstripping them
in philosophical research. They were unwilling to acknowledge the
reality of his experiments; but in France, where an American would
receive more impartial treatment, three of the most eminent
philosophers, Count de Buffon, M. Dalibard and M. de Lor, at different
places, raised the apparatus Franklin had recommended to draw
electricity from the clouds. Their success was unmistakable; the
results of these experiments were proclaimed throughout Europe.

Franklin had now obtained renown. No one could deny that he merited a
high position among the most eminent philosophers. The experiments he
had suggested were tried by scientists in the philosophical circles of
every country in Europe.

Both Yale and Harvard, in this country, conferred upon him the
honorary degree of Master of Arts, and the Royal Society, in Europe,
by a unanimous vote, elected him a member, remitting the usual
initiation fee of five guineas, and the annual charge of two and a
half guineas. The next year this Society conferred upon him the Copley
medal.

For seven years Franklin continued to devote himself almost
exclusively to this science, and he became, without doubt, the most
accomplished electrician in the world. At the same time his mind was
ever active in devising new schemes for the welfare of humanity. The
most trivial events would often suggest to him measures conducive to
the most beneficial results. It is said that Franklin saw one day in a
ditch the fragments of a basket of yellow willow, in which some
foreign comm