Letter To The Abbe Soulavie 22 September 1782 On The Theory Of The Earth And Its Magnetism From Memoirs Of The Life And Writings Of Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin writes his conjectures about the internal composition and structure of the earth, being quite certain from observable surface changes that the interior is not a solid but a dense fluid. He turns then to magnetism. Franklin supposes that the whole earth is one large magnet, and that since "the fluid of magnetism perhaps exists in all space," someone on a journey "from star to star" could be guided by a compass. He concludes with an apology for having "permitted myself to wander a little in the wilds of fancy" but offers the excuse that in his present circumstances he is not able to study scientific matters with experimentation and observation.

This comprehensive collection of the writings of Benjamin Franklin includes letters, essays, and other literary works from throughout Franklin's life. The editor, Albert Henry Smyth, was a renowned American literary scholar and educator in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This book is an essential resource for anyone interested in the life and work of one of America's most important founding fathers. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library T126964 Anonymous. By Benjamin Franklin. Only 100 copies printed. London: printed in the year, 1725. 32p.; 8°

How old is the Earth? At the end of the 19th century, geologists, biologists, physicists and astronomers were all looking for a clock that would provide an answer to this greatest time question of all. Here is the story of one man's vision in developing a geological time scale that would finally lead to an accurate date for the age of the Earth