WILSON (Benjamin). A Treatise on Electricity.1752

London: Printed and sold by C. Davis, Second edition, 8vo (202 x 122 mm), vii, [3], 224pp., five folding engraved plates at rear, title somewhat spotted, occasional minor spotting and a few marks, light water stain to upper outer corners of plates, contemporary calf, joints repaired. First published in 1750, this second edition refers in its preface to Benjamin Franklyn ('Mr. Franklyn of Philadelphia'), whose own Experiments and Observations on Electricity made at Philadelphia in America had been published in 1751. Franklin himself sent his copy of the 1752 second edition of Wilson's treatise to his colleague Cadwallader Colden on 14th September 1752, with the observation 'I send you Mr. Wilson's Book,which I just receiv'd from London, and think it contains the best Directions for the Use of the [electoral] Machine that are extant'. Benjamin Wilson (1708-1788) was not only a man of science but also an eminent painter who was born in Leeds, he made portraits of many notables of his time, including Martin Folkes, Lord Orrery, Lord Chesterfield, David Garrick, Samuel Foote, John Parsons, Thomas Grey, as well as a portrait of Shakespeare for Stratford Town Hall in 1769. Provenance: Early nineteenth-century engraved bookplate of R. H. Alexander Bennet.