e Royal Society of London, a present of a
glass tube, with some account of the use of it in making such
experiments. I eagerly seized the opportunity of repeating what I had
seen at Boston; and, by much practice, acquir'd great readiness in
performing those, also, which we had an account of from England, adding
a number of new ones. I say much practice, for my house was
continually full, for some time, with people who came to see these new
wonders.

To divide a little this incumbrance among my friends, I caused a number
of similar tubes to be blown at our glass-house, with which they
furnish'd themselves, so that we had at length several performers.
Among these, the principal was Mr. Kinnersley, an ingenious neighbor,
who, being out of business, I encouraged to undertake showing the
experiments for money, and drew up for him two lectures, in which the
experiments were rang'd in such order, and accompanied with such
explanations in such method, as that the foregoing should assist in
comprehending the following. He procur'd an elegant apparatus for the
purpose, in which all the little machines that I had roughly made for
myself were nicely form'd by instrument-makers. His lectures were well
attended, and gave great satisfaction; and after some time he went
thro' the colonies, exhibiting them in every capital town, and pick'd
up some money. In the West India islands, indeed, it was with
difficulty the experiments could be made, from the general moisture of
the air.

Oblig'd as we were to Mr. Collinson for his present of the tube, etc.,
I thought it right he should be inform'd of our success in using it,
and wrote him several letters containing accounts of our experiments.
He got them read in the Royal Society, where they were not at first
thought worth so much notice as to be printed in their Transactions.
One paper, which I wrote for Mr. Kinnersley, on the sameness of
lightning with electricity, I sent to Dr. Mitchel, an acquaintance of
mine, and one of the members also of that society, who wrote me word
that it had been read, but was laughed at by the connoisseurs. The
papers, however, being shown to Dr. Fothergill, he thought them of too
much value to be stifled, and advis'd the printing of them. Mr.
Collinson then gave them to Cave for publication in his Gentleman's
Magazine; but he chose to print them separately in a pamphlet, and Dr.
Fothergill wrote the preface. Cave, it seems, judged rightly for his
profi