Article here. (alas, from the uber-left Guardian, but they do have some good articles)
...Perhaps the most significant item is from the US polymath Benjamin Franklin to the Dutch scientist Jan Ingenhousz. Franklin writes of filling a balloon “with inflammable air”, and “contriving to fire it by electricity” and “match … the thunder of nature”. Dating the letter 2 September 1783, Franklin, who was US ambassador to France, writes that “tomorrow is to be signed our definitive treaty [the Treaty of Paris] which establishes for the present the Peace of Europe and America … Adieu, yours most affectionately”....
...Perhaps the most significant item is from the US polymath Benjamin Franklin to the Dutch scientist Jan Ingenhousz. Franklin writes of filling a balloon “with inflammable air”, and “contriving to fire it by electricity” and “match … the thunder of nature”. Dating the letter 2 September 1783, Franklin, who was US ambassador to France, writes that “tomorrow is to be signed our definitive treaty [the Treaty of Paris] which establishes for the present the Peace of Europe and America … Adieu, yours most affectionately”....
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