In 1751, Benjamin Franklin published "Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at Philadelphia in America" in London. The book, compiled from letters Franklin sent to Peter Collinson of the Royal Society, presented his single-fluid theory of electricity, his experiments with pointed conductors, and his theoretical prediction that lightning was electrical. Published in London before it appeared in America, the work was translated into French, German, and Italian, making Franklin the most celebrated electrical scientist of his generation on both sides of the Atlantic.

Franklin's book was written in the clear, conversational prose of a self-taught colonial gentleman, a style that consciously rejected the formal Latin of European academic science and helped establish a distinctively American literary voice. The book's epistolary format, presenting science as a series of personal letters, influenced the development of the literary essay form in English. Its enormous international success demonstrated that scientific writing could achieve both popular and critical acclaim, encouraging later scientist-writers like Humphry Davy and Thomas Huxley to address general literary audiences.