so totally
engrossed my attention and my time as this has lately done; for what
with making experiments when I can be alone, and repeating them to
my friends and acquaintance, who, from the novelty of the thing,
come continually in crowds to see them, I have, during some months
past, had little leisure for anything else.

I am, etc.,
"B. FRANKLIN."

"PHILADELPHIA, 11 July, 1747.
"_To Peter Collinson_:

"SIR--In my last I informed you that in pursuing our electrical
inquiries we had observed some particular phenomena which we looked
upon to be new, and of which I promised to give you some account,
though I apprehended they might not possibly be new to you, as so
many hands are daily employed in electrical experiments on your side
of the water, some or other of which would probably hit on the same
observations.

"The first thing is the wonderful effect of pointed bodies, both in
_drawing off_ and _throwing off_ the electrical fire. For example:

"Place an iron shot of three or four inches diameter on the mouth
of a clean, dry glass bottle. By a fine silken thread from the
ceiling, right over the mouth of the bottle, suspend a small cork
ball about the bigness of a marble, the thread of such a length as
that the cork ball may rest against the side of the shot. Electrify
the shot, and the ball will be repelled to the distance of four or
five inches, more or less, according to the quantity of electricity.
When in this state, if you present to the shot the point of a long,
slender, sharp bodkin, at six or eight inches distance, the
repellency is instantly destroyed, and the cork flies to the shot. A
blunt body must be brought within an inch and draw a spark to
produce the same effect. To prove that the electrical fire is drawn
off by the point, if you take the blade of the bodkin out of the
wooden handle and fix it in a stick of sealing-wax, and then present
it at the distance aforesaid, or if you bring it very near, no such
effect follows; but sliding one finger along the wax till you touch
the blade, the ball flies to the shot immediately. If you present
the point in the dark you will see, sometimes at a foot distance and
more, a light gather upon it, like that of a firefly or glow-worm;
the less sharp the point, the nearer you must bring it to observe
the light;