Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/205

 

AN ŒCONOMICAL PROJECT.

[A Tranſlation of this letter appeared in one of the Daily Papers of Paris about the Year 1784. The following is the Original Piece, with ſome Additions and Corrections made in it by the Author.]

TO THE AUTHORS OF THE JOURNAL.

⁠MESSIEURS,

YOU often entertain us with accounts of new diſcoveries. Permit me to communicate to the public, through your paper, one that has lately been made by myſelf, and which I conceive may be of great utility.

I was the other evening in a grand company, where the new lamp of Meſſrs. Quinquet and Lange was introduced, and much admired for its ſplendor; but a general enquiry was made, whether the oil it conſumed was not in proportion to the light it afforded, in which caſe there would be no ſaving in the uſe of it. No one preſent could ſatisfy us in that point, which all agreed ought to be known, it being a very deſirable thing to leſſen, if poſſible, the expence of lighting our apartments, when every other article of family expence was ſo much augmented.

I was pleaſed to ſee this general concern for œconomy; for I love œconomyexceedingly.

I went home, and to bed, three or four hours after midnight, with my head full of the ſubject. An accidental ſudden noiſe waked me about, ſix in the morning, when I was ſurprized to find my