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This report tells of the many accomplishments of Benjamin Franklin, and of how he became known as a hero of America. It explains how he rose from poverty by working hard. The report spreads out Ben Franklins life and the accomplishments he made during it, all from his birth to his death. You will find the discoveries and inventions he made, the way traveled in his life, and how he did all he could to improve society. When you finish reading this, your questions about Benjamin Franklin will be answered and you will know why he is considered one of Americas greatest heroes. Benjamin Franklin is one of the few people in American history that can truly be called a hero.
He was born in 1796 and died in the year 1790, living to be eighty-four years old. He was the son of a poor Boston candle maker, by the name of Josiah Franklin, and had sixteen brothers and sisters. At the age of eight, Benjamin enters grammar school for two years. Two years later, he became his fathers assistant in making candles.
In 1718, Ben begins assisting his brother, James, in printing. In three years Franklin made a living by writing poems and ballads, and then selling them in printed form. In the year 1723, he breaks his indenture and moves from Boston to Philadelphia. While there, he finds employment in Keimers printing office.
In 1724 he is persuaded by Governor Keith to establish himself independently, and so Ben goes to England at the age of eighteen and opens a small printing shop their. After two years there, he returns to Philadelphia and becomes the manager of Keimers printing house. At the age of twenty-two, he opens another printing office with Hugh Meredith after Keimers dies. The next year he opens a stationers shop. In the year 1730, when he was twenty-four, he gets married to Rebecca Read. A year later, he founds the first the first public library in, the Philadelphia Library.
In 1732, he prints the first Poor Richards Almanac, which contained all his witty sayings that are still used today, and also gave other important facts. Four years later, he was the chosen clerk of the General Assembly, and then the next year he was elected to the assembly and appointed Deputy Postmaster General. He also plans a city police and the first ever fire department. Benjamin begins to study French, Italian, Spanish, and Latin in 1738. He invented the Franklin Stove four years later. In 1743, he proposes a plan to make an academy, which is accepted in the year 1749, and develops into the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1748, Franklin sells his printing business and is appointed on the commission of the Peace, chosen to the Common Council, and to the Assembly. The year after, he was chosen as Commissioner to trade with the Indians. The first hospital in America was founded with his help in 1751. When he is forty-six years old in 1752, Franklin conducts his famous kite experiment and discovers that lightning is actually an electrical discharge. The next year he is awarded the Copley medal for his discovery and is also elected a member of the Royal Society. He also receives the degree of M.
A. from Yale and Harvard, and is appointed joint Postmaster General. The year 1754 was not a good year, for the French and Indian War started to heat up. During a meeting with representatives from many of the colonies in Albany, New York, Ben Franklin proposed the Albany Plan of Union, which was rejected by the other representatives.
In 1755, he pledged his personal property so that supplies could be raised for the militia of the area to fight off Indians. Ben tried to advise British office General Braddock of the Indians fighting tactics, but the General ignored the advice and suffered a humiliating defeat. That same year he carries out a bill and establishes a voluntary militia, becoming colonel and taking to the field. He gets called back to Philadelphia before his work is complete. While there, his bill passes for Philadelphia to pave the streets, and then goes to England as Ambassador of the Assembly to plead the cause of the Assembly against the Proprietaries. In the year 1760 he returns to America and receives the degree of LL.
D from Oxford and Edinburgh. Three years later, he took a five-month tour of the northen colonies to inspect the post-offices. In 1764, he is defeated by the Penn faction and is not reelected to the Assembly, and is then sent to England again as an agent for Pennsylvania. While in England, he tries to no avail to prevent the passage of the Stamp Act. He returns to America two years later and becomes the agent of Massachusetts, Georgia, and New Jersey. He leaves America again in 1767 at the age of 61 to go to France for eight years.
In 1772, he was elected Associate Entrance of the French Academy, which was considered a high honor. In 1774, he is dismissed from the office of Post General. Benjamin returns to America one year later and was chosen a delegate to the second Continental Congress, and was also appointed one of the commissioners to secure the cooperation of Canada. In 1776, Ben Franklin was placed on the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence and also signed it. He is sent to France as an agent of the colonies and concludes treaties of defensive alliance. In the year 1783, he signs the Definite Treaty of Peace and returns to America two years later.
He is elected President of Pennsylvania and is reelected the next two years. He is sent as a delegate to the convention for framing a Federal Constitution in 1787. In 1788, Benjamin Franklin retires from public life and dies two years later at the age of eighty-four. When this happened, many countries (mostly America) mourned the loss of a great man and hero. By doing this report on Benjamin Franklin, I have learned a lot. I learned that true heroes in history arent men, or women, who win wars victoriously, but men who try to prevent these wars and conflicts and help out all of society.
I also learned that if you are born low in the social classes, you can come out of poverty by working hard and trying your best, like Ben did. I now know that any problem in life should be solved by communicating and not violence. I also learned that the only way you will get ahead in life and be truly happy is to work as hard as you can. I hope that after you have read this report, all of your questions on Benjamin Franklin have been answered and you feel the same way. Franklin proved the old adage "Necessity is the Mother of Invention" with his creation of the bifocal lens. Unfortunate enough to be both myopic (near-sighted) and hyperaemic (far-sighted), Franklin was frustrated that he had to constantly switch his pairs of glasses, depending on what he was trying to focus on.
He longed for the ability to see both near and far with a single frame. In order to accomplish this, Benjamin had the lenses of two pairs of spectacles cut in half and put half of each lens in one sole frame. Today, millions of individuals take advantage of Franklin's bifocals, giving people a convenient way in which to correct their vision for both distance and reading. A catheter is a thin and flexible tube inserted into a bodily passage or cavity in order to allow fluids to pass into or out of it, to distend (expand) it, or to convey diagnostic or other instruments through it. Of course, Franklin's invention of the device in December 1752, was a much cruder version of today's device.
In fact, his work was actually a modification on the work of a European catheter. Nevertheless, it remains the first one of its type created in America. The mechanism was constructed by the scientist for his brother John, who was extremely ill at the time. During Franklin's times in colonial America, the severe winters would make it extremely cold in people's houses. Not only was this a result of poor insulation, but homes back then were built purely of wood. Many colonists counteracted this problem of cold spells by building open fires inside.
Indeed, this was tremendously dangerous and harmful to the welfare of both families and their dwellings. Franklin rectified this unsafe method of heating by inventing the iron furnace stove, also know as the Franklin Stove. The appliance allowed people to warm their homes less dangerously and with less wood. From 1757 to 1766, Benjamin Franklin served as a delegate for colonial America. Consequently, he spent a great deal of time travelling in both London and Paris, European centers of political activity. During this period, it was quite popular and entertaining for amateur musicians to perform on sets of singing glasses.
Franklin attended one of these concerts held by Richard Puckridge, an amateur, and was immediately bedazzled by the utopian and ethereal beauty of the sound. Immediately, he went to work on refining the instrument and he soon conceived a way of bringing it to professional fame. Believe it or not, the odometer dates all the way back to Franklin's times, for he was keen enough to foresee its usefulness in daily life. As postmaster, Benjamin was assigned the task of mapping mail routes for the local towns. He went out riding on this carriage to measure the routes and soon realized how important it was to keep track of the distances.
Consequently, he invented a simple odometer attached to his carriage. The instrument was designed to measure distances by counting the rotations of the axles of the wagon. Benjamin Franklin's work in the field of electricity has proven vital to both society and the sciences. In his discovery of lightning and electricity the scientist at once realized the awesome power and current contained in each lightning bolt. In order to protect buildings and homes, he invented a lightning rod, comprised of iron, which would be mounted at the top of the edifice. Subsequently, it would attract the lightning current and immediately channel it to the ground, thereby rendering it harmless.
Scientists during Franklin's time praised the invention for its practicality and dramatic purpose. Davidson, James West/ Batchelor, John E. The American Nation. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. , 1994. Internet, AOL. web 1994.
Internet, AOL. web Jan. 1999. Internet, AOL. web 1999.
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