Benjamin Franklin

I'm reading a book on my Kindle called Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography & Experiments and Observations on Electricity. I'm finding the reading, let me say, interesting. The language obviously is in his own voice at the time. The English language has certainly changed since then, so understanding some of it is difficult at times.

I do have an electric/electronic background and I am finding it difficult as well to capture and understand the concepts that he speaks of. I scanned a page and it's shown below. Unfortunately the figures are not contained in this version so I have to try and visualize what is actually being done. See for yourself..