1From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Banks, 30 August[–2 September 1783] (Franklin Papers)
LS : Royal Society; press copy of LS : Harvard University Library; AL (draft): University of Pennsylvania Library; copy: Library of Congress During August, while Etienne Montgolfier was conferring with the Académie des sciences, working on his new balloon, and pursuing his business interests as a papermaker, his competitors were scrambling to figure out how they could safely generate the 900...
2From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Banks, 27 July 1783 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : British Library; copy: Library of Congress In this letter, prompted by Banks’s overture of May 28, Franklin rejoices in the peace, muses on the folly of war, and reclaims his place in the British scientific community, as he had long wished to do. Erasing eight years of estrangement, he notes with pleasure the recent discoveries made by “our” Society. By way of reciprocation, he adds a...
3From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Banks, 9 September 1782 (Franklin Papers)
LS : British Library; AL (draft) and copy: Library of Congress I have just received the very kind friendly Letter you were so good as to write to me by Dr. Bonssonnet [Broussonet]. Be assured that I long earnestly for a Return of those peaceful Times, when I could sit down in sweet Society with my English philosophic Friends, communicating to each other new Discoveries, and proposing...