1 00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:16,840 This is People Of Science, take one. 2 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:27,320 Bill Bryson, Sir, everybody knows of you, thinks of you, as an author, 3 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:29,960 but what's your connection with the Royal Society? 4 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:35,400 Well, a few years ago, I was invited to be an honorary fellow and, 5 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:39,840 I have to say, it was probably the biggest compliment ever paid to me. 6 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:43,600 You've chosen Benjamin Franklin FRS, 7 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:46,400 which perhaps many people don't know - Fellow of the Royal Society. 8 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:49,160 One of the things you're not taught much about Franklin 9 00:00:49,160 --> 00:00:52,400 when you're growing up in America is about his scientific interest. 10 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:54,000 But he was a Fellow of the Royal Society 11 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:57,200 some 20 years before he became famous for all the other things 12 00:00:57,200 --> 00:01:00,360 that he became famous for in terms of the American Revolution. 13 00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:05,640 I suppose most people associate Franklin's science with lightning, 14 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:07,280 but there's plenty of other stuff. 15 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:09,360 There's quite a long list, actually, isn't there? 16 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:12,640 I mean, he was a quintessential American in the sense of being 17 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:16,320 very interested in practical applications, 18 00:01:16,320 --> 00:01:20,760 and so he invented quite a lot of useful things - 19 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:23,560 bifocals, most famously, but also the lightning rod, 20 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:26,680 which probably was his most valuable gift to posterity because, 21 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:28,160 I mean, thanks to the lightning rod, 22 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:29,880 an awful lot of wonderful buildings - 23 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:33,480 old cathedrals and steeples - everywhere have been saved. 24 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:35,800 When you list Franklin, trying to describe... 25 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:39,160 I mean, here, he's described as a leading author, printer, 26 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,200 political theorist, politician, Freemason, postmaster, 27 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:46,720 scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman and diplomat! Yeah. 28 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:48,760 It was the perfect time to be Benjamin Franklin or 29 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:50,800 anyone like him because, I mean, it was, you know, 30 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:54,000 the Age of Enlightenment, it was one of the last periods in which 31 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:56,160 people could be into everything. 32 00:01:56,160 --> 00:01:58,440 He was able to lead an incredibly diverse 33 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:01,240 and active life in lots and lots and lots of different fields 34 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:04,680 in a way that I don't think anyone could do now. 35 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:08,120 Now, we have some manuscripts of his to look at. 36 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:11,520 It always strikes me - this beautiful writing. 37 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:14,040 It's absolutely compelling, actually, isn't it? 38 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:17,240 I want to read it now cos it's very precisely exactly 39 00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:19,560 what he did with how much... 40 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:23,120 the jars that he used as batteries, presumably, and how he did it. 41 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:28,440 I think one of the problems that we get is that the scientists 42 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:32,480 don't always seem like people, like human beings, with desires 43 00:02:32,480 --> 00:02:36,160 and petty grievances and frailties, and you just think of them 44 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:40,160 as these giant brains who are churning out knowledge somehow. 45 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:42,560 And I think seeing these things - it's like time travel. 46 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:45,000 You are taken right there to that person. 47 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:48,000 Did he spend much time in England? 48 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:49,640 Franklin spent a lot of time in England. 49 00:02:49,640 --> 00:02:51,800 I mean, one of the things he spent the most time doing 50 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:54,600 was representing some of the colonies and, really, 51 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:59,040 during the 15 or 20 years running up to the American Revolution, 52 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:01,720 he was sort of the voice of America in Britain. 53 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:05,160 A very interesting sideline about Franklin was that, 54 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:08,520 after America triumphed in the War of Independence 55 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:10,040 and was setting up a government, 56 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:13,240 they didn't know what to call the new national leader, and Franklin 57 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,080 is said to have suggested the name President 58 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:19,000 because that was the title of the head of the Royal Society in London. 59 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,520 So it's entirely possible that the Chief of State of 60 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:27,080 the United States is called President because of the Royal Society. 61 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:30,440 And scientifically, I suppose, he's most famous for his work 62 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:34,920 on lightning, electricity and the famous kite experiment. 63 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:38,560 For a time, he was probably the foremost authority 64 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:40,000 in the world on electricity. 65 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,600 Before him, electricity was seen almost as a kind of parlour game, 66 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:46,240 you know, that you could rub a glass rod with a cloth 67 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:48,720 and use it to pick up bits of fluff. 68 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:51,600 So people played with electricity and they knew that it was 69 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:54,520 an interesting phenomenon, but they didn't really understand it. 70 00:03:54,520 --> 00:03:57,440 Franklin's contribution was to realise that it was a fundamental 71 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:01,760 force of nature, like gravity, and that it was really important. 72 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:05,680 So, in that way, his contribution to the world's knowledge was profound.