---
title: "Experiments and Observations on Electricity"
chunk: 1/1
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiments_and_Observations_on_Electricity"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:32:11.008947+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Experiments and Observations on Electricity is a treatise by Benjamin Franklin based on letters that he wrote to Peter Collinson, who communicated Franklin's ideas to the Royal Society. The letters were published as a book in England in 1751, and over the following years the book was reissued in four more editions containing additional material, the last in 1774. Science historian I. Bernard Cohen crafted an edition with historical commentary that was published in 1941.


== References ==


== Further reading ==
"Experiments and Observations, [April 1751]". Founders Online. National Archives. Original source: Labaree, Leonard W., ed. (1961). The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 4, July 1, 1750, through June 30, 1753. Yale University Press. pp. 125–130.
Watson, William (1751). "An Account of Mr. Benjamin Franklin's Treatise, Lately Published, Intituled, Experiments and Observations on Electricity, Made at Philadelphia in America; By Wm. Watson, F. R. S.". Philosophical Transactions. 47: 202–211. JSTOR 105044.


== External links ==
Experiments and observations on electricity, made at Philadelphia in America (1751), scanned from a copy in Franklin's personal library with his own handwritten notes, at the Internet Archive