By the time Benjamin began working at Scientific American it had become more associated with the commercial side of science and patenting of inventions.

Between those editorships Benjamin established, at 37 Park Row, a "Scientific Expert Office" that offered advertising and promotional help, as well as metallurgical and chemical expertise for inventors and manufacturers.

Like the later Scientific American editor John Bernard Walker, he was very interested in the Navy and in coastal defenses, the northeast coast particularly.

That creative method of siege had been used first by Austria against the rebellious Venetians in 1849; the balloon bombs had been successful and their use had been reported in Scientific American at the time.

"The subject is woefully trite", wrote the Nassau Literary Magazine when the story was reprinted in 1885, "the plot is extremely simple ... Its interest is derived solely from its novelty."

Benjamin's story, The End of New York may seem slow, and sometimes thick in Naval detail, but it is a unique origin point in American fiction.

His work is the first New York story to describe specific buildings toppling into the streets, and the ruin of the city and mass evacuation in its gory detail.

Benjamin's widow died in the sanitarium at age 56, just three weeks after his death, leaving Bolchi in total control of the estate.

[1] Beside items listed here, Benjamin wrote numerous magazine articles dealing for the most part with scientific subjects.