Positive and negative charge and conservation of charge (Franklin)
Carga positiva y negativa y conservación de la carga (Franklin)
- Date
- 1747 · confidence medium
- Place
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Credited to
- Benjamin Franklin (and William Watson)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Franklin proposed a single 'electric fluid' that bodies have in excess or deficit (positive or negative charge) and that is neither created nor destroyed. He set the sign convention and the principle of conservation of charge.
William Watson formulated a one-fluid hypothesis almost simultaneously (1746-47) in London; Franklin set it out in letters to Collinson from 1747 and made it famous.
What it led to
- the charge sign convention still used today
- the principle of conservation of charge, basis of Kirchhoff's laws
- explanation of the Leyden jar and theoretical basis of the lightning rod