Benjamin Franklin Papers

From Benjamin Franklin to James Bowdoin, 11 October 1763

To James Bowdoin

ALS:3 Massachusetts Historical Society

Oct. 11. 63

Dear Sir

We found we could not get quite ready to set out to-day, so have adjourn’d our Departure till to-morrow. As Company, (I know not how many) talk of going part of the Way with us,4 I think it will be inconvenient to breakfast with you as proposed. We shall therefore only stop at your Door to take Leave. Herewith you have the Receipt you desired. When you write to Canton and Nairne, enclose your Letter to me, and I will write with it and forward it per the Packet.5 Mr. Winthrop has Æpinus, and I think a Piece also of the same Author, on the Distribution of Heat.6 When he has done with them he will deliver them to you. I am, Dear Sir, with great Esteem Your most obedient humble Servant,

B Franklin

Endorsed: Dr. Franklin’s Letter Oct. 11. 1763. taking leave.

To make Milk Punch

Take 6 quarts of Brandy, and the Rinds of 44 Lemons pared very thin; Steep the Rinds in the Brandy 24 Hours; then strain it off. Put to it 4 Quarts of Water, 4 large Nutmegs grated, 2 quarts of Lemon Juice, 2 pound of double refined Sugar. When the Sugar is dissolv’d, boil 3 Quarts of Milk and put to the rest hot as you take it off the Fire, and stir it about. Let it stand two Hours; then run it thro’ a Jelly-bag till it is clear; then bottle it off.

Addressed: To / James Bowdoin Esq / Roxbury

Endorsed: Dr. Franklin’s rect. to make milk punch.

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

3The letter occupies the first page of the sheet; Bowdoin’s first endorsement stands alone on the second. The recipe, in BF’s hand, is on the third page; the address and Bowdoin’s second endorsement are on the fourth.

4It is not known who accompanied BF, Foxcroft, and Sally nor how far the Boston friends traveled with them.

5John Canton, English electrical experimenter (above, IV, 390 n), and Edward Nairne, English instrument maker (above, this volume, p. 171 n). Bowdoin wanted “a Pedistal of a new Construction for his reflecting Telescope” and a micrometer fixed to the instrument. On Jan. 18, 1764, he wrote BF enclosing a letter he had written Canton, who was to make the arrangements with Nairne. BF forwarded Bowdoin’s letter to Canton and on March 14, 1764, wrote Canton sending along Bowdoin’s letter of January 18 to himself. Bowdoin had shipped the telescope directly to London. Nairne undertook to make the pedestal but reported that the attachment of the micrometer was impractical. Bowdoin to BF, Jan. 18, 1764, Mass. Hist. Soc.; BF to Canton, March 14, 1764, Royal Soc.; Canton to BF, June 29, 1764, APS.

6For the Russian electrician, Franz Ulrich Theodor Aepinus, see above, VIII, 393 n. The books of his which BF lent Winthrop were evidently Tentamen theoriae electricitatis et magnetismi (above, p. 204 n) and Cognitationes de distributione caloris per tellurem (above, p. 267 n). Winthrop returned them through Ezra Stiles in Newport and BF acknowledged their receipt. Bowdoin to BF, July 2, 1764, Mass. Hist. Soc.; BF to Winthrop, July 10, 1764, Harvard Coll. Lib.

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