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CXCVII: TO MISS MARY STEVENSON - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. III Letters and Misc. Writings 1753-1763 [1904]

Edition used:

The Works of Benjamin Franklin, including the Private as well as the Official and Scientific Correspondence, together with the Unmutilated and Correct Version of the Autobiography, compiled and edited by John Bigelow (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904). The Federal Edition in 12 volumes. Vol. III (Letters and Misc. Writings 1753-1763).

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CXCVII

TO MISS MARY STEVENSON

  • Craven Street,

Monday, 30 March, 1761.

My Dear Friend:—

Supposing the fact that the water of the well at Bristol is warmer after some time pumping, I think your manner of accounting for that increased warmth very ingenious and probable. It did not occur to me, and therefore I doubted of the fact.

You are, I think, quite right in your opinion, that the rising of the tides in rivers is not owing to the immediate influence of the moon on the rivers. It is rather a subsequent effect of the influence of the moon on the sea, and does not make its appearance in some rivers till the moon has long passed by. I have not expressed myself clearly, if you have understood me to mean otherwise. You know I have mentioned it as a fact, that there are in some rivers several tides all existing at the same time; that is, two, three, or more high-waters, and as many low-waters, in different parts of the same river, which cannot possibly be all effects of the moon’s immediate action on that river, but they may be subsequent effects of her action on the sea.

In the enclosed paper you will find my sentiments on several points relating to the air and the evaporation of water. It is Mr. Collinson’s copy, who took it from one I sent through his hands to a correspondent in France some years since; I have, as he desired me, corrected the mistakes he made in transcribing, and must return it to him; but if you think it worth while you may take a copy of it. I would have saved you any trouble of that kind, but had not time.

Some day in the next or the following week I purpose to have the pleasure of seeing you at Wanstead. I shall accompany your good mamma thither, and stay till the next morning, if it may be done without incommoding your family too much. We may then discourse any points in that paper that do not seem clear to you, and, taking a walk to Lord Tilney’s ponds, make a few experiments there to explain the nature of the tides more fully. In the mean time, believe me to be, with the highest esteem and regard,

Your sincerely affectionate friend,

B. Franklin.