To Benjamin Franklin from ——— Beyer, 17 January 1785
From———Beyer4
LS: American Philosophical Society
Paris ce 17. Janvier 1785.
Monsieur,
Les bontés dont vous daignés m’honorer m’enhardissent à prendre la liberté de vous informer que MM. de l’académie m’ont fait dire de me rendre à leur assemblée de mercredi prochain, avec l’instrument dont je Suis l’inventeur. Comme je ne fais aucun doute, Monsieur, du plaisir que vous aurés à apprendre le Jugement que ces Mrs. auront porté Sur la Construction de mon instrument, Je me ferai un devoir de vous en instruire et de vous demander de nouveau la Continuation de vos bontés et de votre puissante protection.5
Je Suis avec un trés profond respect, Monsieur, Votre trés humble et trés obéissant Serviteur
Beyer
M. francklin.
Notation: Beyer 17 Jan. 856
4. The German-born inventor of the instrument referred to here, which BF would later christen the glass-chord: XLII, 460n.
5. As Beyer evidently anticipated, BF did not attend the meeting of the Académie des sciences on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 1785, at which Beyer presented his instrument and four commissioners were chosen to examine it. Bochart de Saron (XXVI, 664n), René-Just Haüy, Alexandre Vandermonde, and Grandjean de Fouchy (XXVII,, 341n) presented their report on March 18. The instrument, they wrote, was in the form of a fortepiano, in which padded hammers struck glass bars. It never needed tuning, which was an advantage, and its tone was “douce et agréable,” ideally suited to the voice. They granted their approbation and hoped that the instrument’s current range of three octaves could be extended: Académie des sciences, Procès-verbaux, CIV (1785), II, 52–4. TJ took the same view of the instrument in a letter to Francis Hopkinson of July 6: Jefferson Papers, VIII, 263.
6. On the verso, where the notation appears, are three sketches (unrelated to the letter) and an arithmetic calculation in BF’s hand.