Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
or description of Pliny the Elder survives today, this highly imaginative 19
th
century portrait
is often passed off as being authentic.
Benjamin Franklin: (1772)
Benjamin Franklin was an early American statesman, an internationally renowned scien-
tist, and a world-class tinkerer (
Figure 2.2
). Scientifically he is best known as being one of the
discoverers of electricity based on his courageous kite experiment from 1750. However,
Franklin had an exceptional curiosity and dabbled in many other ventures including creating
the first public library and fire department, inventing a new musical instrument, the glass
harmonica, that Mozart wrote a piece for, accurately mapping the Gulf Stream, suggesting
Daylight Saving Time and becoming 'the Father of Metrology'. One of Franklin's lesser
known contributions involved 'the stilling of waves by oil'. Franklin's oil slick work is
described in an interesting 1989 topic, Ben Franklin Stilled the Waves, by Charles Tanford
[5]
. Tanford is better known for his development of the 'Hydrophobic Effect Theory' that
describes the physics behind membrane stabilization (Chapter 3). Franklin's wave-stilling
experiment was first done on a mission to London representing the American colony, from
Pennsylvania. In a 1772 visit to the Lake District in northern England, he poured a single
teaspoon of olive oil (primarily triolein) in the Derwent Water lake. The oil rapidly spread,
smoothing the water surface over an incredible ½ acre! He recognized that the oil layer
must be very thin, since it displayed 'prismatic colors,' as described by Isaac Newton in
his topic Opticks. Franklin also noted that if a similar drop of oil was placed on a polished
FIGURE 2.2
1777 Portrait of Benjamin Franklin (1706
e
1790) by Jean-Baptiste Greuze.
