# Is "Experiments and Observations on Electricity" by Benjamin Franklin a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Experiments and Observations on Electricity by Benjamin Franklin (Printed and sold by E. Cave, at St. John's Gate, London, 1751) is identified by: Quarto, appeared April 1751 with the imprint 'London: Printed and sold by E. The census claim is correct, and the counter-intuitive fact is precisely the point worth publishing: the most important scientific book of eighteenth-century America (Printing and the Mind of Man) has a London first edition and no American first at all.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Quarto, appeared April 1751 with the imprint 'London: Printed and sold by E. Cave, at St
- John's Gate
- 1751.' The full title reads 'Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at Philadelphia in America, by Mr
- Benjamin Franklin, and Communicated in several Letters to Mr
- P. Collinson, of London, F.R.S.' Part I collates [4], 86, [2] pp. with one folding engraved plate signed 'T. Jefferys sculp.'; signatures are recorded as [A]² B–M (L signed L), with vertical chain lines consistent with the quarto format
- Bookseller's advertisements occupy pp. [87]–[88], and a printed price statement appears below the imprint on the title-page (identification only — no amount is quoted here)
- Publisher imprint reads Printed and sold by E. Cave, at St. John's Gate, London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Benjamin Franklin |
| Publisher | Printed and sold by E. Cave, at St. John's Gate, London |
| Year | 1751 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Quarto, appeared April 1751 with the imprint 'London: Printed and sold by E. Cave, at St |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Quarto, appeared April 1751 with the imprint 'London: Printed and sold by E. Cave, at St. John's Gate. 1751.' The full title reads 'Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at Philadelphia in America, by Mr. Benjamin Franklin, and Communicated in several Letters to Mr. P. Collinson, of London, F.R.S.' Part I collates [4], 86, [2] pp. with one folding engraved plate signed 'T. Jefferys sculp.'; signatures are recorded as [A]² B–M (L signed L), with vertical chain lines consistent with the quarto format. Bookseller's advertisements occupy pp. [87]–[88], and a printed price statement appears below the imprint on the title-page (identification only — no amount is quoted here). Point of issue: p. 79 is misnumbered '76'. The running title reads 'Mr. B. Franklin's Letters on Electricity'. References: PMM 199; Dibner 57; Horblit 31a; Howes F320; Ford 79, 95, 97; Sabin 25559.

## Is this the true first?
The census claim is correct, and the counter-intuitive fact is precisely the point worth publishing: the most important scientific book of eighteenth-century America (Printing and the Mind of Man) has a London first edition and no American first at all. Franklin's letters went to Peter Collinson, who communicated them to the Royal Society; Edward Cave of the Gentleman's Magazine printed them at St. John's Gate. No Philadelphia printing precedes or parallels the 1751 London edition. As collected, the complete first edition is the 1751 Part I together with the two supplements Cave issued to extend it — 'Supplemental Experiments and Observations' (1753, 20 pp.) and 'New Experiments and Observations', Part III (1754, 44 pp.). PMM 199 cites the first edition in three parts, 1751–54, so a 1751 Part I standing alone is the first edition of Part I but not the complete first edition as the reference literature defines it.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book clubs; the governing trap here is the phrase 'first complete edition'. Five English editions appeared in Franklin's lifetime: the first, 1751, with the additional parts of 1753 and 1754; the second, 1754 (Parts I and II only); the third, 1760, with further parts in 1762 and 1764; the fourth, 1769; and the fifth, 1774. The 1769 fourth edition (London: for David Henry, sold by Francis Newbery) states on its title-page 'The Whole corrected, methodized, improved, and now first collected into one Volume', contains seven engraved plates of which two fold, and is routinely and accurately catalogued by dealers as the 'first complete edition' — but it is the fourth edition, not the first, and the wording misleads. Practical rule: a single volume with multiple plates, or any Henry/Newbery imprint, is 1769 or later; the 1751 first is a thin quarto with a single folding plate and Cave's St. John's Gate imprint.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Experiments and Observations on Electricity* by Benjamin Franklin a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/experiments-and-observations-on-electricity
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.