Observations upon Lightning, and the Method of securing Buildings from its Effects: In a Letter to Sir Charles Frederick, Surveyor-General of His Majesty's Ordinance, By Benjamin Wilson, F. R. S.

One area of difference in those studying lightning rods was whether they should terminate in a sharp point or be blunt. The Royal Society's special committee, consisting of H. Cavendish, William Watson, Benjamin Franklin and J. Robertson was appointed to study this issue and report back to the Royal Society. They recommended pointed rods. An attachment to that report, by Benjamin Wilson, dissented with that decision and recommended blunt tipped rods.

This paper, "Observations upon Lightning, and the Method of securing Buildings from its Effects: In a Letter to Sir Charles Frederick, Surveyor-General of His Majesty's Ordinance, By Benjamin Wilson, F. R. S." continues Mr. Wilson's arguments on the pointed vs blunt lightning rods and his opposition to the decision of the Select Committee. Included with this paper, on the last page, is a one page response to Mr. Wilson' paper, titled "A Letter to Sir John Pringle, Bart. Pr. R. S. on pointed Conductors" written by H. Cavendish, William Watson, Benjamin Franklin and J. Robertson", stating "...Having heard and considered the objections to our Report, concerning the fixing pointed Conductors to the Magazines at Purfleet...we find no reason to change our opinion, or vary from that Report."

The one-page response did not end the conflict between Wilson and Benjamin Franklin over the desired shape of the end of a lightning rod. Wilson published a second pamphlet, "Further Observations upon Lightning; Together with Some Experiments …", in 1774, and sent Franklin a presentation copy, dated May 25, 1774. Although this book offering does not include a copy of the pamphlet, it does include a copy of a write-up describing Wilson's claims and Franklin's responses. The write-up appeared in a website called "Founders Online", which is an official website of the U.S. government, administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, in partnership with the University of Virginia Press.

The offered item is a First Edition, extracted and disbound from The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 63, Part I For the Year 1773, pages 49-66. This volume of the transactions was published in London in 1774. The disbound item measures approximately 6 1/4 x 8 1/2 inches and is in good/very good condition. The illustrations accompanying this description show the first page of Mr. Wilson's 1773 paper, the one-page response of the Special Committee to the Wilson document, and a copy of the first page of the Founders Online article, Notes on Marginalia in Benjamin Wilson, "Further Observations upon Lightning, [After 25 May 1774)".

Benjamin Wilson (June 21, 1721 – June 6, 1788) was an English painter, printmaker and scientist (natural philosopher). As a scientist he opposed Benjamin Franklin's theory of positive and negative electricity. Instead, Wilson supported Isaac Newton's gravitational-optical ether, which he supposed to differ in density around bodies in accordance with their degrees of electrification. Wilson also opposed Franklin's theory of pointed lightning rods, holding that blunt conductors performed better than pointed ones. [Wikipedia]