Benjamin Franklin performed a beautiful experiment using surfactants: on a pond at Clapham Common, he poured a small amount of oleic acid, a natural surfactant which tends to form a dense film at the water-air interface.

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

Acid Amount Beautiful Benjamin Franklin Common Dense Experiment Film Form Franklin He Interface Natural Performed Pond Poured Small Tends Using Which

Related Quotes

Ben Franklin said:
"Early to bed and early to rise
Make a man healthy wealthy and wise"

Lately I have read the advice given to William Randolph Hearst, when a young man, by his father:
"Go downtown at noon and rob the other fellows of what they have made during the morning.

— E. Haldeman-Julius

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Neither a borrower nor a lender be, for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

— William Shakespeare

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Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

— Walter Isaacson

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Usually a fiber, after being dipped in a liquid, shows a string of droplets, and thus, for some time, people thought that most common fibers were non-wettable.

— Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

AfterBeingCommon

Amy, Dan, and Nellie were sitting at a table in a conference room, examining reproductions of Franklin documents-some so rare, the librarians told her, the only copies existed in Paris.
"Yeah, here's a rare grocery list," Dan muttered. "Wow.

— Rick Riordan

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