-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Ben Franklin Globe
Date:   Thu, 04 May 2006 14:15:45 -0400
From:   Abraham Parrish <[log in to unmask]>
To:     [log in to unmask]

Does anyone know anything about this globe? [MENTIONED BELOW]

Abraham Parrish
Geographic Information Systems Specialist
Yale University Library Map Collection GIS Service
Sterling Memorial Library 707
130 Wall St.
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
Phone: 203-432-0221
Fax: 203-432-8240
Web: www.yale.edu/gis


I am doing research on a globe which Benjamin Franklin constructed and
displayed in his home in France in the 1780s.  According to a letter from
Jan Ingenhouz of August 15, 1783, Ingenhousz describes the globe as
"swimming in a large glass globe filled with water and aether, and having
two magnets within it and one in the pedestal to keep the globe in the
center and preventing it from swimming to the sides".  In a letter of April
29, 1785 Franklin told Ingenhousz that the globe was not his invention, but
that of someone whose name he had forgotten, and that the invention dated
from more than 100 years earlier. Transcriptions of both of these letters
are available on line at http://www.franklinpapers.org.

Any suggestions on the nature of this globe, or the identity of the
originator of the design will be gratefully acknowledged in our forthcoming
volume.

With apologies for any cross posting and thanks in advance for your help,

Sincerely,

Kate Mearns Ohno
Assistant Editor
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
PO Box 208240
Yale University
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
tel. (203) 432-1813
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.yale.edu/franklinpapers
http://www.franklinpapers.org