Abbott Bernhard Baillie made it possible for Gordon to make education journeys to Austria, France and Italy, in particular to Rome.
Gordon soon acquired considerable reputation by his works on electricity, among which were Phaenomena electricitatis exposita (1744), Philosophia utilis et jucunda (1745) and Physicae experimentalis elementa (1751–52).
The name of Gordon was not always mentioned, though both inventions are fully described by him in his Versuch einer Erklarung der Electricitat (Erfurt 1745).
Benjamin Franklin, who is usually credited with the latter invention, simply adopted the "German chimes" (described by Watson in his famous Sequel, 1746) to serve as an electrical annunciator in connection with his experimental lightning rod of 1752.
The "whirl" was an electrostatic reaction motor, the earliest of its kind;[1] while the second derives its theoretical importance as the first instance of the application of what came to be called electric convection.