-------- 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