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Few men have done as much for the world as Benjamin Franklin. He had many talents that he used to help the world. He was a diplomat, a scientist, an inventor, a philosopher, an educator, and a public servant. During his life, Benjamin Franklin did many things such as statesmanship, book-printing, and inventing and discovering many important things.
He invented an efficient heating stove and proved that lightning is electricity. All of his great achievements have helped to make him one of the worlds best scientists. (1, 2) Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 1706. His parents were Josiah and Asian Franklin. He was the 15 th child and youngest son in a family of 17 children.
His father made soap and candles in his shop "At the Sign of the Blue Ball" in Boston. 1 His mother was his fathers second wife. 2 Benjamin attended school in Boston for only two years. He was excellent in reading, fair in writing, and bad in arithmetic. Josiah Franklin decided that he could not afford anymore education for his youngest son. He kept Benjamin home after the age of 10. 1 Benjamin began to help in his father's shop, cutting candlewicks and filling molds.
Although he went to school only two years, Ben liked books and spent much of his spare time reading. He also became an expert swimmer. One of his first inventions was a set of paddles to give him greater swimming speed. 3 When he was 12, his father persuaded him to become an apprentice to his older brother James who was a printer. James was a good teacher and Benjamin was a good pupil. He soon became a skilled printer.
He wrote several newspaper articles. 1 James and Benjamin fought a lot and Benjamin wanted to become his own master. 1 At 17, he ran away to Philadelphia, which was then the largest city in the American Colonies. 1. From 1723 to 1730, Franklin worked for various printers in Philadelphia and in London, England, where he was sent to buy printing presses. He became part owner of a print shop in 1728, when he was 22. Two years later, he became owner of the business. He began publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette, writing most of the material for this newspaper himself.
His name gradually became known throughout the colonies. 1 He achieved even greater success with Poor Richard's Almanac than with his newspaper. He wrote and published the almanac for every year from 1733 to 1758. The fame of the almanac is because of the wise and witty sayings that he scattered through each issue. 1 By 1748 Franklin had earned enough money to leave his printing business. He bought a 300 -acre farm near Burlington, N. J. , and retired to give his time to science and public service. Franklin filled many public offices.
He was a clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly from 1736 to 1751 and a member of the Assembly from 1751 to 1764. From 1737 to 1753 he served as deputy postmaster of Philadelphia. 3 Benjamin married Deborah Read who was the daughter of his first landlady in 1730. She was an uneducated woman who did not share Franklin's interest in books and science. She was devoted to him and was a good wife. Franklin had three children. They were Francis Folger, who died in childhood of smallpox, Sarah, who married a merchant, and William, who became governor of New Jersey. 3 Benjamin Franklin was an active inventor all his adult life.
One of the most famous of his many inventions was the Franklin stove. Houses in his time were badly heated by open fireplaces. Franklin's stove stood in the fireplace, but its grate extended out into the room. This heater put heat in all directions. 3 He became the first scientist to study the movement of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean. He spent a lot of time charting its course and recording its temperature, speed, and depth.
Benjamin Franklin was the first to show scientists and naval officers that sailors could calm a rough sea by pouring oil on it. He also was for daylight-saving time in summer. 1 People everywhere appreciate his invention of bifocal eyeglasses most of all. This invention allowed both reading and distant lenses to be put in a single frame. 1 He discovered that disease spreads good in poorly ventilated rooms. Benjamin Franklin also showed Americans how to improve acid soil by using lime. He would not patent any of his inventions. He preferred to have them used freely for everyone. 1 Benjamin Franklin was one of the first persons in the world to experiment with electricity.
He conducted his most famous electrical experiment at Philadelphia in 1752. He flew a homemade kite during a thunderstorm, and proved that lightning is electricity. A bolt of lightning struck a pointed wire fastened to the kite and traveled down the kite string to a key fastened at the end, where it caused a spark. With that information, he created the lightning rod. He invented this device as a good way of protecting houses and buildings from being struck by electricity during a lightning storm. When lightning struck Franklin's own home, the reliability of his invention became obvious.
The lightning rod saved the building from damage. Franklin's experiments with electricity involved some personal risk. He knocked himself unconscious at least once. He had been trying to kill a turkey with an electric shock, but something went wrong and Benjamin was shocked... 1 Fighting between Britain and France caused America to go to war in 1750 s. That was the French and Indian War. Northern colonists had been afraid of Indian raids.
In 1748 Benjamin Franklin warned Pennsylvanians of danger from the Indians. He organized companies of volunteer soldiers and had guns placed along the Delaware River. When British troops landed in Virginia in the summer of 1755, Benjamin Franklin hired wagons for them to carry supplies. The Pennsylvania Assembly sent him into the frontier to direct the building of forts and to raise troops. 3 In 1757, he was sent to England by the Pennsylvania Assembly to petition the king for the right to levy taxes on proprietary lands. After completing his mission, he remained in England for five years as the chief representative of the American colonies. 2 Benjamin Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1762, where he remained until 1764, when he was sent again to England as the agent of Pennsylvania. In 1766 he was interrogated before the House of Commons regarding the effects of the Stamp Act upon the colonies. 2 He finally gave up not winning it.
Benjamin Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1775. His wife had died in 1774. Even though he was almost 70 years old, he jumped into the work of the American Revolution. 3 Benjamin Franklin became one of the five chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence. He was also one of the signers of it. 2 Shortly after the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, the Congress appointed Franklin as one of three commissioners that were sent to represent the United States in France.
The war was not going good for the US so Congress realized an alliance with France might be the only way to not lose. 1 He was successful, and the Treaty of Paris was signed on Feb. 6, 1778. 1 Then in 1778, he was appointed minister to France. 1 In March 1785 left his duties in France and returned to Philadelphia. He was immediately chosen president of the Pennsylvania executive council. In 1787 he was elected a delegate to the convention that drew up the U. S.
Constitution. Benjamin. One of his last public acts was to sign a petition to the U. S. Congress, on February 12, 1790, as president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, asking for the abolition of slavery and the suppression of the slave trade. Two months later, on April 17, Franklin died in his Philadelphia home at 84 years of age.
Benjamin Franklin was a very remarkable man. He had many accomplishments in his life that made him one of the worlds greatest people. He not only was an author, diplomat, philosopher, but also he was a great scientist. His inventions and discovers have made helped many people throughout the centuries. His many accomplishments in his life has made him one of the worlds greatest people.
Bibliography: encarta 2000 world book encyclopedia
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