Bibliography in progress:
Primary Sources
Benjamin Franklin's extant papers and letters are available via Yale.
The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society are online here.
Ørsted, Hans Christian. Selected Scientific Works of. Translated and edited by Karen Jelved, Andrew D. Jackson, and Ole Knudsen. Princeton University Press: 1998.
Secondary Sources
Aitken, Hugh. Syntony & Sparks. University of Princeton Press: 2014.
Bertucci, Paola. “Sparks in the dark: the attraction of electricity in the eighteenth century,” Endeavour Volume 31, Issue 3, Pages 88-93
Brands, H. W. The First American:The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, Anchor Books: 2002.
Buchwald, Jed Z. The creation of scientific effects : Heinrich Hertz and electric waves
Cantor, Geoffrey, David Gooding, & Frank A.J.L. James. Michael Faraday. Humanities Press, NJ: 1997.
Cohen, I. Bernard, “Benjamin Franklin: An Experimental Newtonian Scientist,” Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Jan., 1952), pp. 2-6
Cohen, I. Bernard, “The Two Hundredth Anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's Two Lightning Experiments and the Introduction of the Lightning Rod,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 96, No. 3 (Jun. 20, 1952), pp. 331-366.
Cohen, I. Bernard, “Franklin’s Scientist Enemies: Real Or Imagined.” in Pennsylvania History. Jan 1998, Vol. 65 Issue 1, p7-20.
Darrigol, Olivier. Electrodynamics from Ampère to Einstein. Oxford University Press: 2000.
Fahnestock, Jeannie. Rhetoric in Science
Gooding, David & Frank A.J.L. James (eds) Faraday Rediscovered: Essays on the Life and Work of Michael Faraday, 1791-1867. Stockton Press, NY: 1985.
Gooding, David. “‘Magnetic Curves’ and the Magnetic Field: Experimentation and Representation in the history of a theory,” in The Uses of experiment : studies in the natural sciences, David, Trevor Pinch, and Simon Schaffer (eds). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 1989, pp. 183-223.
Hackmann, W. D. Electricity from Glass: The history of the frictional electrical machine, 1600-1850. Alphen aan den Rijn : Sijthoff & Noordhoff, 1978.
Hamilton, James. A Life of Discovery: Michael Faraday, Giant of the Scientific Revolution. Random House, NY: 2002.
Heilbron. J.L. Electricity in the 17th and 18th Centuries: A Study of Early Modern Physics. University of California Press: 1979.
Several articles by Heilbron
Hirshfeld, Alan. The Electrical Life of Michael Faraday.
Holland, Jocelyn. German romanticism and science : the procreative poetics of Goethe, Novalis, and Ritter
Kraus, Joe. “Private Libraries in Colonial America,” The Journal of Library History (1974-1987), Vol. 9, No. 1 (Jan., 1974), pp. 31-53
Kuhn, Thomas.
Lemay, Leo
Mottelay, Paul Fleury. Bibliographical history of electricity & magnetism, chronologically arranged. C. Griffin & Co. London: 1922. Reprint: M. Martino, New York: 1993.
Neressian, Nancy. Creating scientific concepts
Pangle, The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin.
Riskin, Jessica. “Poor Richard’s Leyden Jar: Electricity and Economy in Franklinist France,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 1/1/1998, Vol. 28, Issue 2, p. 301-336
Riskin, Jessica. “Concerning Buffon’s role in the translation of Franklin’s letters into French,” in Buffon un philosophe au Jardin du Roi, ed. Jacques Roger, 1989. pp 281-282
Schechner, Sara J. “The Art Of Making Leyden Jars And Batteries According To Benjamin Franklin”
Schechner, Sara J. “Benjamin Franklin and a Tale of Two Electrical Machines”
Schiff, Stacy. A Great Improvisation
Schiffer, Michael Brian. Draw the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology in the Age of Enlightenment, University of Chicago Press: 2006.
Schiffer, Michael Brian
Specht, Benjamin. Physik als Kunst : Die Poetisierung der Elektrizität um 1800, De Gruyter: 2010.
Sobel, Michael J. Light. Chicago:
Steigerwald, Joan. “Figuring Nature: Ritter's Galvanic Inscriptions.” European Romantic Review. 18. 2007. Pp 255-263.
Steigerwald, Joan “The Subject as Instrument: Galvanic Experiments, Organic Apparatus and Problems of Calibration,” in The Uses of Humans in Experiment: Perspectives from the 17th to the 20th Century, eds Erika Dyck and Larry Stewart. Brill: 2016.
Stauffer, Robert C. “Speculation and Experiment in the Background of Oersted's Discovery of Electromagnetism,” Isis, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Mar., 1957), pp. 33-50
Tatar, Maria M. “Salvation by Electricity: Science, Poetry, and Naturphilosophie,” in Spellbound: Studies on Mesmerism and Literature. Princeton University Press. (1978)
Tucker, Tom. Bolt Of Fate: Benjamin Franklin And His Fabulous Kite. 2009.
Wallace, Doris B & Howard E. Grub. Creative people at work : twelve cognitive case studies
Wood, Gordon. The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. Penguin Press: 2004.