![]() His lightning rod helped banish the terror of thunderstorms.įranklin had more to do with founding the American republic than anyone else. He was most famous, of course, for his experiments with electricity, especially lightning. He pioneered the study of water flowing around a hull-hydrodynamics. On his eight trans-Atlantic crossings, Franklin made measurements that helped chart the Gulf Stream. He started the American Philosophical Society, which was this country’s first scientific society and maintained the first science library, first museum, and first patent office more than 90 members of this society went on to win Nobel Prizes. As postmaster, he doubled and tripled the frequency of mail deliveries.įranklin, who reportedly amassed early America’s largest private library, helped expand the frontiers of science and invention. In Philadelphia, he helped launch the city’s first police force, the first volunteer fire company, the first fire insurance firm, the first hospital, the first public library, and the academy that became the first institution of higher learning (the University of Pennsylvania). When Franklin saw that something needed doing, he did it. He developed a network of printing partnerships throughout the American colonies. He started a successful printing business, newspaper, and magazine. He made himself an influential author and editor. He taught himself how to play the guitar, violin, and harp. He took the initiative of learning French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish. With less than three years of formal schooling, he taught himself almost everything he knew. history.Benjamin Franklin pioneered the spirit of self-help in America. He remains one of the leading figures in U.S. Constitution (1787).įranklin died at age 84 on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia. ![]() He is the only politician to have signed all four documents fundamental to the creation of the U.S.: the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Treaty of Alliance with France (1778), the Treaty of Paris (1783), which established peace with Great Britain and the U.S. He served as a legislator in Pennsylvania as well as a diplomat in England and France. Most significantly, Franklin was one of the founding fathers of the United States and had a career as a statesman that spanned four decades. Among other things, he developed a library, insurance company, city hospital and academy in Philadelphia that would later become the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his accomplishments in business and science, he is noted for his numerous civic contributions. Whether or not Franklin followed this advice in his own life, he came to represent the classic American overachiever. The almanac, which Franklin first published in 1733 under the pen name Richard Saunders, included such wisdom as: “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Following a brief stint as a printer in London, Franklin returned to Philadelphia and became a successful businessman, whose publishing ventures included the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard’s Almanack, a collection of homespun proverbs advocating hard work and honesty in order to get ahead. In 1723, following a dispute with his brother, Franklin left Boston and ended up in Philadelphia, where he found work as a printer. Franklin’s formal education ended at age 10 and he went to work as an apprentice to his brother James, a printer. He also invented the lightning rod, used to protect buildings and ships.įranklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, to a candle and soap maker named Josiah Franklin, who fathered 17 children, and his wife Abiah Folger. He coined a number of terms used today, including battery, conductor and electrician. ![]() ![]() Franklin became interested in electricity in the mid-1740s, a time when much was still unknown on the topic, and spent almost a decade conducting electrical experiments. On June 10, 1752, Benjamin Franklin was said to have flown a kite during a thunderstorm to collect ambient electrical charge in a Leyden jar, enabling him to demonstrate the connection between lightning and electricity.
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