In this way they not only received the shock, but fired alcohol as readily across the stream as could be done in the laboratory.

In this experiment Watson discovered the superiority of wire over chain as a conductor, rightly ascribing this superiority to the continuity of the metal.
Watson continued making similar experiments over longer watercourses, some of them as long as eight thousand feet, and while engaged in making one of these he made the discovery so essential to later inventions, that the earth could be used as part of the circuit in the same manner as bodies of water.

Lengthening his wires he continued his experiments until a circuit of four miles was made, and still the electricity seemed to traverse the course instantaneously, and with apparently undiminished force, if the insulation was perfect.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Watson's writings now carried the field of active discovery across the Atlantic, and for the first time an American scientist appeared--a scientist who not only rivalled, but excelled, his European contemporaries.

Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia, coming into possession of some of Watson's books, became so interested in the experiments described in them that he began at once experimenting with electricity.

In Watson's book were given directions for making various experiments, and these assisted Franklin in repeating the old experiments, and eventually adding new ones.