Ebenezer Kinnersley

Kinnersley devoted all his time to the subject, and in a couple of years the discoveries that were made were such as to astound the learned of Europe, to whom they were communicated by Franklin in his letters to the well-known Peter Collinson, of London, by whom they were published.

The "electric fire," as it was then termed, was a subject that engrossed scientific scholars in England and on the continent of Europe, but the Philadelphia philosophers appeared to surpass all in their discoveries.

While at Boston, Kinnersley continued his experiments and discovered the difference between the electricity that was produced by the glass and sulphur globes, which he at once communicated to Franklin at Philadelphia.

From Boston, Kinnersley went to Newport, Rhode Island, and, in March 1752, repeated his lectures there and suggested how houses and barns might be protected from lightning.

In 1753, Kinnersley was elected chief master in the College of Philadelphia, and in 1755 he was appointed professor of English and oratory, holding the office until 1772, when, owing to failing health, he resigned.

In the United States, he was better known than Franklin, and even in Europe his name was very frequently mentioned, as may be seen in Joseph Priestley's History of Electricity, and in a volume published by the Abbé Beccaria of the University of Turin.