Mr. Kinnersley possessed great merit, in the estimation of the learned world, “in being the chief inventor of the Electrical Apparatus, as well as author of a considerable part of those discoveries in Electricity, published by Mr. Franklin, to whom he communicated them. Indeed Mr. Franklin himself mentions his name with honour; though he has not been careful enough to distinguish between their particular discoveries. This, perhaps, he may have thought needless, as they were known to act in concert. But, though that circumstance was known here, it was not so in remote parts of the world, to which the fame of these discoveries has extended.” The passage here quoted, is copied from an account of the college and academy of Philadelphia, published in October, 1758. Dr. Franklin’s experiment with the electrical kite—which established the theory on which the metallic conductors of lightning were introduced, for the security of buildings, and those within them, from injury by that element—was made in June, 1752; and his letter, giving an account of it, is dated the 19th of October following. But Mr. de Romas, a Frenchman, to whom his countryman the Abbé Bertholon ascribes the honour of the experiment with the kite, made his first attempt on the 14th of May, 1753: he did not succeed, until the 7th of the next month; a year after Dr. Franklin had completed his experiments, and then generally known in Europe. It is noticed by the late ingenious Dr. Stuber, of Philadelphia, in his continuation of the Life of Franklin, that “his (Dr. Franklin’s) friend, Mr. Kinnersley, communicated to him a discovery of” (what Dr. Stuber terms) “the different kinds of electricity, excited by rubbing glass and sulphur.” This, it is said, was first observed by Mr. Du Faye; though afterwards not attended to, for many years. It seems, however, that the electricians of Europe, with Du Faye himself, had conceived a mistaken notion on this subject; and that Franklin had, at first, adopted their doctrine. “But,” says the continuator of his Life, “upon repeating the experiments, he perceived that Mr. Kinnersley was right; and the vitreous and the resinous electricity of Du Faye were nothing more than the positive and negative states which he had before observed; that the glass globe charged positively, or encreased the quantity of electricity on the prime conductor,—whilst the globe of sulphur diminished its natural quantity, or charged negatively.”