How did Benjamin Franklin encourage Joseph Priestley’s scientific work?

Benjamin Franklin played a pivotal role in Joseph Priestley’s scientific career after they met in 1765. Franklin encouraged Priestley to document and publish his research, which led to the 1767 release of The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments.1

This encouragement helped solidify Priestley’s commitment to an empirical approach, emphasizing the accumulation of "new facts" over theoretical hypotheses. This methodology not only guided his own electrical experiments—such as his discovery that charcoal conducts electricity and his anticipation of the inverse square law—but also inspired him to expand his investigations into broader fields of science. Following these contributions, Priestley was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1766.1