ns into amusing conflict with the habits of other persons.
On one occasion in a tavern he was compelled to occupy the same bed
with John Adams, who, being an invalid and afraid of night air, shut
down the window. "Oh!" says Franklin, "don't shut the window, we shall
be suffocated." Adams answered that he feared the evening air. Dr.
Franklin replied, "The air within the chamber will soon be, and indeed
now is, worse than that without doors. Come, open the window and come
to bed, and I will convince you. I believe you are not acquainted with
my theory of colds." Whereupon Adams got into bed, and the Doctor began
an harangue upon air and cold, respiration and perspiration, with which
the Bostonian was so much amused that he soon fell asleep and left
Franklin and his philosophy together. The effect of drafts on chimneys
was just as interesting to our philosopher as their effect on the human
system, and it was one of his diversions when visiting the great houses
of England and Europe to cure smoky fireplaces. From chimneys to stoves
is an easy step, and the invention of the so-called Pennsylvania stove
is one of his best known achievements.

All his life he was an observer of the weather, and a student of the
winds and tides. His first discovery in natural history was an
observation of the fact that storms move against the wind, that is, for
instance, that a northeast storm along the coast is felt at
Philadelphia earlier than at Boston. He made a careful study of the
temperature of the gulf stream in the Atlantic; and in a letter written
when he was seventy-nine years old he gives a long account of his
inventions and observations in nautical matters.

But his discoveries in electricity quite overshadow all his other work
of the sort, and on them must rest his real claim to scientific renown.
For many years the world had been amusing itself with various machines
for making sparks and giving shocks, and after the discovery of the
Leyden jar, in 1745, the manipulation of electrical toys and machines
became the rage among scientists and even among the people of society.
Just about this time a friend in England sent Franklin specimens of the
glass tubes used to create electricity by friction, and immediately
Franklin's inquisitive mind was fired to take up the new study. So
fully indeed was his attention engrossed by the series of experiments
he now undertook, alone and with several investigating friends in the
city, that busine