A Letter to Mr. Benjamin Wilson, F.R.S. concerning Electricity

This paper, A Letter to Mr. Benjamin Wilson, F.R.S. concerning Electricity; from Mr. Thorbern Bergman is written in Latin and was first read before the Royal Society on November 20, 1760. The paper seems to discuss a correlation between electricity and the aurora borealis, although someone competent in Latin may find other meanings in the text. As an example, the first sentence of the paper, when translated to English, reads "Do not threaten, Most Famous Man, that I, devoted to physics, seek your friendship with the Sciences, whose name has long been illustrious in this kind of Science in the learned world."

The item is a First Edition, extracted and disbound from The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 51, For the Years 1759 & 1760, pages 907-909, plus one extended plate. This volume was published in 1761. The pages of the paper are tanned, but the text is clear and easily read. The item is in good condition.

The illustrations accompanying this description show the first page of the paper and the extended plate containing a figure supporting the paper's text.

Thorbern Olaf Bergman (20 March 1735 – 8 July 1784) was a Swedish chemist and mineralogist noted for his 1775 Dissertation on Elective Attractions, containing the largest chemical affinity tables ever published. Bergman was the first chemist to use the A, B, C, etc., system of notation for chemical species. In 1764, Bergman was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In April, 1765 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London [Wikipedia]

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]