Benjamin 'Ben' Franklin
1706 - 1790
Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706. His family lived in Boston, Massachusetts. His father's name was Josiah and his mother's name was Abiah. Ben was their eighth child and they would later have two more. However, Josiah already had seven children from his first marriage. So, Ben knew a lot about growing up in a BIG family! He had nine brothers and seven sisters!
Ben's father, Josiah, worked as a candle and soap maker and made sure that each of his sons learned a trade. Josiah had plans for Ben to enter the clergy, so he sent him to the Grammar School. Ben quickly learned to read and write but he did not do well in Arithmetic. Soon, Josiah changed his mind about Ben and took him out of school. Ben began to work in Josiah's candle and soap business, but Ben was not happy. Josiah then decided that Ben could learn the printing business. So, at age twelve, Ben became an apprentice in his brother James' printing office.
Even as a boy, Ben Franklin loved to read. Once, he read a book about swimming and quickly taught himself the basic swimming strokes. He built himself wooden paddles for his hands and feet to help him swim faster. He used a kite in the breeze to pull him along, making it easier to swim. Later, he read a book about eating meat and decided to try being a vegetarian. He figured it was healthier, but also that he could save money.
He also liked to write. However, no one was interested in what a young boy had to say. So he wrote secretly, using the name Silence Dogood, and slipped his stories under the door of his brother's print shop. His brother published the stories in his newspaper and everyone loved to read them. Later, when James found out who Silence Dogood really was, he was angry with Ben and their relationship was never the same.
Electrified Ben
Have you ever watched lightning during a storm? Have you ever wondered about its power? Have you ever wanted to know more about it? Ben Franklin did. Actually, Ben's interest in electricity was not just limited to lightning. He received an electricity tube from his friend Peter Collinson and began to play around with it, performing experiments. However, it is Ben's interest in lightning that we best remember.
Ben suspected that lightning was an electrical current in nature, and he wanted to see if he was right. One way to test his idea would be to see if the lightning would pass through metal. He decided to use a metal key and looked around for a way to get the key up near the lightning. As you probably already know, he used a child's toy, a kite, to prove that lightning is really a stream of electrified air, known today as plasma.
His famous stormy kite flight in June of 1752 led him to develop many of the terms that we still use today when we talk about electricity: battery, conductor, condenser, charge, discharge, uncharged, negative, minus, plus, electric shock, and electrician. Ben understood that lightning was very powerful, and he also knew that it was dangerous. That's why he also figured out a way to protect people, buildings, and ships from it, the lightning rod.
Although electricity was just a hobby for Ben Franklin, he made many important contributions. Later scientists, like Michael Faraday and Thomas A. Edison, continued to study electricity using many of Ben's ideas. Even today, scientists are still studying electricity and learning more about it. Ben Franklin would be amazed at how important his stormy kite flight really was!
Pennsylvania's University
In January of 1751, Ben Franklin's idea for a Pennsylvania academy became a reality. He strongly believed in the pursuit of knowledge by all people. For the academy's first five years, Ben served as its president. Today, we know Ben's academy as the University of Pennsylvania.
The Hutchinson Letters Affair
The Hutchinson Letters Affair began in December, 1772 when Ben anonymously received a packet of letters. The letters were written to the British government by Thomas Hutchinson, the royal Governor of Massachusetts. In the letters, Hutchinson urged his superiors to send more troops to Boston to fight the American rebels.
Ben felt that his friends in Boston should know what Hutchinson was planning. He allowed his American friends and colleagues to read the letters on the condition that they not be circulated or published. However, the content of the letters did get published in the Boston Gazette in June of 1773.
The citizens of Boston were furious and forced Hutchinson to flee to England. The British government demanded to know who leaked the letters. In December of 1773, three innocent men were accused. In order to protect them, Ben admitted his guilt. As a result, Ben's reputation in England suffered. In January of 1774, Ben was publicly reprimanded. Later that year, Ben left England and returned to America to help write the Declaration of Independence. Franklin had married Deborah Read Rogers ( 1708 - 1774 ) in 1730. She operated a general store out of the front of Ben's print shop, raised Ben's son William as well as two children, Francis and Sarah by her first marriage.
Her fear of ocean voyages prevented her from traveling with Ben, so she spent many years alone in Philadelphia while Ben was in Europe. In 1774, while Ben was in England, she died unexpectedly of a stroke.
The Adolescent Nation Mourns the Loss of a Founding Father
After the death of his wife Deborah, the elderly Ben lived with his daughter Sarah's family. Sarah nursed him as his health weakened. Finally, Ben died peacefully in his sleep on April 17, 1790. He was 84 years old.
His funeral in Philadelphia attracted the largest crowd of mourners ever known. An estimated 20,000 people crowded around the Christ Church Burial Ground where he was buried beside his wife Deborah Read Rogers Franklin who had died sixteen years before him. The tombstone on their grave said "Benjamin and Deborah Franklin: 1790."
When Ben was 22 years old he wrote an epitaph for himself, but, later in life, he changed his mind and left instructions in his Last Will and Testament that only the simple inscription above be used. With his death, America lost one of its most loyal citizens.
Source: http://www.wsone.com/fecha/electra.htm
The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
1706 Born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 17 1718 Begins an apprenticeship in his brother James' printing shop in Boston 1723 Age 17, leaves his family, running away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1724 Moves to London, continuing his training as a printer 1726 Returns to Philadelphia 1728 Opens his own Printing Office in Philadelphia 1729 Becomes sole owner and publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette 1730 Marries Deborah Read Rogers 1731 Birth of Ben's son William; Founds the first Circulating Library 1732 Birth of Ben's son Francis 1732-58 Annually, publishes Poor Richard: An Almanack 1736 Death of Ben's young son Francis; Founds the UnionFire Company in Philadelphia 1737 Appointed Postmaster of Philadelphia 1742 Proposes the idea for the University of Pennsylvania 1743 Birth of Ben's daughter Sarah, also known as "Sally" 1745 Death of Ben's father, Josiah Franklin 1747 First writings of electrical experimentation; organizes the first Militia 1748 Sells printing office, retiring from business 1751 His book Experiments and Observations on Electricity is published in London 1752 In June, performs famous kite experiment; Death of Ben's mother, Abiah Folger Franklin; Founds first American fire insurance company 1757-62 Travels in London as representative of the Pennsylvania Assembly 1762 Returns to Philadelphia 1764 Travels to London 1767 Travels to France 1769 Elected president of the American Philosophical Society 1774 The Hutchinson Letters Affair damages Franklin's reputation; While in London, Ben receives word of his wife's death 1775 Returns to Philadelphia; Elected to Continental Congress; Submits Articles of Confederation of United Colonies 1776 Signs the Declaration of Independence; Presides at Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention; Sails to France as American Commissioner 1778 Negotiates and signs Treaty of Alliance with France 1779 Appointed Minister to France 1782 Negotiates, with John Adams and John Jay, the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain 1783 While in Paris, watches the Montgolfier brothers become the first men to fly in a balloon 1784 Negotiates treaties with Prussia and other European countries 1785 Returns to Philadelphia 1787 Elected president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery; Serves as delegate to the Constitutional Convention 1790 At age 84, Benjamin Franklin dies in Philadelphia on April 17
Source: http://www.wsone.com/fecha/electra.htm
In the 1700s, a scientist was someone who thought about the way things work and tried to figure out ways to make things work better. Today, that definition is still true. Every time Ben Franklin saw a question and tried to answer it, he was a scientist. Every time you ask a question and try to get an answer, you too are a scientist. Ben is most famous for his questions about electricity, but he also experimented with many other ideas in nature.
In 1743, Ben observed that northeast storms begin in the southwest. He thought it was odd that storms travel in an opposite direction to their winds. He predicted that a storm's course could be plotted. Ben rode a horse through a storm and chased a whirlwind three-quarters of a mile in order to learn more about storms. So, in a way, Ben was a weatherman too! He even printed weather forecasts in his almanack. Today's meteorologists don't chase storms on horseback, but they do continue to plot the course of storms.
Since Ben spent so much time sailing to Europe across the Atlantic Ocean, he became very interested in both ocean currents and shipbuilding. Ben was actually one of the first people to chart the Gulf Stream. He measured its temperature on each of his eight voyages and was able to chart the Stream in detail.
In November of 1783, Ben happened to be in Paris, France working on a Peace Treaty to end the American war against England. From his hotel window, he was able to watch the world's first known hot air balloon flight. The balloon lifted the Montgolfier brothers off of the ground as the first human beings ever known to fly. Ben was very interested in the idea of flight, predicting that one day balloons would be used for military spy flights and dropping bombs during battle.
Soon, balloons were actually being used for recreation, military, and scientific purposes. Even though they could not yet be steered, many people volunteered to take a ride just for fun! Sadly, Ben Franklin died three years before the first American hot air balloon voyage. In 1793, Jean Pierre Blanchard lifted off from the Walnut Street Prison Yard in Philadelphia, beginning the hot air balloon craze in America.
Source: http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/scientst/scientst.html
A list of Benjamin Franklin's inventions reveals a man of many talents and interests. It was the scientist in Ben that brought out the inventor. His natural curiosity about things and the way they work made him try to find ways to make them work better.
Ben had poor vision and needed glasses to read. He got tired of constantly taking them off and putting them back on, so he decided to figure out a way to make his glasses let him see both near and far. He had two pairs of spectacles cut in half and put half of each lens in a single frame. Today, we call them bifocals.
Even though Ben is not famous for his study of bioscience, he was interested in how the human body works and looked for ways to help it work better. His most noteworthy contribution to the study of the body was his invention of the flexible catheter, an instrument for showing the blood's circulation.
During Ben's lifetime, he made eight voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. These long journeys gave him a lot of time to learn about ships and how they worked. He figured out a way to make ships work better and more safely by inventing watertight bulkheads.
Everyone knows the story of Ben's famous kite flight. Although he made important discoveries and advancements, Ben did not "invent" electricity. He did, however, invent the lightning rod which protected buildings and ships from lightning damage.
In colonial America, most people warmed their homes by building a fire in a fireplace even though it was kind of dangerous and used a lot of wood. Ben figured that there had to be a better way. His invention of an iron furnace stove allowed people to warm their homes less dangerously and with less wood.
The furnace stove that he invented is called a Franklin stove. Interestingly enough, Ben also established the first fire company and the first fire insurance company in order to help people live more safely.
As postmaster, Ben had to figure out routes for delivering the mail. He went out riding in his carriage to measure the routes and needed a way to keep track of the distance. He invented a simple odometer and attached it to his carriage.
In his old age, Ben retired from business and public service and wanted to spend his time reading and studying. He found, however, that his old age had made it difficult for him to reach books from the high shelves. Even though he had many grandchildren to help him, he invented a tool called a long arm to reach the high books. The long arm was a long wooden pole with a grasping claw at the end.
Later, other famous inventors, like Thomas A. Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, would follow in Ben's footsteps by trying to find ways to help people live better. Today's curious thinkers are keeping Ben's traditions alive by inventing new and improved ways to make things work.
Source: http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/inventor/inventor.html
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