| When one takes a look at the world in which he | | | | The group also worked to pave, clean, and light |
| currently lives, he sees it as being normal since it | | | | the streets and to make them safe by organizing |
| is so slow in changing. When an historian looks at | | | | an effective night watch. They even formed a |
| the present, he sees the effects of many events | | | | voluntary militia. Franklin's leadership skills helped |
| and many wise people. Benjamin Franklin is one of | | | | himself and others throughout much of his life. |
| these people. His participation in so many different | | | | In 1740, Franklin stumbled onto a new career: |
| fields changed the world immensely. He was a | | | | inventing. That year he altered his heating stove |
| noted politician as well as respected scholar. He | | | | by arranging the flues so that the stove would |
| was an important inventor and scientist. | | | | heat the room twice as well while using only |
| Particularly interesting is the impact on the | | | | one-fourth the fuel. *The stove was first called |
| scientific world. | | | | the Pennsylvania fireplace but later named the |
| Benjamin Franklin was a modest man who had | | | | Franklin stove out of respect for the inventor. |
| had many jobs in his lifetime. This may help | | | | The Franklin stove heated the homes and |
| explain his large array of inventions and new | | | | businesses all over Europe and North America. |
| methods of working various jobs. He did | | | | Around the time Franklin invented his stove, he |
| everything from making cabbage-growing more | | | | began to read about new discoveries involving |
| efficient to making political decisions to being the | | | | electricity. He started to experiment with it with |
| first person to study and chart the Gulf Stream | | | | help from his friends in Philadelphia. He claimed that |
| movement in the Atlantic Ocean. Franklin was | | | | experiments carried out in France in 1752 showed |
| born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, | | | | that lightning was actually a form of electricity. |
| 1706. He was the fifteenth child in a family of | | | | Determined to further establish his belief that |
| seventeen kids. His parents, Josiah and Abiah | | | | lightning was electricity, he performed his famous |
| Franklin, were hard working devout Puritan | | | | kite experiment. He flew a kite with a metal |
| Calvinist people. Josiah Franklin made candles for a | | | | needle attached to the tip on a very fine metal |
| living. Since the Franklin's were so poor, little | | | | wire. He had a key attached to the wire and |
| Benjamin couldn't afford to go to school for | | | | hypothesized that the key would spark while |
| longer than two years. In those two years, | | | | absorbing the electricity. The experiment was a |
| however, Franklin learned to read which opened | | | | success. |
| the door to further education for him. Since he | | | | A direct effect of Franklin's work with lightning as |
| was only a fair writer and had very poor | | | | electricity was his invention of the lightning rod. |
| mathematical skills, he worked to tutor himself at | | | | The first lightning rod he made he attached to the |
| home. | | | | top of his own house. Soon after, it was hit by |
| Benjamin Franklin was a determined young man. | | | | lightning, saving his house from damage. He said |
| As a boy, he taught himself to be a very good | | | | of the lightning rod, "An ounce of prevention is |
| writer. He also learned basic algebra and | | | | worth a pound of cure." News spread about the |
| geometry, navigation, grammar, logic, and natural | | | | invention by way of the Royal Society's |
| and physical science. He partially mastered French, | | | | publications. Soon, buildings as well as ships all over |
| German, Italian, Spanish, and Latin. He was soon | | | | the world were equipped with lightning rods. The |
| to be named the best educated man in the | | | | invention made Franklin world famous. He was |
| country. When he was 12-years-old, he was | | | | elected to the Royal Society in 1756. It was a |
| apprentice to his brother in printing. Benjamin's | | | | rarity for a colonist to be elected to this London |
| brother founded the second newspaper in | | | | based elite society. |
| America. Many people told him that one | | | | In dealing with electricity, Franklin worked with |
| newspaper was enough for America and that the | | | | great personal risk. Once, while attempting to kill a |
| paper would soon collapse. On the contrary, it | | | | turkey with electricity, he accidentally knocked |
| became very popular. Occasionally, young | | | | himself unconscious. Of the event he said, "I |
| Benjamin would write an article to be printed and | | | | meant to kill a turkey, and instead, I nearly killed a |
| slip it under the printing room's door signed as | | | | goose." |
| "Anonymous". The following is a direct quote from | | | | The Franklin stove and the lightning rod were by |
| Franklin's Autobiography. It describes his writing | | | | far not the only things Franklin invented. He had |
| the articles as a boy. "He (Benjamin's older | | | | poor vision and needed glasses to read. He got |
| brother) had some ingenious men among his | | | | tired of constantly taking them off and putting |
| friends, who amus'd themselves by writing little | | | | them back on, so he decided to figure out a way |
| pieces for this paper, which gain'd it credit and | | | | to make his glasses let him see both near and far. |
| made it more in demand, and these gentlemen | | | | *He had two pairs of spectacles cut in half and |
| often visited us. Hearing their conversations, and | | | | put half of each lens in a single frame. Today, we |
| their accounts of the approbation their papers | | | | call them bifocals. |
| were received with, I was excited to try my | | | | Although Benjamin Franklin had invented many |
| hand among them; but, being still a boy, and | | | | things in his lifetime, he refused to patent any one |
| suspecting that my brother would object to | | | | of them. His philosophy was that it is better to |
| printing anything of mine in his paper if he knew it | | | | help everyone than it is to help one's self. His |
| to be mine, I contrived to disguise my hand, and, | | | | experiments and inventions were meant only to |
| writing an anonymous paper, I put it in at night | | | | be used for the convenience of other people, not |
| under the door of the printing-house. It was found | | | | to make himself any money or fame. (The fame |
| in the morning, and communicated to his writing | | | | part was apparently inevitable.) Other than |
| friends when they call'd in as usual. They read it, | | | | inventing things to better people's lives, Franklin |
| commented on it in my hearing, and I had the | | | | created new techniques to aid people in doing all |
| exquisite pleasure of finding it met with their | | | | sorts of things. In the early 1760's, Franklin took |
| approbation, and that, in their different guesses at | | | | the title of Postmaster in Philadelphia. He decided |
| the author, none were named but men of some | | | | to better organize the mail route. He invented a |
| character among us for learning and ingenuity. I | | | | simple odometer and attached it to his carriage. |
| suppose n!ow that I was rather lucky in my | | | | With it, he measured the route and calculated a |
| judges, and that perhaps they were not really so | | | | more efficient course by which to deliver the mail. |
| very good ones as I then esteem'd them." | | | | This shortened the time required to get mail by |
| Benjamin liked the printer's job but couldn't stand | | | | days in some cases. Franklin also showed |
| being told what to do all of the time. He | | | | Americans how to improve acidic soil by treating |
| desperately felt the need to be his own boss. | | | | it with lime before planting. This made much more |
| That day would come. In 1730, Franklin married | | | | land cultivable. He discovered that when oil is |
| Deborah Read, who was the daughter of the first | | | | poured into rough seas, the water is calmed and |
| Philadelphia landlady. Read was not nearly so well | | | | more easily navigable. (Not that that would be a |
| educated as her husband. In old letters that she | | | | common practice today.) Franklin discovered that |
| had written to him, there are many misspellings | | | | diseases flourished in poorly vented places. This |
| and improper punctuation marks. They were a | | | | lead to sterile hospital rooms hence better health |
| very happy couple despite their differences. They | | | | care. |
| eventually had two boys and one girl. One of the | | | | Franklin had very logical opinions on everything he |
| boys, William, became governor of New Jersey. | | | | dealt with. During Franklin's life, many people |
| When Franklin was 21-years-old, he began his | | | | complained about daylight saving time. It was an |
| career as a civic leader by organizing a club of | | | | inconvenience for them to set their clocks back |
| aspiring tradesmen called the Junto, which met | | | | and ahead annually. Franklin liked the concept. He is |
| each week for discussion and planning. They | | | | quoted as saying, "It is silly and wasteful that |
| hoped to build their own businesses, insure the | | | | people should live much by candle-light and sleep |
| growth of Philadelphia, and improve the quality of | | | | by sunshine." In Paris while observing the first |
| its life. Franklin led the University of Junto in | | | | successful hot air balloon flight, Franklin observed |
| founding a library in 1731, the first ever American | | | | many skeptic people asking "What good is it?" He |
| fire company in 1736, a learned society in 1743, a | | | | replied, "What good is a newborn baby?" He could |
| college (the University of Pennsylvania) in 1749, | | | | see potential in all new things. |
| and an insurance company and a hospital in 1751. | | | | |