Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) on an engraving from a painting by Duplessis
Benjamin Franklin was an American printer, journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, abolitionist, public servant, scientist, librarian, diplomat, and inventor. One of the leaders of the American Revolution. He was well known also for his many quotations and his experiments with electricity, and was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1775, Franklin became the first U.S. Postmaster General.
Franklin's inventions include the Franklin stove, bifocals, the medical catheter, lightning rod, swimfins, and the odometer.
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler who married twice. Of the two marriages his father had 17 children, Benjamin was the youngest son. His schooling ended at 10, and at 12 he became an apprentice to his brother James who was a printer.
At age 17, he ran away to Philadelphia, seeking a new start in a new city. He was not satisfied, however, and after a few months went to London, where he again worked as a compositor in a printer's shop until he returned to Philadelphia there Franklin returned to his former trade, and soon set up a printing house of his own from which he published The Pennsylvania Gazette, to which he contributed many essays and which he made a trigger for a variety of local reforms.
In 1732 he began to issue the famous Poor Richard's Almanac (with content both original and borrowed), on which a lot of his popular reputation is based. Adages from this almanac such as "A penny saved is a penny earned", are now commonly quoted every day by people all over the world.
Franklin was one the founders of the first public library in Philadelphia in 1731 and in 1736 he created the Union Fire Company, the first volunteer firefighting company in America.
Franklin began to concern himself more and more with public affairs. In 1743, he set forth a scheme for an Academy, which opened eight years later and eventually became the University of Pennsylvania.
In electricity Franklin identified positive and negative electrical charges and also demonstrated that lightning was electrical. On June 15, 1752, Franklin promoted his theory through a famous, though extremely dangerous, experiment of flying a kite during a lightning storm.
The episode of the kite, so firm and fixed in legend, turns out to be dim and mystifying in fact. Franklin himself never wrote the story of the most dramatic of his experiments. All that is known about what he did on that famous day, of no known date, comes from Joseph Priestley's account, published fifteen years afterwards.
Evidence shows that Franklin was insulated (Others were spectacularly electrocuted during the months following Franklin's famous experiment.) Franklin, in his writings, displays that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his invention of the lightning rod, an application of the use of electrical ground. If Franklin did perform this experiment, he did not do it in the way that is often described – as it would have been dramatic but fatal.
Franklin's inference that electric charge is not created by rubbing substances, but only transferred, so that "the total quantity in any insulated system is invariable" is known as the "principle of conservation of charge".
In recognition of his work with electricity, Franklin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and received its Copley Medal in 1753. The cgs unit of electric charge has been named after him: one franklin (Fr) is equal to one statcoulomb.
In 1751 Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a hospital. Pennsylvania Hospital was the first hospital in what was to become the United States of America.
In politics he proved very able both as an administrator and as a controversialist; but his record as an office-holder is stained by the use he made of his position to advance his relatives. His most notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal system, but his fame as a statesman rests chiefly on his diplomatic services in connection with the relations of the colonies with Great Britain, and later with France.
In 1758, the year in which he ceased writing for the Almanac, he printed "Father Abraham's Sermon," one of the most famous pieces of literature produced in Colonial America.
In 1757 he was sent to England to protest against the influence of the Penn family in the government of Pennsylvania, and for five years he remained there, striving to enlighten the people and the ministry of the United Kingdom as to colonial conditions. At Oxford University Franklin was awarded an honorary doctorate for his scientific accomplishments.
Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790 and was interred in the Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1976, as part of a bicentennial celebration, Congress dedicated the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial in Franklin's hometown of Philadelphia, including a 20-foot high marble statue. Many of Franklin's personal possessions are also on display there. The memorial is located in Philadelphia's Franklin Institute.
- This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia Encyclopedia article "Benjamin Franklin".
Franklin's Kite
Franklin's Kite - Museum of Science, Boston (MOS)
Franklin and His Electric Kite - The Electric Franklin
Benjamin Franklin's Kite Experiment - The Bakken
Was Ben Franklin's Kite a Hoax? - about.com
General Resources
The Electric Franklin
Benjamin Franklin: Glimpses of the Man - The Franklin Institute
Benjamin Franklin: A Documentary History - J.A. Leo Lemay
Benjamin Franklin - PBS
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Archiving Early America
Ben's Guide: Benjamin Franklin - U.S. Government Printing Office
