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Benjamin Franklin and the Early Scientific Vision - 1780

In 1780, from his residence in France, Benjamin Franklin (he then being the American Ambassador to that kingdom) wrote the letter, below, to the English natural philosopher, Joseph Priestley. The quotation (highlighted in blue) is cited frequently in the history of life-extension.

Dear Sir, Passy, Feb.8, 1780 Your kind Letter of Sept. 27. came to hand but very lately, the Bearer having staid long in Holland. I always rejoice to hear of your being still employ'd in Experimental Researches into Nature, and of the Success you meet with. The rapid Progress true Science now makes, occasions my Regretting sometimes that I was born so soon. It is impossible to imagine the Height to which may be carried in a 1000 Years the Power of Man over Matter. We may perhaps learn to deprive large Masses of their Gravity & give them absolute Levity, for the sake of easy Transport. Agriculture may diminish its Labour & double its Produce. All Diseases may by sure means be prevented or cured, not excepting even that of Old Age, and our Lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the antediluvian Standard. O that moral Science were in as fair a Way of Improvement, that Men would cease to be Wolves to one another, and the human Beings would at length learn what they now improperly call Humanity.- I am glad my little Paper on the Aurora Borealis pleas'd. If it should occasion farther Enquiry, & so produce a better Hypothesis, it will not be wholly useless - I am ever, with the greatest & most sincere Esteem, Dear Sir, Yours very affectionately - BF Reference. Oberg, B (Editor) The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol 31, page 455-456, Yale Univ. Press 1995.

Ben Franklin by Jean-Antoine Houdon 1778 National Portrait Gallery http://www.npg.si.edu Accession Number: NPG.76.40

Several aspects of this communication are of interest. First, Franklin predicts that in 1,000 years we will be able to transport large masses and double the agricultural yield. In his day, only animals and rudimentary mechanical pulleys were available to augment manpower. Alleviating toil was a major ambition of civilization from ancient times to the present. For example, Henry Ford, in the early 20th Century, was originally driven by the ambition to invent a "mechanical horse" (later termed "tractor") to release the farmer from a life of drudgery and to increase agricultural production. Those two predictions have been fulfilled beyond Franklin's most wild imagination. And in terms of disease prevention, medicine, and life-extension, the fulfillment of this science is imminent. The prediction that these event would be realized within a 1,000 years is characteristic in human psychology. Somehow, regardless of how well informed a person may be, the future always seems very far away. When Franklin refers to the prospect of "our Lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the antediluvian Standard" he means the mythical lives of the Hebrew patriarchs in the Torah or Old Testament.

Patriarch	Age of death
Adam	925
Seth	925
Enoch	905
Kenan	910
Mahalalel	895
Jared	962
Methuselah	969
Lemach	777
Noah	950
Genesis Ch. 5 ver. 1-32 and Ch. 9 ver. 28

The letter of Priestley to which Franklin is responding is interesting in itself; and the full text is provided in the pop-up box below.

Dear Sir (Calne Sep. 27. 1779) Though you are so much engaged in affairs of more consequences, I know it will give you some pleasure to be informed that I have been exceedingly successful in the prosecution of my experiments since the publication of my last volume (i.e., Experiments and Observations Relating to Various Branches of Natural Philosophy ... in March xxix, 99-100.) I have confirmed, explained, and extended my former observations on the purification of the atmosphere by means of vegetation; having first discovered that the green matter I treat of in my last volume is a vegetable substance, and then that other plants that grow wholly in water have the same property, all of them without exception imbibing impure air, and emitting it, as excrementations to them, in a dephlo- gisticated state. That the source of this pure air is the impure air in the water is evident from all the plants giving only a certain quantity of air, in proportion to the water in which they are confined, and then giving more air in fresh water. I also find that the water before the plants have been confined in it yields impure air, and afterwards pure air. From these observations I conclude that the reason why my sprigs of mintsometimes failed to purify air, was their not being always healthy in a confined state; whereas these waterplants are as much at their ease in my jars as in the open pond. I have made many other new observations, but they are chiefly of a chymical (chemical) nature, and not worth while making the subject of a letter; tho, when you see an account of them in my next publication, I flatter myself you will think some of them curious and important. As the expence of my experiments is necessarily considerable, Dr. Fothergill (who, in a very obliging manner, interests himself much in them) has, of his own motion, engaged a few of his friends to contribute about 40 pounds per Ann to assist me in defraying the expence. Indeed, without this assistance I must have desisted alto- gether. While I had but a small family I suffered myself to be drawn by my success into expences that now appear to have been rather imprudent. I have been made very happy by the communications of your very ingenious paper on the Aurora Borealis, and by several accounts of the good state of your health and spirits. May this long - continue Yours most sincerely, J Priestly Reference. Oberg, B (Editor) The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol 30, page 407-408, Yale Univ. Press 1995.

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), one of the foremost figures in the history of science (see biographical links 1 & 2), begins his letter by acknowledging that Franklin is "much engaged in affairs of more consequences", by which he must be referring to the fact that Franklin was, at the time, the American Ambassador to France and a central figure in America's revolution against England, Priestley's country. It is intriguing that both gentlemen, as citizens, would technically be at war with each other but, personally, retain the highest collegial relationship. Also, Priestley ends his letter with comments about his funding situation - obviously, a perennial conundrum of scientists.