The Egyptians had the
water-wheel and the rudimentary blast-furnace. The pendulum clock
appears to have been an invention of the Middle Ages. The art of
printing from movable type, beginning with Gutenberg about 1450,
helped to further the Renaissance. The improved mariner's compass
enabled Columbus to find the New world; gunpowder made possible
its conquest. The compound microscope and the first practical
telescope came from the spectacle makers of Middelburg, Holland,
the former about 1590 and the latter about 1608. Harvey, an
English physician, had discovered the circulation of the blood in
1628, and Newton, an English mathematician, the law of
gravitation in 1685.
If Franklin's desire to continue his scientific researches had
been gratified, it is possible that he might have discovered some
of the secrets for which the world waited until Edison and his
contemporaries revealed them more than a century later.
Franklin's scientific reputation has grown with the years, and
some of his views seem in perfect accord with the latest
developments in electricity. But he was not to be permitted to
continue his experiments. He had shown his ability to manage men
and was to be called to a wider field.
Franklin's influence among his fellow citizens in Philadelphia
was very great.
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