Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/208

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
198
ESSAYS.
198

night in which we burn candles, the account will ſtand thus—

In the ſix months between the twentieth of March and the twentieth of September, there are

Nights 183
Hours of each night in which we burn candles 7
Multiplication gives for the total number of hours 1,281
Theſe 1,281 hours multiplied by 100,000, the number of inhabitants, give 128,100,000
One hundred twenty-eight millions and one hundred thouſand hours, ſpent at Paris by candle-light, which, at half a pound of wax and tallow per hour, gives the weight of 64,050,000
Sixty-four millions and fifty thouſand of pounds, which, eſtimating the whole at the medium price of thirty ſols the pound, makes the ſum of ninety-ſix millions and ſeventy-five thouſand livres tournois 96,075,000

An immenſe ſum! that the city of Paris might ſave every year, by the œconomy of uſing ſun-ſhine inſtead of candles.

If it ſhould be ſaid, that people are apt to be obſtinately attached to old cuſtoms, and that it will be difficult to induce them to riſe before noon, conſequently my diſcovery can be of little uſe; I anſwer, Nil deſperandum. I believe all who have common ſenſe, as ſoon as they have learnt from this paper that it is day-light when the ſun riſes, will contrive to riſe with him; and,