Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705][Note 1] – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and in many ways was "the First American".[1] A world famous polymath, DELL V119525BS1 Laptop Keyboard
Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. HP G42-415DX Laptop Keyboard
As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions.[2] He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and a university. DELL Precision M4500 Laptop Keyboard
Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity; as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies, then as the first United States Ambassador to France, GATEWAY V030946FS1 US Laptop Keyboard
he exemplified the emerging American nation.[3] Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. HP 540 Laptop Keyboard
In the words of historianHenry Steele Commager, "In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat."[4] To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."[5] ASUS X88S Laptop Keyboard
Franklin, always proud of his working class roots, became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies.[6] With two partners he published the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies. He became wealthy publishing Poor Richard's Almanack and The Pennsylvania Gazette. SONY Vaio PCG-K25 Laptop Keyboard
He played a major role in establishing the University of Pennsylvania and was elected the first president of the American Philosophical Society. Franklin became a national hero in America when as agent for several colonies he spearheaded the effort to have Parliament in London repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. HP Pavilion dv6-2005sl Laptop Keyboard
An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts to secure support for the American Revolution by shipments of crucial munitions proved vital for the American war effort. ACER 99.N5982.21D Laptop Keyboard
For many years he was the British postmaster for the colonies, which enabled him to set up the first national communications network. He was active in community affairs, colonial and state politics, as well as national and international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. Toward the end of his life, he freed his own slaves and became one of the most prominent abolitionists. SONY KFRMBA151B Laptop Keyboard
His colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers, have seen Franklin honored on coinage and the $100 bill; warships; the names of many towns, counties, SONY VAIO VGN-NW130D Laptop Keyboard
educational institutions, namesakes, and companies; and more than two centuries after his death, countless cultural references.
Benjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street, in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706,[Note 1][Note 2] and baptized at Old South Meeting House. He was one of ten children born to Josiah Franklin with his second wife Abiah Folger. Among Benjamin's siblings were his older brother James and his younger sister Jane. HP AEUT5U00010 Laptop Keyboard
Josiah wanted Ben to attend school with the clergy, but only had enough money to send him to school for two years. He attendedBoston Latin School but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious reading. TOSHIBA NSK-TBD01 Laptop Keyboard
Although "his parents talked of the church as a career"[7] for Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten. He worked for his father for a time and at 12 he became anapprentice to his brother James, a printer, who taught Ben the printing trade. When Ben was 15, James founded The New-England Courant, which was the first truly independent newspaper in the colonies. HP Pavilion dv5-1104tu Laptop Keyboard
When denied the chance to write a letter to the paper for publication, Franklin adopted the pseudonym of "Mrs. Silence Dogood", a middle-aged widow. "Mrs. Dogood"'s letters were published, and became a subject of conversation around town. HP 646568-001 Laptop Keyboard
Neither James nor theCourant's readers were aware of the ruse, and James was unhappy with Ben when he discovered the popular correspondent was his younger brother. Franklin left his apprenticeship without permission, and in so doing became a fugitive.[8] SONY VAIO VGN-FS550 Laptop Keyboard
At age 17, Franklin ran away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, seeking a new start in a new city. When he first arrived, he worked in several printer shops around town. But, he was not satisfied by the immediate prospects. HP G72-b66US Laptop Keyboard
After a few months, while working in a printing house, Franklin was convinced by Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith to go to London, ostensibly to acquire the equipment necessary for establishing another newspaper in Philadelphia. HP G61-511WM Laptop Keyboard
Finding Keith's promises of backing a newspaper empty, Franklin worked as a typesetter in a printer's shop in what is now the Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great in the Smithfield area of London. Following this, he returned to Philadelphia in 1726 with the help of Thomas Denham, a merchant who employed Franklin as clerk, shopkeeper, HP 519265-001 Laptop Keyboard
and bookkeeper in his business.[8] In 1727, Benjamin Franklin, then 21, created the Junto, a group of "like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community." The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it subsequently gave rise to many organizations in Philadelphia. Compaq Presario CQ42-228LA Laptop Keyboard
Reading was a great pastime of the Junto, but books were rare and expensive. The members created a library, initially assembled from their own books. This did not suffice, however. Franklin conceived the idea of a subscription library, which would pool the funds of the members to buy books for all to read. This was the birth of the Library Company of Philadelphia: HP Pavilion G61-409CA CPU Fan
its charter was composed by Franklin in 1731. In 1732, Franklin hired the first American librarian, Louis Timothee.
Originally, the books were kept in the homes of the first librarians, but in 1739 the collection was moved to the second floor of the State House of Pennsylvania, now known as Independence Hall. In 1791, HP Pavilion dv7t-6100 CTO CPU Fan
a new building was built specifically for the library. The Library Company is now a great scholarly and research library with 500,000 rare books, pamphlets, and broadsides, more than 160,000 manuscripts, and 75,000 graphic items. Toshiba Satellite A665-S6050 CPU Fan
Upon Denham's death, Franklin returned to his former trade. In 1728, Franklin had set up a printing house in partnership with Hugh Meredith; the following year he became the publisher of a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette. HP KSB06105HA CPU Fan
The Gazette gave Franklin a forum for agitation about a variety of local reforms and initiatives through printed essays and observations. Over time, his commentary, and his adroit cultivation of a positive image as an industrious and intellectual young man, ACER TravelMate 4283WLMi CPU Fan
earned him a great deal of social respect. But even after Franklin had achieved fame as a scientist and statesman, he habitually signed his letters with the unpretentious 'B. Franklin, Printer.'[8]
In 1732, Ben Franklin published the first German language newspaper in America – the Philadelphische Zeitung – although it failed after only one year, because four other newly founded German papers quickly dominated the newspaper market.[9] Dell Vostro 3450 CPU Fan
Franklin saw the printing press as a device to instruct colonial Americans in moral virtue. Frasca argues he saw this as a service to God, because he understood moral virtue in terms of actions, thus, doing good provides a service to God. SONY Vaio VGN-SZ2XRP/C CPU Fan
Despite his own moral lapses, Franklin saw himself as uniquely qualified to instruct Americans in morality. He tried to influence American moral life through construction of a printing network based on a chain of partnerships from the Carolinas to New England. Franklin thereby invented the first newspaper chain, FUJITSU LifeBook S6420 CPU Fan
It was more than a business venture, for like many publishers since, he believed that the press had a public-service duty.[10]
When Franklin established himself in Philadelphia, shortly before 1730, the town boasted two "wretched little" news sheets, Andrew Bradford’s American Mercury, DELL Vostro 3450 Laptop Keyboard
and Keimer’s Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences, and Pennsylvania Gazette. This instruction in all arts and sciences consisted of weekly extracts from Chambers’s Universal Dictionary. Franklin quickly did away with all this when he took over the Instructor, and made it The Pennsylvania Gazette. FUJITSU Lifebook E8110 Laptop Keyboard
TheGazette soon became Franklin’s characteristic organ, which he freely used for satire, for the play of his wit, even for sheer excess of mischief or of fun. From the first he had a way of adapting his models to his own uses. The series of essays called "The Busy-Body," DELL Vostro 1510 Laptop Keyboard
which he wrote for Bradford’s American Mercuryin 1729, followed the general Addisonian form, already modified to suit homelier conditions. The thrifty Patience, in her busy little shop, complaining of the useless visitors who waste her valuable time, is related to the ladies who address Mr. Spectator. The Busy-Body himself is a true Censor Morum, SAMSUNG X20 Laptop Keyboard
as Isaac Bickerstaff had been in the Tatler. And a number of the fictitious characters, Ridentius, Eugenius, Cato, and Cretico, represent traditional 18th-century classicism. Even this Franklin could use for contemporary satire, since Cretico, the "sowre Philosopher", is evidently a portrait of Franklin’s rival, Samuel Keimer. SONY VAIO VGN-N31M/W Laptop Keyboard
As time went on, Franklin depended less on his literary conventions, and more on his own native humor. In this there is a new spirit—not suggested to him by the fine breeding of Addison, or the bitter irony of Swift, or the stinging completeness of Pope. The brilliant little pieces Franklin wrote for hisPennsylvania Gazette have an imperishable place in American literature. ACER Aspire 5610Z Laptop Keyboard
The Pennsylvania Gazette, like most other newspapers of the period was often poorly printed. Franklin was busy with a hundred matters outside of his printing office, and never seriously attempted to raise the mechanical standards of his trade. SONY VAIO VPCF12 Laptop Keyboard
Nor did he ever properly edit or collate the chance medley of stale items that passed for news in the Gazette. His influence on the practical side of journalism was minimal. On the other hand, his advertisements of books show his very great interest in popularizing secular literature. Compaq Presario CQ57 Series Laptop Keyboard
Undoubtedly his paper contributed to the broader culture that distinguished Pennsylvania from her neighbors before the Revolution. Like many publishers, Franklin built up a book shop in his printing office; he took the opportunity to read new books before selling them. ACER Aspire 5742 Laptop Keyboard
Franklin had mixed success in his plan to establish an inter-colonial network of newspapers that would produce a profit for him and disseminate virtue.[11] He began in Charleston, South Carolina in 1731. After the second editor died his widow Elizabeth Timothy took over and made it a success, 1738-46. She was one of colonial era's first woman printers.[12] HP Pavilion dv4t-1300 CTO Laptop Keyboard
For three decades Franklin maintained a close business relationship with her and her son Peter who took over in 1746.[13] The Gazette had a policy of impartiality in political debates, while creating the opportunity for public debate, HP Pavilion dv6-2115eg CPU Fan
which encouraged others to challenge authority. Editor Peter Timothy avoided blandness and crude bias, and after 1765 increasingly took a patriotic stand in the growing crisis with Great Britain.[14] However, Franklin's Connecticut Gazette (1755–68) proved unsuccessful.[15]
Freemason IBM 41W5269 CPU Fan
In 1731, Franklin was initiated into the local Masonic Lodge. He became Grand Master in 1734, indicating his rapid rise to prominence in Pennsylvania.[16][17]That same year, he edited and published the first Masonic book in the Americas, a reprint of James Anderson's Constitutions of the Free-Masons. Franklin remained a Freemason for the rest of his life.[18][19] Dell Vostro 3700 CPU Fan
In 1723, at the age of 17, Franklin proposed to 15-year-old Deborah Read while a boarder in the Read home. At that time, Read's mother was wary of allowing her young daughter to marry Franklin, who was on his way to London at Governor Sir William Keith's request, and also because of his financial instability. Her own husband had recently died, and Mrs. Read declined Franklin's request to marry her daughter.[8] DELL E233037 CPU Fan
While Franklin was in London, his trip was extended, and there were problems with Sir William's promises of support. Perhaps because of the circumstances of this delay, Deborah married a man named John Rodgers. HP Pavilion dv7-3060us CPU Fan
This proved to be a regrettable decision. Rodgers shortly avoided his debts and prosecution by fleeing to Barbadoswith her dowry, leaving Deborah behind. Rodgers's fate was unknown, and because of bigamy laws, Deborah was not free to remarry. HP G62-110ED CPU Fan
Franklin established a common-law marriage with Deborah Read on September 1, 1730. They took in Franklin's young, recently acknowledged illegitimate son, William, and raised him in their household. In addition, they had two children together. SONY Vaio VPC-EB4X1E/BQ CPU Fan
The first, Francis Folger Franklin, born October 1732, died of smallpox in 1736. Their second child, Sarah Franklin, familiarly called Sally, was born in 1743. She eventually married Richard Bache, had seven children, and cared for her father in his old age. HP Pavilion dv7-4104ca CPU Fan
Deborah's fear of the sea meant that she never accompanied Franklin on any of his extended trips to Europe, despite his repeated requests. She wrote to him in November 1769 saying she was ill due to “dissatisfied distress” from his prolonged absence, but he did not return until his business was done.[20] Deborah Read Franklin died of a stroke in 1774, while Franklin was on an extended mission to England; he returned in 1775. HP 3MLX8TATP20 CPU Fan
In 1730, at the age of 24, Franklin publicly acknowledged an illegitimate son named William, and raised him in his household. His mother's identity is not known.[21] He was educated in Philadelphia. SONY Vaio VGN-NW11S/S CPU Fan
Beginning at about age 30, William studied law in London in the early 1760s. He fathered an illegitimate son, William Franklin, born February 22, 1762. The boy's mother was never identified, and he was placed in foster care. Franklin later that year married Elizabeth Downes, daughter of a planter from Barbados. After William passed the bar, his father helped him gain an appointment in 1763 as the last Royal Governor of New Jersey. HP Pavilion dv7t-6100 CTO CPU Fan
A Loyalist, William and his father eventually broke relations over their differences about the American Revolutionary War. The elder Franklin could never accept William's position. Deposed in 1776 by the revolutionary government of New Jersey and imprisoned for a time, HP G62-b51EB CPU Fan
the younger Franklin went to New York in 1782, which was still occupied by British troops. He became leader of the Board of Associated Loyalists—a quasi-military organization, headquartered in New York City. They initiated guerrilla forays into New Jersey, Dell Latitude E6510 CPU Fan
southern Connecticut, and New York counties north of the city.[22] When British troops evacuated from New York, William Franklin left with them and sailed to England. He settled in London, never to return to North America. HP Pavilion dv2530ee CPU Fan
In the preliminary peace talks in 1782 with Britain, "...Benjamin Franklin insisted that loyalists who had borne arms against the United States would be excluded from this plea (that they be given a general pardon). He was undoubtedly thinking of William Franklin."[23] SONY Vaio VGN-FZ240E CPU Fan
Benjamin Franklin found out about Temple (as he called him), his only patrilineal grandson, on his second mission to England. He got to know the boy and became fond of him, arranging for his education. He never told his wife Deborah about him.[24] Franklin gained custody and brought Temple with him upon return to Philadelphia in 1775. Deborah had died the year before. Franklin brought up Temple within his household. HP Pavilion dv7-4073nr CPU Fan
Beginning at age 16, Temple Franklin served as secretary to his grandfather during his mission to Paris during the Revolutionary War. Although he returned to the United States with his grandfather in the 1780s, he could not find an appointment. HP Pavilion tx2510us CPU Fan
He returned to Europe, living for a time in England and then in France. He died in Paris in 1823 and was buried in Père-Lachaise Cemetery. HP Pavilion dv6-3216us CPU Fan
Success as an author
In 1733, Franklin began to publish the famous Poor Richard's Almanack (with content both original and borrowed) under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, on which much of his popular reputation is based. Franklin frequently wrote under pseudonyms. IBM FRU 46L4753 CPU Fan
Although it was no secret that Franklin was the author, his Richard Saunders character repeatedly denied it. "Poor Richard's Proverbs," adages from this almanac, such as "A penny saved is twopence dear" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned") and "Fish and visitors stink in three days" remain common quotations in the modern world. SONY VAIO VGN-N110G laptop keyboard
Wisdom in folk society meant the ability to provide an apt adage for any occasion, and Franklin's readers became well prepared. He sold about ten thousand copies per year (a circulation equivalent to nearly three million today).[8] HP Mini 110-1125NR laptop keyboard
In 1741 Franklin began publishing "The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America", the first such monthly magazine of this type published in America. SONY VAIO VGN-CS110D/W laptop keyboard
In 1758, the year he ceased writing for the Almanack, he printed Father Abraham's Sermon, also known as The Way to Wealth. Franklin's autobiography, begun in 1771 but published after his death, has become one of the classics of the genre. SONY Vaio VGN-FW390 laptop keyboard
Daylight saving time (DST) is often erroneously attributed to a 1784 satire that Franklin published anonymously.[25] Modern DST was first proposed by George Vernon Hudson in 1895.[26]
Franklin was a prodigious inventor. Among his many creations were the lightning rod, glass armonica (a glass instrument, not to be confused with the metal harmonica), SAMSUNG R522 laptop keyboard
Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and the flexible urinary catheter. Franklin never patented his inventions; in his autobiography he wrote, "... as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."[27] SONY VAIO VGN-NR31Z/S laptop keyboard
His inventions also included social innovations, such as paying forward. Franklin's fascination with innovation could be viewed as altruistic; he wrote that his scientific works were to be used for increasing efficiency and human improvement. One such improvement was his effort to expedite news services through his printing presses.[28] HP KSB0605HB CPU Fan
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Population studies
Franklin had a major influence on the emerging science of demography, or population studies.[29] Thomas Malthus is famous for his rule of population growth and credited Franklin for discovering it.[30] Kammen (1990) IBM 41W5269 CPU Fan
and Drake (2011) say Franklin's "Observations on the Increase of Mankind" (1755) stands alongside Ezra Stiles' "Discourse on Christian Union" (1760) as the leading works of eighteenth century Anglo-American demography; Drake credits Franklin's "wide readership and prophetic insight."[31][32] Toshiba MF60120V1-B100-G99 CPU Fan
In the 1730s and 1740s, Franklin began taking notes on population growth, finding that the American population had the fastest growth rates on earth.[33] Emphasizing that population growth depended on food supplies--HP Envy 17-2100ee CPU Fan
line of thought later developed by Thomas Malthus—Franklin emphasized the abundance of food and available farmland in America. He calculated that America's population was doubling every twenty years and would surpass that of England in a century.[34] DELL Latitude E6410 Series CPU Fan
In 1751, he drafted "Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c." Four years later, it was anonymously printed in Boston, and it was quickly reproduced in Britain, where it influenced the economists Adam Smith and later Thomas Malthus. Dell J6KH0 CPU Fan
Franklin's predictions alarmed British leaders who did not want to be surpassed by the colonies, so they became more willing to impose restrictions on the colonial economy.[35]
Franklin was also a pioneer in the study of slave demography, as shown in his 1755 essay.[36]
Atlantic Ocean currents SONY Vaio VPC-EA3L1E/P CPU Fan
As deputy postmaster, Franklin became interested in the North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns. While in England in 1768, he heard a complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs: Why did it take British packet ships carrying mail several weeks longer to reach New York than it HP Pavilion dv7-1426nr CPU Fan
took an average merchant ship to reach Newport, Rhode Island? The merchantmen had a longer and more complex voyage because they left from London, while the packets left from Falmouth in Cornwall. SONY UDQFRZH14CF0 CPU Fan
Franklin put the question to his cousin Timothy Folger, a Nantucket whaler captain, who told him that merchant ships routinely avoided a strong eastbound mid-ocean current. The mail packet captains sailed dead into it, thus fighting an adverse current of 3 miles per hour (5 km/h). Franklin worked with Folger and other experienced ship captains, ACER Aspire 4810TG-734G16Mn CPU Fan
learning enough to chart the current and name it the Gulf Stream, by which it is still known today.
Franklin published his Gulf Stream chart in 1770 in England, where it was completely ignored. Subsequent versions were printed in France in 1778 and the U.S. HP KSB06105HA CPU Fan
in 1786. The British edition of the chart, which was the original, was so thoroughly ignored that everyone assumed it was lost forever until Phil Richardson, aWoods Hole Oceanographer and Gulf Stream expert, discovered it in Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris in 1980.[37][38] This find received front page coverage in theNew York Times.[39] Toshiba Satellite M70-131 CPU Fan
It took many years for British sea captains to adopt Franklin's advice on navigating the current; once they did, they were able to trim two weeks from their sailing time.[40][41] In 1853, the oceanographer and cartographer Matthew Fontaine Maury noted that Franklin only charted and codified the Gulf Stream, he did not discover it: DELL LATITUDE E4310 Series CPU Fan
His discoveries resulted from his investigations of electricity. Franklin proposed that "vitreous" and "resinous" electricity were not different types of "electrical fluid" (as electricity was called then), SONY VGN-FE48E laptop keyboard
but the same electrical fluid under different pressures. He was the first to label them as positive and negative respectively,[43] and he was the first to discover the principle of conservation of charge.[44] GATEWAY P-6825 laptop keyboard
In 1750 he published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming alightning storm. On May 10, 1752, Thomas-François Dalibard of France conducted Franklin's experiment using a 40-foot (12 m)- SONY VAIO VGN-NW235D laptop keyboard
tall iron rod instead of a kite, and he extracted electrical sparks from a cloud. On June 15 Franklin may possibly have conducted his famous kite experiment in Philadelphia, successfully extracting sparks from a cloud. Franklin's experiment was not written up with credit[45] until Joseph Priestley's 1767 History and Present Status of Electricity; SONY VAIO VGN-NW235D laptop keyboard
the evidence shows that Franklin was insulated (not in a conducting path, where he would have been in danger of electrocution). Others, such as Prof. Georg Wilhelm Richmann were indeed electrocuted during the months following Franklin's experiment. SONY VAIO VGN-N130G/B laptop keyboard
In his writings, Franklin indicates that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his use of the concept of electrical ground. If Franklin did perform this experiment, HP Pavilion dv6-2005sl laptop keyboard
he may not have done it in the way that is often described—flying the kite and waiting to be struck by lightning—as it would have been dangerous.[46] Instead he used the kite to collect some electric charge from a storm cloud, which implied that lightning was electrical.[citation needed] On October 19 in a letter to England with directions for repeating the experiment, Franklin wrote: HP Pavilion dv6-2019ax laptop keyboard
When rain has wet the kite twine so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it streams out plentifully from the key at the approach of your knuckle, and with this key a phial, or Leiden jar, may be charged: Packard Bell PEW91 laptop keyboard
and from electric fire thus obtained spirits may be kindled, and all other electric experiments [may be] performed which are usually done by the help of a rubber glass globe or tube; and therefore the sameness of the electrical matter with that of lightening completely demonstrated.[47] IBM Thinkpad R40E laptop keyboard
Franklin's electrical experiments led to his invention of the lightning rod. He noted that conductors with a sharp rather than a smooth point could discharge silently, and at a far greater distance. SONY VAIO VGN-NW130D laptop keyboard
He surmised that this could help protect buildings from lightning by attaching "upright Rods of Iron, made sharp as a Needle and gilt to prevent Rusting, and from the Foot of those Rods a Wire down the outside of the Building into the Ground;... TOSHIBA Satellite L655-S5153 laptop keyboard
Would not these pointed Rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible Mischief!" Following a series of experiments on Franklin's own house, Lenovo 3000 G530 4151 laptop keyboard
lightning rods were installed on the Academy of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania) and the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in 1752.[48]
In recognition of his work with electricity, HP Pavilion dv6-3230us laptop keyboard
Franklin received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1753 and in 1756 he became one of the few 18th-century Americans elected as a Fellow of the Society. The cgs unit of electric charge has been named after him: one franklin (Fr) is equal to one statcoulomb. SONY VAIO VGN-NW25GF laptop keyboard
Franklin was, along with his contemporary Leonhard Euler, the only major scientist who supported Christiaan Huygens' wave theory of light, which was basically ignored by the rest of the scientific community. In the 18th century Newton's corpuscular theory was held to be true; only after Young's famous slit experiment(1803) were most scientists persuaded to believe Huygens' theory.[49] HP Mini 1151NR laptop keyboard
On October 21, 1743, according to popular myth, a storm moving from the southwest denied Franklin the opportunity of witnessing a lunar eclipse. Franklin was said to have noted that the prevailing winds were actually from the northeast, SONY Vaio VGN-AW220J/H laptop keyboard
contrary to what he had expected. In correspondence with his brother, Franklin learned that the same storm had not reached Boston until after the eclipse, despite the fact that Boston is to the northeast of Philadelphia. He deduced that storms do not always travel in the direction of the prevailing wind, a concept that greatly influenced meteorology.[50] SONY VAIO VGN-FS485B laptop keyboard
After the Icelandic volcanic eruption of Laki in 1783, and the subsequent harsh European winter of 1784, Franklin made observations connecting the causal nature of these two separate events. He wrote about them in a lecture series.[51] Compaq Presario CQ62-210SY laptop keyboard
Though Benjamin Franklin has been most noted kite-wise with his lightning experiments, he has also been noted by many for his using kites to pull humans and ships across waterways.[52] The George Pocock in the book A TREATISE on The Aeropleustic Art, HP Pavilion dv5-1205eg laptop keyboard
or Navigation in the Air, by means of Kites, or Buoyant Sails[53]noted being inspired by Benjamin Franklin's traction of his body by kite power across a waterway. In his later years he suggested using the technique for pulling ships. DELL NSK-DN001 laptop keyboard
Franklin noted a principle of refrigeration by observing that on a very hot day, he stayed cooler in a wet shirt in a breeze than he did in a dry one. To understand this phenomenon more clearly Franklin conducted experiments. In 1758 on a warm day in Cambridge, IBM ThinkPad T42 2373 laptop keyboard
England, Franklin and fellow scientist John Hadleyexperimented by continually wetting the ball of a mercury thermometer with ether and using bellows to evaporate the ether.[54] With each subsequent evaporation, the thermometer read a lower temperature, SONY Vaio PCG-K215M laptop keyboard
eventually reaching 7 °F (−14 °C). Another thermometer showed that the room temperature was constant at 65 °F (18 °C). In his letter Cooling by Evaporation, Franklin noted that, "One may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer’s day." SONY VGN-FE28B laptop keyboard
According to Michael Faraday, Franklin's experiments on the non-conduction of ice are worth mentioning although the law of the general effect of liquefaction on electrolytes is not attributed to Franklin.[55] However, as reported in 1836 by Prof. SONY V-0709BIAS1-US laptop keyboard
A. D. Bache of the University of Pennsylvania, the law of the effect of heat on the conduction of bodies otherwise non-conductors, for example, glass, HP Pavilion DV6-1120ev laptop keyboard
could be attributed to Franklin. Franklin writes, "...A certain quantity of heat will make some bodies good conductors, that will not otherwise conduct..." and again, "...And water, though naturally a good conductor, will not conduct well when frozen into ice."[56] HP Pavilion DV7t-3100 laptop keyboard
An aging Franklin accumulated all his oceanographic findings in Maritime Observations, published by the Philosophical Society's transactions in 1786.[57] It contained ideas for sea anchors, catamaran hulls, watertight compartments, SONY VAIO VPC-F12 laptop keyboard
shipboard lightning rods and a soup bowl
In a 1772 letter to Joseph Priestley, Franklin lays out the earliest known description of the Pro & Con list,[58] a common decision making technique: SONY VAIO VGN-N31M laptop keyboard
... my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns, writing over the one Pro, and over the other Con. Then during three or four Days Consideration I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different Motives that at different Times occur to me for or against the Measure. SAMSUNG R522 laptop keyboard
When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out: If I find a Reason pro equal to some two Reasons con, SONY VAIO VPC-F12 laptop keyboard
I strike out the three. If I judge some two Reasons con equal to some three Reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther Consideration nothing new that is of Importance occurs on either side, I come to a Determination accordingly.[58] TOSHIBA NB100 laptop keyboard
Franklin is known to have played the violin, the harp, and the guitar. He also composed music, notably a string quartet in early classical style. He developed a much-improved version of the glass harmonica, in which the glasses rotate on a shaft, with the player's fingers held steady, instead of the other way around; this version soon found its way to Europe.[59] SONY VAIO VGN-N27GH/B laptop keyboard
Franklin was an avid chess player. He was playing chess by around 1733, making him the first chess player known by name in the American colonies.[60] His essay on the "Morals of Chess" in Columbian magazine, in December 1786 is the second known writing on chess in America.[60] HP Pavilion dv6-2165tx laptop keyboard
This essay in praise of chess and prescribing a code of behavior for the game has been widely reprinted and translated.[61][62][63][64] He and a friend also used chess as a means of learning theItalian language, which both were studying; SONY VAIO VGN-CS17G/Q laptop keyboard
the winner of each game between them had the right to assign a task, such as parts of the Italian grammar to be learned by heart, to be performed by the loser before their next meeting.[65] Franklin was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1999.[60] HP Pavilion dv6-3230us laptop keyboard
In 1736, Franklin created the Union Fire Company, one of the first volunteer firefighting companies in America. In the same year, he printed a new currency for New Jersey based on innovative anti-counterfeiting techniques he had devised. Throughout his career, Franklin was an advocate for paper money, publishing A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency in 1729, TOSHIBA Satellite M645-S4050 Keyboard
and his printer printed money. He was influential in the more restrained and thus successful monetary experiments in the Middle Colonies, which stopped deflation without causing excessive inflation. In 1766 he made a case for paper money to the British House of Commons.[66] DELL Vostro PP37L Keyboard
As he matured, Franklin began to concern himself more with public affairs. In 1743, he set forth a scheme for The Academy, Charity School, and College of Philadelphia. He was appointed president of the Academy on November 13, 1749; the Academy and the Charity School opened on August 13, 1751. ACER Aspire 2920Z Keyboard
In 1743, Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society to help scientific men discuss their discoveries and theories. He began the electrical research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life, in between bouts of politics and moneymaking.[8] Lenovo Thinkpad T420 Keyboard
In 1747, he retired from printing and went into other businesses.[67] He created a partnership with his foreman, David Hall, which provided Franklin with half of the shop's profits for 18 years. HP G72-b60US Keyboard
This lucrative business arrangement provided leisure time for study, and in a few years he had made discoveries that gave him a reputation with educated persons throughout Europe and especially in France. IBM Lenovo Thinkpad X201 Keyboard
Franklin became involved in Philadelphia politics and rapidly progressed. In October 1748, he was selected as a councilman, in June 1749 he became a Justice of the Peace for Philadelphia, and in 1751 he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. SAMSUNG N150 Keyboard
On August 10, 1753, Franklin was appointed joint deputy postmaster-general of North America. His most notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal system, with mail sent out every week.[8]
In 1751, Franklin and Dr. HP G62-224CA Keyboard
Pennsylvania Hospital was the first hospital in what was to become the United States of America.
Between 1750 and 1753, the “educational triumvirate” [68] of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the American Dr. Samuel Johnson of Stratford, Connecticut, DELL Precision M4500 Keyboard
and the immigrant Scottish schoolteacher Dr. William Smith built on Franklin's initial scheme and created whatPresident James Madison of the College of William and Mary called a "new-model"[69] plan or style of American College. DELL Vostro 1014 Keyboard
Franklin solicited, printed in 1752, and promoted an American textbook of moral philosophy from the American Dr. Samuel Johnson titledElementa Philosophica[70] to be taught in the new colleges to replace courses in denominational divinity. HP Pavilion dm3-1020CA Keyboard
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In June 1753, Johnson, Franklin, and Smith met in Stratford.[71] They decided the new-model college would focus on the professions, with classes taught in English instead of Latin, have subject matter experts as professors instead of one tutor leading a class for four years, and there would be no religious test for admission.[72] TOSHIBA Satellite L775D-S7226 Keyboard
Johnson went on to found King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City in 1754, while Franklin hired William Smith as Provost of the College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1755. At its first commencement, on May 17, 1757, Compaq Presario CQ42-228LA Keyboard
seven men graduated; six with a Bachelor of Arts and one as Master of Arts. It was later merged with the University of the State of Pennsylvania to become the University of Pennsylvania: Penn. The College was to become influential in guiding the founding documents of the United States: Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E520 laptop keyboard
in the Continental Congress, for example, over one third of the college-affiliated men who contributed the Declaration of Independence between September 4, 1774, and July 4, 1776, were affiliated with the College.[73] SONY VAIO VGN-AR670 laptop keyboard
In 1753, both Harvard University[74] and Yale University[75] awarded him honorary degrees.[76]
In 1754, he headed the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress. This meeting of several colonies had been requested by the Board of Trade in England to improve relations with the Indians and defense against the French. HP Mini 210-2003sl laptop keyboard
Franklin proposed a broad Plan of Union for the colonies. While the plan was not adopted, elements of it found their way into the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
In 1756, Franklin organized the Pennsylvania Militia (see "Associated Regiment of Philadelphia"
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under heading of Pennsylvania's 103rd Artillery and 111th Infantry Regiment at Continental Army). He used Tun Tavern as a gathering place to recruit a regiment of soldiers to go into battle against the Native American uprisings that beset the American colonies. Reportedly Franklin was elected "Colonel" of the Associated Regiment but declined the honor. Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E525 Keyboard
Also in 1756, Franklin became a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (now the Royal Society of Arts or RSA, which had been founded in 1754), SONY VAIO VGN-FS295XP Keyboard
whose early meetings took place in coffee shops in London's Covent Garden district, close to Franklin's main residence in Craven Street during his missions to England. The Craven street residence, which he used on various lengthy missions from 1757 to 1775, is the only of his residences to survive. It opened to the public as the Benjamin Franklin House museum on January 17, 2006. IBM 42T3671 Keyboard
After his return to the United States in 1775, Franklin became the Society's Corresponding Member and remained closely connected with the Society. The RSA instituted a Benjamin Franklin Medal in 1956 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Franklin's birth and the 200th anniversary of his membership of the RSA. HP 519265-001 Keyboard
In 1757, he was sent to England by the Pennsylvania Assembly as a colonial agent to protest against the political influence of the Penn family, the proprietors of the colony. He remained there for five years, SONY VAIO VGN-N21S/W Keyboard
striving to end the proprietors' prerogative to overturn legislation from the elected Assembly, and their exemption from paying taxes on their land. His lack of influential allies in Whitehall led to the failure of this mission. HP pavilion DV7-1000 Keyboard
Whilst in London, Franklin became involved in radical politics. He was a member of the Club of Honest Whigs, alongside thinkers such as Richard Price, the minister of Newington Green Unitarian Church who ignited the Revolution Controversy. HP Envy 15 Keyboard
During his stays at Craven Street between 1757 and 1775, Franklin developed a close friendship with his landlady, Margaret Stevenson and her circle of friends and relations, in particular her daughter Mary, who was more often known as Polly. Compaq Presario CQ57 Series Keyboard
In 1759, he visited Edinburgh with his son, and recalled his conversations there as "the densest happiness of my life".[77]In February 1759, the University of St Andrews awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree and in October of the same year, he was granted Freedom of the Borough of St. Andrews.[78] SONY Vaio PCG-K215M Keyboard
In 1762, Oxford University awarded Franklin an honorary doctorate for his scientific accomplishments; from then on he went by "Doctor Franklin." He also managed to secure an appointed post for his illegitimate son, William Franklin, by then an attorney, as Colonial Governor of New Jersey.[8] ACER TravelMate 6292 Keyboard
He joined the influential Lunar Society, in Birmingham, with whom he regularly corresponded and, on occasion, visited in Birmingham.
At this time, many members of the Pennsylvania Assembly were feuding with William Penn's heirs, who controlled the colony as proprietors. HP 519265-001 Keyboard
After his return to the colony, Franklin led the "anti-proprietary party" in the struggle against the Penn family, and was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House in May 1764. His call for a change from proprietary to royal government was a rare political miscalculation, Lenovo 3000 G530 4151 Keyboard
however: Pennsylvanians worried that such a move would endanger their political and religious freedoms. Because of these fears, and because of political attacks on his character, Franklin lost his seat in the October 1764 Assembly elections. DELL FM8 Keyboard
The anti-proprietary party dispatched Franklin to England again to continue the struggle against the Penn family proprietorship. During this trip, events drastically changed the nature of his mission.[79] DELL 0PVDG3 Keyboard
Franklin spent two months in Germany in 1766, but his connections to the country stretched across a lifetime. He declared a debt of gratitude to German scientist Otto von Guericke for his early studies of electricity. Franklin also co-authored the first treaty of friendship between Germany and America in 1785. TOSHIBA PK130260100 Keyboard
In September 1767, Franklin visited Paris with his usual traveling partner, Sir John Pringle. News of his electrical discoveries was widespread in France. His reputation meant that he was introduced to many influential scientists and politicians, and also to King Louis XV.[80] SONY VAIO VGN-CR42S Keyboard
While living in London in 1768, he developed a phonetic alphabet in A Scheme for a new Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling. This reformed alphabet discarded six letters Franklin regarded as redundant (c, j, q, w, x, and y), and substituted six new letters for sounds he felt lacked letters of their own. His new alphabet, however, never caught on, and he eventually lost interest.[81]
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Darwin at Litchfield.[82] Franklin belonged to a gentleman's club (which he called "honest Whigs"), which held stated meetings, and included members such as Richard Price and Andrew Kippis. IBM MCF-217PAM05 CPU Fan
He was also a corresponding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, which included such other scientific and industrial luminaries as Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin. He had never been to Ireland before, APPLE 661-4952 CPU Fan
and met and stayed with Lord Hillsborough, whom he believed was especially attentive. Franklin noted of him that "all the plausible behaviour I have described is meant only, by patting and stroking the horse, to make him more patient, Dell Vostro 3500 CPU Fan
while the reins are drawn tighter, and the spurs set deeper into his sides."[83] InDublin, Franklin was invited to sit with the members of the Irish Parliament rather than in the gallery. He was the first American to receive this honor.[82] Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX CPU Fan
While touring Ireland, he was moved by the level of poverty he saw. Ireland's economy was affected by the same trade regulations and laws of Britain that governed America. Franklin feared that America could suffer the same effects should Britain’s "colonial exploitation" continue.[84] HP 646578-001 CPU Fan
In Scotland, he spent five days with Lord Kames near Stirling and stayed for three weeks with David Humein Edinburgh.
In 1773, Franklin published two of his most celebrated pro-American satirical essays: "Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One",HP Pavilion dv9230us CPU Fan
and "An Edict by the King of Prussia".[85] He also published an Abridgment of the Book of Common Prayer, anonymously with Francis Dashwood. Among the unusual features of this work is a funeral service reduced to six minutes in length, "to preserve the health and lives of the living."[80] IBM Lenovo Thinkpad X200 Series CPU Fan
In June 1773 Franklin obtained private letters of Thomas Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver, governor and lieutenant governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, that proved they were encouraging the Crown to crack down on the rights of Bostonians. Franklin sent them to America, where they escalated the tensions. HP KSB06105HA CPU Fan
The British began to regard him as the fomenter of serious trouble. Hopes for a peaceful solution ended as he was systematically ridiculed and humiliated bySolicitor-General Alexander Wedderburn, before the Privy Council on January 29, 1774. He returned to Philadelphia in March 1775, and abandoned his accommodationist stance.[86] IBM ThinkPad T60 2637 CPU Fan
Coming of Revolution
In 1763, soon after Franklin returned to Pennsylvania from England for the first time, the western frontier was engulfed in a bitter war known as Pontiac's Rebellion. The Paxton Boys, a group of settlers convinced that the Pennsylvania government was not doing enough to protect them from American Indian raids, murdered a group of peaceful Susquehannock APPLE MG62090V1-Q020-S99 CPU Fan
Indians and marched on Philadelphia. Franklin helped to organize a local militia to defend the capital against the mob. He met with the Paxton leaders and persuaded them to disperse. Franklin wrote a scathing attack against the racial prejudice of the Paxton Boys. "If anIndian injures me," he asked, "does it follow that I may revenge that Injury on all Indians?"[87] HP 535766-001 CPU Fan
He provided an early response to British surveillance through his own network of counter-surveillance and manipulation. “He waged a public relations campaign, secured secret aid, played a role in privateering expeditions, and churned out effective and inflammatory propaganda.”[88] HP Envy 17-1090eo CPU Fan
By the time Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, after his second mission to Great Britain, theAmerican Revolution had begun – with fighting between colonials and British at Lexington and Concord. Dell Vostro 3350 CPU Fan
The New England militia had trapped the main British army in Boston. The Pennsylvania Assembly unanimously chose Franklin as their delegate to the Second Continental Congress. In June 1776, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. TOSHIBA NSK-TK001 Keyboard
Although he was temporarily disabled by gout and unable to attend most meetings of the Committee, Franklin made several "small but important"[90] changes to the draft sent to him by Thomas Jefferson. TOSHIBA 9J.N7482.901 Keyboard
At the signing, he is quoted as having replied to a comment by Hancock that they must all hang together: "Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."[91] HP Pavilion dv6-2112sa Keyboard
On July 26, 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the United States Post Office and named Benjamin Franklin as the first United States Postmaster General. Franklin had been a postmaster for decades and was a natural choice for the position.[92] Lenovo 45N2106 Keyboard
Franklin had just returned from England and was appointed chairman of a Committee of Investigation to establish a postal system. The report of the Committee, providing for the appointment of a postmaster general for the 13 American colonies, HP AEUT5U00010 Keyboard
was considered by the Continental Congress on July 25 and 26. On July 26, 1775, Franklin was appointed Postmaster General, the first appointed under the Continental Congress. It established a postal system that became the United States Post Office, a system that continues to operate today.[93] HP Pavilion dv7-6187cl CPU Fan
In December 1776, Franklin was dispatched to France as commissioner for the United States. He took with him as secretary his 16-year-old grandson, William Temple Franklin. They lived in a home in the Parisian suburb of Passy, donated by Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, who supported the United States. Franklin remained in France until 1785. HP KSB06105HA CPU Fan
He conducted the affairs of his country toward the French nation with great success, which included securing a critical military alliance in 1778 and negotiating theTreaty of Paris (1783). HP Pavilion dv7-3065dx CPU Fan
Among his associates in France was Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau—a French Revolutionary writer, orator and statesman who in early 1791 would be elected president of the National Assembly.[94] In July 1784, Franklin met with Mirabeau and contributed anonymous materials that the Frenchman used in his first signed work: HP Pavilion dv7-2043cl CPU Fan
Considerations sur l’ordre de Cincinnatus.[95] The publication was critical of the Society of the Cincinnati, established in the United States. Franklin and Mirabeau thought of it as a “noble order,” inconsistent with the egalitarian ideals of the new republic.[96] HP 646578-001 CPU Fan
During his stay in France, Benjamin Franklin was active as a freemason, serving as Grand Master of the Lodge Les Neuf Sœurs from 1779 until 1781. His lodge number was 24. He was a Past Grand Master of Pennsylvania. SONY VAIO PCG-6L2L CPU Fan
In 1784, when Franz Mesmer began to publicize his theory of "animal magnetism", which was considered offensive by many, Louis XVI appointed a commission to investigate it. These included the chemist Antoine Lavoisier, the physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly, and Benjamin Franklin.[97] HP Pavilion dv7-2043cl CPU Fan
Franklin's advocacy for religious tolerance in France contributed to arguments made by French philosophers and politicians that resulted in Louis XVI's signing of the Edict of Versailles in November 1787. This edict effectively nullified the Edict of Fontainebleau, which had denied non-Catholics civil status and the right to openly practice their faith.[98] SONY Vaio VPC-EB1S0E/BJ CPU Fan
Franklin also served as American minister to Sweden, although he never visited that country. He negotiated a treaty that was signed in April 1783. On August 27, 1783, in Paris, Franklin witnessed the world's first hydrogen balloon flight.[99] HP KSB06105HA CPU Fan
Le Globe, created by professor Jacques Charles and Les Frères Robert, was watched by a vast crowd as it rose from the Champ de Mars (now the site of the Eiffel Tower).[100] This so enthused Franklin that he subscribed financially to the next project to build a manned hydrogen balloon.[101] SONY Vaio VGN-BX760PS5 CPU Fan
On December 1, 1783, Franklin was seated in the special enclosure for honoured guests when La Charlière took off from the Jardin des Tuileries, piloted by Jacques Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert.[99][102] HP Pavilion dv7-2043cl CPU Fan
When he returned home in 1785, Franklin occupied a position only second to that of George Washington as the champion of American independence. Le Ray honored him with a commissioned portrait painted by Joseph Duplessis, HP Pavilion dv7-3065dx CPU Fan
which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. After his return, Franklin became an abolitionist and freed his two slaves. He eventually became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.[103] HP 550 CPU Fan
In 1787, Franklin served as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention. He held an honorary position and seldom engaged in debate. He is the only Founding Father who is a signatory of all four of the major documents of the founding of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris and the United States Constitution. HP Pavilion dv7-3170ep CPU Fan
In 1787, a group of prominent ministers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, proposed the foundation of a new college named in Franklin's honor. Franklin donated £200 towards the development of Franklin College (now called Franklin & Marshall College). IBM 26R8197 CPU Fan
Between 1771 and 1788, he finished his autobiography. While it was at first addressed to his son, it was later completed for the benefit of mankind at the request of a friend.
Franklin strongly supported the right to freedom of speech: HP Pavilion dv7-6187cl CPU Fan
"In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech ... Toshiba Satellite A205-S5831 CPU Fan
Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech, which is the right of every man ..." (1722)[104]
In his later years, as Congress was forced to deal with the issue of slavery, Franklin wrote several essays that stressed the importance of the abolition of slavery and of the integration of blacks into American society. These writings included: TOSHIBA NSK-T4D01 Keyboard
In 1790, Quakers from New York and Pennsylvania presented their petition for abolition to Congress. Their argument against slavery was backed by thePennsylvania Abolitionist Society and its president, Benjamin Franklin. HP 405963-001 Keyboard
Special balloting conducted October 18, 1785, unanimously elected Franklin the sixth president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, replacing John Dickinson. The office of president of Pennsylvania was analogous to the modern position of governor. SAMSUNG Q35 Keyboard
It is not clear why Dickinson had to be replaced with less than two weeks remaining before the regular election. Franklin held that office for slightly over three years, longer than any other, and served the constitutional limit of three full terms. Shortly after his initial election he was reelected to a full term on October 29, HP Pavilion dv6-2133ee Keyboard
1785, and again in the fall of 1786 and on October 31, 1787. Officially, his term concluded on November 5, 1788, but there is some question regarding the de facto end of his term, suggesting that the aging Franklin may not have been actively involved in the day-to-day operation of the council toward the end of his time in office.
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Franklin felt that organized religion was necessary to keep men good to their fellow men, but rarely attended religious services himself.[105] When Franklin met Voltaire in Paris and asked this great apostle of the Enlightenment to bless his grandson, Voltaire said in English, "God and Liberty," and added, "this is the only appropriate benediction for the grandson of Monsieur Franklin."[106] ACER 9J.N1H82.01D Keyboard
Franklin’s parents were both pious Puritans.[107] The family attended the old South Church, the most liberal Puritan congregation in Boston, where Benjamin Franklin was baptized in 1706.[108] Franklin’s father, a poor chandler, owned a copy of a book, Bonifacius: Essays to Do Good, by the Puritan preacher and family friend Cotton Mather, HP Pavilion dv7-2185dx CPU Fan
which Franklin often cited as a key influence on his life.[109] Franklin’s first pen name, Silence Dogood, paid homage both to the book and to a famous sermon by Mather. The book preached the importance of forming voluntary associations to benefit society. Franklin learned about forming do-good associations from Cotton Mather, HP Pavilion dv7-3125eo CPU Fan
but his organizational skills made him the most influential force in making voluntarism an enduring part of the American ethos.[110]
Franklin formulated a presentation of his beliefs and published it in 1728.[111] It did not mention many of the Puritan ideas as regards belief in salvation, the divinity of Jesus, and indeed most religious dogma. He clarified himself as a deist in his 1771 autobiography,[112] HP Pavilion dv4-1133tx CPU Fan
although he still considered himself a Christian.[113] He retained a strong faith in a God as the wellspring of morality and goodness in man, and as a Providential actor in history responsible for American independence.[114] HP 606013-001 CPU Fan
It was Ben Franklin who, at a critical impasse during the Constitutional Convention in June 1787, attempted to introduce the practice of daily common prayer with these words:
... In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. – Our prayers, HP COMPAQ KSB05105HA CPU Fan
Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. ... And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance. HP 538340-001 CPU Fan
I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? HP Pavilion dv6-2150us CPU Fan
We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that "except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: ... I therefore beg leave to move – that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, DELL MD538 CPU Fan
and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.[115] SONY VAIO VGN-CS31S/R Keyboard
However, the motion met with resistance and was never brought to a vote.[116]
· Franklin was an enthusiastic supporter of the evangelical minister George Whitefield during the First Great Awakening. Franklin did not subscribe to Whitefield’s theology, Lenovo IBM ThinkPad Edge E420 Keyboard
but he admired Whitefield for exhorting people to worship God through good works. Franklin published all of Whitefield’s sermons and journals, thereby boosting the Great Awakening.[117]
When he stopped attending church, Franklin wrote in his autobiography: Lenovo IBM ThinkPad Edge S420 Keyboard
... Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; Lenovo IBM ThinkPad Edge E420S Keyboard
that He made the world, and governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter.[118][119] Lenovo IBM ThinkPad T420 Keyboard
Franklin retained a lifelong commitment to the Puritan virtues and political values he had grown up with, and through his civic work and publishing, he succeeded in passing these values into the Lenovo IBM ThinkPad T420i Keyboard
Lenovo IBM ThinkPad T420S Keyboard
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705][Note 1] – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and in many ways was "the First American".[1] A world famous polymath, DELL V119525BS1 Laptop Keyboard
Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. HP G42-415DX Laptop Keyboard
As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions.[2] He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and a university. DELL Precision M4500 Laptop Keyboard
Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity; as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies, then as the first United States Ambassador to France, GATEWAY V030946FS1 US Laptop Keyboard
he exemplified the emerging American nation.[3] Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. HP 540 Laptop Keyboard
In the words of historianHenry Steele Commager, "In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat."[4] To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."[5] ASUS X88S Laptop Keyboard
Franklin, always proud of his working class roots, became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies.[6] With two partners he published the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies. He became wealthy publishing Poor Richard's Almanack and The Pennsylvania Gazette. SONY Vaio PCG-K25 Laptop Keyboard
He played a major role in establishing the University of Pennsylvania and was elected the first president of the American Philosophical Society. Franklin became a national hero in America when as agent for several colonies he spearheaded the effort to have Parliament in London repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. HP Pavilion dv6-2005sl Laptop Keyboard
An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts to secure support for the American Revolution by shipments of crucial munitions proved vital for the American war effort. ACER 99.N5982.21D Laptop Keyboard
For many years he was the British postmaster for the colonies, which enabled him to set up the first national communications network. He was active in community affairs, colonial and state politics, as well as national and international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. Toward the end of his life, he freed his own slaves and became one of the most prominent abolitionists. SONY KFRMBA151B Laptop Keyboard
His colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers, have seen Franklin honored on coinage and the $100 bill; warships; the names of many towns, counties, SONY VAIO VGN-NW130D Laptop Keyboard
educational institutions, namesakes, and companies; and more than two centuries after his death, countless cultural references.
Benjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street, in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706,[Note 1][Note 2] and baptized at Old South Meeting House. He was one of ten children born to Josiah Franklin with his second wife Abiah Folger. Among Benjamin's siblings were his older brother James and his younger sister Jane. HP AEUT5U00010 Laptop Keyboard
Josiah wanted Ben to attend school with the clergy, but only had enough money to send him to school for two years. He attendedBoston Latin School but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious reading. TOSHIBA NSK-TBD01 Laptop Keyboard
Although "his parents talked of the church as a career"[7] for Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten. He worked for his father for a time and at 12 he became anapprentice to his brother James, a printer, who taught Ben the printing trade. When Ben was 15, James founded The New-England Courant, which was the first truly independent newspaper in the colonies. HP Pavilion dv5-1104tu Laptop Keyboard
When denied the chance to write a letter to the paper for publication, Franklin adopted the pseudonym of "Mrs. Silence Dogood", a middle-aged widow. "Mrs. Dogood"'s letters were published, and became a subject of conversation around town. HP 646568-001 Laptop Keyboard
Neither James nor theCourant's readers were aware of the ruse, and James was unhappy with Ben when he discovered the popular correspondent was his younger brother. Franklin left his apprenticeship without permission, and in so doing became a fugitive.[8] SONY VAIO VGN-FS550 Laptop Keyboard
At age 17, Franklin ran away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, seeking a new start in a new city. When he first arrived, he worked in several printer shops around town. But, he was not satisfied by the immediate prospects. HP G72-b66US Laptop Keyboard
After a few months, while working in a printing house, Franklin was convinced by Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith to go to London, ostensibly to acquire the equipment necessary for establishing another newspaper in Philadelphia. HP G61-511WM Laptop Keyboard
Finding Keith's promises of backing a newspaper empty, Franklin worked as a typesetter in a printer's shop in what is now the Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great in the Smithfield area of London. Following this, he returned to Philadelphia in 1726 with the help of Thomas Denham, a merchant who employed Franklin as clerk, shopkeeper, HP 519265-001 Laptop Keyboard
and bookkeeper in his business.[8] In 1727, Benjamin Franklin, then 21, created the Junto, a group of "like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community." The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it subsequently gave rise to many organizations in Philadelphia. Compaq Presario CQ42-228LA Laptop Keyboard
Reading was a great pastime of the Junto, but books were rare and expensive. The members created a library, initially assembled from their own books. This did not suffice, however. Franklin conceived the idea of a subscription library, which would pool the funds of the members to buy books for all to read. This was the birth of the Library Company of Philadelphia: HP Pavilion G61-409CA CPU Fan
its charter was composed by Franklin in 1731. In 1732, Franklin hired the first American librarian, Louis Timothee.
Originally, the books were kept in the homes of the first librarians, but in 1739 the collection was moved to the second floor of the State House of Pennsylvania, now known as Independence Hall. In 1791, HP Pavilion dv7t-6100 CTO CPU Fan
a new building was built specifically for the library. The Library Company is now a great scholarly and research library with 500,000 rare books, pamphlets, and broadsides, more than 160,000 manuscripts, and 75,000 graphic items. Toshiba Satellite A665-S6050 CPU Fan
Upon Denham's death, Franklin returned to his former trade. In 1728, Franklin had set up a printing house in partnership with Hugh Meredith; the following year he became the publisher of a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette. HP KSB06105HA CPU Fan
The Gazette gave Franklin a forum for agitation about a variety of local reforms and initiatives through printed essays and observations. Over time, his commentary, and his adroit cultivation of a positive image as an industrious and intellectual young man, ACER TravelMate 4283WLMi CPU Fan
earned him a great deal of social respect. But even after Franklin had achieved fame as a scientist and statesman, he habitually signed his letters with the unpretentious 'B. Franklin, Printer.'[8]
In 1732, Ben Franklin published the first German language newspaper in America – the Philadelphische Zeitung – although it failed after only one year, because four other newly founded German papers quickly dominated the newspaper market.[9] Dell Vostro 3450 CPU Fan
Franklin saw the printing press as a device to instruct colonial Americans in moral virtue. Frasca argues he saw this as a service to God, because he understood moral virtue in terms of actions, thus, doing good provides a service to God. SONY Vaio VGN-SZ2XRP/C CPU Fan
Despite his own moral lapses, Franklin saw himself as uniquely qualified to instruct Americans in morality. He tried to influence American moral life through construction of a printing network based on a chain of partnerships from the Carolinas to New England. Franklin thereby invented the first newspaper chain, FUJITSU LifeBook S6420 CPU Fan
It was more than a business venture, for like many publishers since, he believed that the press had a public-service duty.[10]
When Franklin established himself in Philadelphia, shortly before 1730, the town boasted two "wretched little" news sheets, Andrew Bradford’s American Mercury, DELL Vostro 3450 Laptop Keyboard
and Keimer’s Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences, and Pennsylvania Gazette. This instruction in all arts and sciences consisted of weekly extracts from Chambers’s Universal Dictionary. Franklin quickly did away with all this when he took over the Instructor, and made it The Pennsylvania Gazette. FUJITSU Lifebook E8110 Laptop Keyboard
TheGazette soon became Franklin’s characteristic organ, which he freely used for satire, for the play of his wit, even for sheer excess of mischief or of fun. From the first he had a way of adapting his models to his own uses. The series of essays called "The Busy-Body," DELL Vostro 1510 Laptop Keyboard
which he wrote for Bradford’s American Mercuryin 1729, followed the general Addisonian form, already modified to suit homelier conditions. The thrifty Patience, in her busy little shop, complaining of the useless visitors who waste her valuable time, is related to the ladies who address Mr. Spectator. The Busy-Body himself is a true Censor Morum, SAMSUNG X20 Laptop Keyboard
as Isaac Bickerstaff had been in the Tatler. And a number of the fictitious characters, Ridentius, Eugenius, Cato, and Cretico, represent traditional 18th-century classicism. Even this Franklin could use for contemporary satire, since Cretico, the "sowre Philosopher", is evidently a portrait of Franklin’s rival, Samuel Keimer. SONY VAIO VGN-N31M/W Laptop Keyboard
As time went on, Franklin depended less on his literary conventions, and more on his own native humor. In this there is a new spirit—not suggested to him by the fine breeding of Addison, or the bitter irony of Swift, or the stinging completeness of Pope. The brilliant little pieces Franklin wrote for hisPennsylvania Gazette have an imperishable place in American literature. ACER Aspire 5610Z Laptop Keyboard
The Pennsylvania Gazette, like most other newspapers of the period was often poorly printed. Franklin was busy with a hundred matters outside of his printing office, and never seriously attempted to raise the mechanical standards of his trade. SONY VAIO VPCF12 Laptop Keyboard
Nor did he ever properly edit or collate the chance medley of stale items that passed for news in the Gazette. His influence on the practical side of journalism was minimal. On the other hand, his advertisements of books show his very great interest in popularizing secular literature. Compaq Presario CQ57 Series Laptop Keyboard
Undoubtedly his paper contributed to the broader culture that distinguished Pennsylvania from her neighbors before the Revolution. Like many publishers, Franklin built up a book shop in his printing office; he took the opportunity to read new books before selling them. ACER Aspire 5742 Laptop Keyboard
Franklin had mixed success in his plan to establish an inter-colonial network of newspapers that would produce a profit for him and disseminate virtue.[11] He began in Charleston, South Carolina in 1731. After the second editor died his widow Elizabeth Timothy took over and made it a success, 1738-46. She was one of colonial era's first woman printers.[12] HP Pavilion dv4t-1300 CTO Laptop Keyboard
For three decades Franklin maintained a close business relationship with her and her son Peter who took over in 1746.[13] The Gazette had a policy of impartiality in political debates, while creating the opportunity for public debate, HP Pavilion dv6-2115eg CPU Fan
which encouraged others to challenge authority. Editor Peter Timothy avoided blandness and crude bias, and after 1765 increasingly took a patriotic stand in the growing crisis with Great Britain.[14] However, Franklin's Connecticut Gazette (1755–68) proved unsuccessful.[15]
Freemason IBM 41W5269 CPU Fan
In 1731, Franklin was initiated into the local Masonic Lodge. He became Grand Master in 1734, indicating his rapid rise to prominence in Pennsylvania.[16][17]That same year, he edited and published the first Masonic book in the Americas, a reprint of James Anderson's Constitutions of the Free-Masons. Franklin remained a Freemason for the rest of his life.[18][19] Dell Vostro 3700 CPU Fan
In 1723, at the age of 17, Franklin proposed to 15-year-old Deborah Read while a boarder in the Read home. At that time, Read's mother was wary of allowing her young daughter to marry Franklin, who was on his way to London at Governor Sir William Keith's request, and also because of his financial instability. Her own husband had recently died, and Mrs. Read declined Franklin's request to marry her daughter.[8] DELL E233037 CPU Fan
While Franklin was in London, his trip was extended, and there were problems with Sir William's promises of support. Perhaps because of the circumstances of this delay, Deborah married a man named John Rodgers. HP Pavilion dv7-3060us CPU Fan
This proved to be a regrettable decision. Rodgers shortly avoided his debts and prosecution by fleeing to Barbadoswith her dowry, leaving Deborah behind. Rodgers's fate was unknown, and because of bigamy laws, Deborah was not free to remarry. HP G62-110ED CPU Fan
Franklin established a common-law marriage with Deborah Read on September 1, 1730. They took in Franklin's young, recently acknowledged illegitimate son, William, and raised him in their household. In addition, they had two children together. SONY Vaio VPC-EB4X1E/BQ CPU Fan
The first, Francis Folger Franklin, born October 1732, died of smallpox in 1736. Their second child, Sarah Franklin, familiarly called Sally, was born in 1743. She eventually married Richard Bache, had seven children, and cared for her father in his old age. HP Pavilion dv7-4104ca CPU Fan
Deborah's fear of the sea meant that she never accompanied Franklin on any of his extended trips to Europe, despite his repeated requests. She wrote to him in November 1769 saying she was ill due to “dissatisfied distress” from his prolonged absence, but he did not return until his business was done.[20] Deborah Read Franklin died of a stroke in 1774, while Franklin was on an extended mission to England; he returned in 1775. HP 3MLX8TATP20 CPU Fan
In 1730, at the age of 24, Franklin publicly acknowledged an illegitimate son named William, and raised him in his household. His mother's identity is not known.[21] He was educated in Philadelphia. SONY Vaio VGN-NW11S/S CPU Fan
Beginning at about age 30, William studied law in London in the early 1760s. He fathered an illegitimate son, William Franklin, born February 22, 1762. The boy's mother was never identified, and he was placed in foster care. Franklin later that year married Elizabeth Downes, daughter of a planter from Barbados. After William passed the bar, his father helped him gain an appointment in 1763 as the last Royal Governor of New Jersey. HP Pavilion dv7t-6100 CTO CPU Fan
A Loyalist, William and his father eventually broke relations over their differences about the American Revolutionary War. The elder Franklin could never accept William's position. Deposed in 1776 by the revolutionary government of New Jersey and imprisoned for a time, HP G62-b51EB CPU Fan
the younger Franklin went to New York in 1782, which was still occupied by British troops. He became leader of the Board of Associated Loyalists—a quasi-military organization, headquartered in New York City. They initiated guerrilla forays into New Jersey, Dell Latitude E6510 CPU Fan
southern Connecticut, and New York counties north of the city.[22] When British troops evacuated from New York, William Franklin left with them and sailed to England. He settled in London, never to return to North America. HP Pavilion dv2530ee CPU Fan
In the preliminary peace talks in 1782 with Britain, "...Benjamin Franklin insisted that loyalists who had borne arms against the United States would be excluded from this plea (that they be given a general pardon). He was undoubtedly thinking of William Franklin."[23] SONY Vaio VGN-FZ240E CPU Fan
Benjamin Franklin found out about Temple (as he called him), his only patrilineal grandson, on his second mission to England. He got to know the boy and became fond of him, arranging for his education. He never told his wife Deborah about him.[24] Franklin gained custody and brought Temple with him upon return to Philadelphia in 1775. Deborah had died the year before. Franklin brought up Temple within his household. HP Pavilion dv7-4073nr CPU Fan
Beginning at age 16, Temple Franklin served as secretary to his grandfather during his mission to Paris during the Revolutionary War. Although he returned to the United States with his grandfather in the 1780s, he could not find an appointment. HP Pavilion tx2510us CPU Fan
He returned to Europe, living for a time in England and then in France. He died in Paris in 1823 and was buried in Père-Lachaise Cemetery. HP Pavilion dv6-3216us CPU Fan
Success as an author
In 1733, Franklin began to publish the famous Poor Richard's Almanack (with content both original and borrowed) under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, on which much of his popular reputation is based. Franklin frequently wrote under pseudonyms. IBM FRU 46L4753 CPU Fan
Although it was no secret that Franklin was the author, his Richard Saunders character repeatedly denied it. "Poor Richard's Proverbs," adages from this almanac, such as "A penny saved is twopence dear" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned") and "Fish and visitors stink in three days" remain common quotations in the modern world. SONY VAIO VGN-N110G laptop keyboard
Wisdom in folk society meant the ability to provide an apt adage for any occasion, and Franklin's readers became well prepared. He sold about ten thousand copies per year (a circulation equivalent to nearly three million today).[8] HP Mini 110-1125NR laptop keyboard
In 1741 Franklin began publishing "The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America", the first such monthly magazine of this type published in America. SONY VAIO VGN-CS110D/W laptop keyboard
In 1758, the year he ceased writing for the Almanack, he printed Father Abraham's Sermon, also known as The Way to Wealth. Franklin's autobiography, begun in 1771 but published after his death, has become one of the classics of the genre. SONY Vaio VGN-FW390 laptop keyboard
Daylight saving time (DST) is often erroneously attributed to a 1784 satire that Franklin published anonymously.[25] Modern DST was first proposed by George Vernon Hudson in 1895.[26]
Franklin was a prodigious inventor. Among his many creations were the lightning rod, glass armonica (a glass instrument, not to be confused with the metal harmonica), SAMSUNG R522 laptop keyboard
Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and the flexible urinary catheter. Franklin never patented his inventions; in his autobiography he wrote, "... as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."[27] SONY VAIO VGN-NR31Z/S laptop keyboard
His inventions also included social innovations, such as paying forward. Franklin's fascination with innovation could be viewed as altruistic; he wrote that his scientific works were to be used for increasing efficiency and human improvement. One such improvement was his effort to expedite news services through his printing presses.[28] HP KSB0605HB CPU Fan
SONY Vaio VGN-SZ55B/B CPU Fan
Population studies
Franklin had a major influence on the emerging science of demography, or population studies.[29] Thomas Malthus is famous for his rule of population growth and credited Franklin for discovering it.[30] Kammen (1990) IBM 41W5269 CPU Fan
and Drake (2011) say Franklin's "Observations on the Increase of Mankind" (1755) stands alongside Ezra Stiles' "Discourse on Christian Union" (1760) as the leading works of eighteenth century Anglo-American demography; Drake credits Franklin's "wide readership and prophetic insight."[31][32] Toshiba MF60120V1-B100-G99 CPU Fan
In the 1730s and 1740s, Franklin began taking notes on population growth, finding that the American population had the fastest growth rates on earth.[33] Emphasizing that population growth depended on food supplies--HP Envy 17-2100ee CPU Fan
line of thought later developed by Thomas Malthus—Franklin emphasized the abundance of food and available farmland in America. He calculated that America's population was doubling every twenty years and would surpass that of England in a century.[34] DELL Latitude E6410 Series CPU Fan
In 1751, he drafted "Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, &c." Four years later, it was anonymously printed in Boston, and it was quickly reproduced in Britain, where it influenced the economists Adam Smith and later Thomas Malthus. Dell J6KH0 CPU Fan
Franklin's predictions alarmed British leaders who did not want to be surpassed by the colonies, so they became more willing to impose restrictions on the colonial economy.[35]
Franklin was also a pioneer in the study of slave demography, as shown in his 1755 essay.[36]
Atlantic Ocean currents SONY Vaio VPC-EA3L1E/P CPU Fan
As deputy postmaster, Franklin became interested in the North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns. While in England in 1768, he heard a complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs: Why did it take British packet ships carrying mail several weeks longer to reach New York than it HP Pavilion dv7-1426nr CPU Fan
took an average merchant ship to reach Newport, Rhode Island? The merchantmen had a longer and more complex voyage because they left from London, while the packets left from Falmouth in Cornwall. SONY UDQFRZH14CF0 CPU Fan
Franklin put the question to his cousin Timothy Folger, a Nantucket whaler captain, who told him that merchant ships routinely avoided a strong eastbound mid-ocean current. The mail packet captains sailed dead into it, thus fighting an adverse current of 3 miles per hour (5 km/h). Franklin worked with Folger and other experienced ship captains, ACER Aspire 4810TG-734G16Mn CPU Fan
learning enough to chart the current and name it the Gulf Stream, by which it is still known today.
Franklin published his Gulf Stream chart in 1770 in England, where it was completely ignored. Subsequent versions were printed in France in 1778 and the U.S. HP KSB06105HA CPU Fan
in 1786. The British edition of the chart, which was the original, was so thoroughly ignored that everyone assumed it was lost forever until Phil Richardson, aWoods Hole Oceanographer and Gulf Stream expert, discovered it in Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris in 1980.[37][38] This find received front page coverage in theNew York Times.[39] Toshiba Satellite M70-131 CPU Fan
It took many years for British sea captains to adopt Franklin's advice on navigating the current; once they did, they were able to trim two weeks from their sailing time.[40][41] In 1853, the oceanographer and cartographer Matthew Fontaine Maury noted that Franklin only charted and codified the Gulf Stream, he did not discover it: DELL LATITUDE E4310 Series CPU Fan
His discoveries resulted from his investigations of electricity. Franklin proposed that "vitreous" and "resinous" electricity were not different types of "electrical fluid" (as electricity was called then), SONY VGN-FE48E laptop keyboard
but the same electrical fluid under different pressures. He was the first to label them as positive and negative respectively,[43] and he was the first to discover the principle of conservation of charge.[44] GATEWAY P-6825 laptop keyboard
In 1750 he published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming alightning storm. On May 10, 1752, Thomas-François Dalibard of France conducted Franklin's experiment using a 40-foot (12 m)- SONY VAIO VGN-NW235D laptop keyboard
tall iron rod instead of a kite, and he extracted electrical sparks from a cloud. On June 15 Franklin may possibly have conducted his famous kite experiment in Philadelphia, successfully extracting sparks from a cloud. Franklin's experiment was not written up with credit[45] until Joseph Priestley's 1767 History and Present Status of Electricity; SONY VAIO VGN-NW235D laptop keyboard
the evidence shows that Franklin was insulated (not in a conducting path, where he would have been in danger of electrocution). Others, such as Prof. Georg Wilhelm Richmann were indeed electrocuted during the months following Franklin's experiment. SONY VAIO VGN-N130G/B laptop keyboard
In his writings, Franklin indicates that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his use of the concept of electrical ground. If Franklin did perform this experiment, HP Pavilion dv6-2005sl laptop keyboard
he may not have done it in the way that is often described—flying the kite and waiting to be struck by lightning—as it would have been dangerous.[46] Instead he used the kite to collect some electric charge from a storm cloud, which implied that lightning was electrical.[citation needed] On October 19 in a letter to England with directions for repeating the experiment, Franklin wrote: HP Pavilion dv6-2019ax laptop keyboard
When rain has wet the kite twine so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it streams out plentifully from the key at the approach of your knuckle, and with this key a phial, or Leiden jar, may be charged: Packard Bell PEW91 laptop keyboard
and from electric fire thus obtained spirits may be kindled, and all other electric experiments [may be] performed which are usually done by the help of a rubber glass globe or tube; and therefore the sameness of the electrical matter with that of lightening completely demonstrated.[47] IBM Thinkpad R40E laptop keyboard
Franklin's electrical experiments led to his invention of the lightning rod. He noted that conductors with a sharp rather than a smooth point could discharge silently, and at a far greater distance. SONY VAIO VGN-NW130D laptop keyboard
He surmised that this could help protect buildings from lightning by attaching "upright Rods of Iron, made sharp as a Needle and gilt to prevent Rusting, and from the Foot of those Rods a Wire down the outside of the Building into the Ground;... TOSHIBA Satellite L655-S5153 laptop keyboard
Would not these pointed Rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible Mischief!" Following a series of experiments on Franklin's own house, Lenovo 3000 G530 4151 laptop keyboard
lightning rods were installed on the Academy of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania) and the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in 1752.[48]
In recognition of his work with electricity, HP Pavilion dv6-3230us laptop keyboard
Franklin received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1753 and in 1756 he became one of the few 18th-century Americans elected as a Fellow of the Society. The cgs unit of electric charge has been named after him: one franklin (Fr) is equal to one statcoulomb. SONY VAIO VGN-NW25GF laptop keyboard
Franklin was, along with his contemporary Leonhard Euler, the only major scientist who supported Christiaan Huygens' wave theory of light, which was basically ignored by the rest of the scientific community. In the 18th century Newton's corpuscular theory was held to be true; only after Young's famous slit experiment(1803) were most scientists persuaded to believe Huygens' theory.[49] HP Mini 1151NR laptop keyboard
On October 21, 1743, according to popular myth, a storm moving from the southwest denied Franklin the opportunity of witnessing a lunar eclipse. Franklin was said to have noted that the prevailing winds were actually from the northeast, SONY Vaio VGN-AW220J/H laptop keyboard
contrary to what he had expected. In correspondence with his brother, Franklin learned that the same storm had not reached Boston until after the eclipse, despite the fact that Boston is to the northeast of Philadelphia. He deduced that storms do not always travel in the direction of the prevailing wind, a concept that greatly influenced meteorology.[50] SONY VAIO VGN-FS485B laptop keyboard
After the Icelandic volcanic eruption of Laki in 1783, and the subsequent harsh European winter of 1784, Franklin made observations connecting the causal nature of these two separate events. He wrote about them in a lecture series.[51] Compaq Presario CQ62-210SY laptop keyboard
Though Benjamin Franklin has been most noted kite-wise with his lightning experiments, he has also been noted by many for his using kites to pull humans and ships across waterways.[52] The George Pocock in the book A TREATISE on The Aeropleustic Art, HP Pavilion dv5-1205eg laptop keyboard
or Navigation in the Air, by means of Kites, or Buoyant Sails[53]noted being inspired by Benjamin Franklin's traction of his body by kite power across a waterway. In his later years he suggested using the technique for pulling ships. DELL NSK-DN001 laptop keyboard
Franklin noted a principle of refrigeration by observing that on a very hot day, he stayed cooler in a wet shirt in a breeze than he did in a dry one. To understand this phenomenon more clearly Franklin conducted experiments. In 1758 on a warm day in Cambridge, IBM ThinkPad T42 2373 laptop keyboard
England, Franklin and fellow scientist John Hadleyexperimented by continually wetting the ball of a mercury thermometer with ether and using bellows to evaporate the ether.[54] With each subsequent evaporation, the thermometer read a lower temperature, SONY Vaio PCG-K215M laptop keyboard
eventually reaching 7 °F (−14 °C). Another thermometer showed that the room temperature was constant at 65 °F (18 °C). In his letter Cooling by Evaporation, Franklin noted that, "One may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer’s day." SONY VGN-FE28B laptop keyboard
According to Michael Faraday, Franklin's experiments on the non-conduction of ice are worth mentioning although the law of the general effect of liquefaction on electrolytes is not attributed to Franklin.[55] However, as reported in 1836 by Prof. SONY V-0709BIAS1-US laptop keyboard
A. D. Bache of the University of Pennsylvania, the law of the effect of heat on the conduction of bodies otherwise non-conductors, for example, glass, HP Pavilion DV6-1120ev laptop keyboard
could be attributed to Franklin. Franklin writes, "...A certain quantity of heat will make some bodies good conductors, that will not otherwise conduct..." and again, "...And water, though naturally a good conductor, will not conduct well when frozen into ice."[56] HP Pavilion DV7t-3100 laptop keyboard
An aging Franklin accumulated all his oceanographic findings in Maritime Observations, published by the Philosophical Society's transactions in 1786.[57] It contained ideas for sea anchors, catamaran hulls, watertight compartments, SONY VAIO VPC-F12 laptop keyboard
shipboard lightning rods and a soup bowl
In a 1772 letter to Joseph Priestley, Franklin lays out the earliest known description of the Pro & Con list,[58] a common decision making technique: SONY VAIO VGN-N31M laptop keyboard
... my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns, writing over the one Pro, and over the other Con. Then during three or four Days Consideration I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different Motives that at different Times occur to me for or against the Measure. SAMSUNG R522 laptop keyboard
When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out: If I find a Reason pro equal to some two Reasons con, SONY VAIO VPC-F12 laptop keyboard
I strike out the three. If I judge some two Reasons con equal to some three Reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther Consideration nothing new that is of Importance occurs on either side, I come to a Determination accordingly.[58] TOSHIBA NB100 laptop keyboard
Franklin is known to have played the violin, the harp, and the guitar. He also composed music, notably a string quartet in early classical style. He developed a much-improved version of the glass harmonica, in which the glasses rotate on a shaft, with the player's fingers held steady, instead of the other way around; this version soon found its way to Europe.[59] SONY VAIO VGN-N27GH/B laptop keyboard
Franklin was an avid chess player. He was playing chess by around 1733, making him the first chess player known by name in the American colonies.[60] His essay on the "Morals of Chess" in Columbian magazine, in December 1786 is the second known writing on chess in America.[60] HP Pavilion dv6-2165tx laptop keyboard
This essay in praise of chess and prescribing a code of behavior for the game has been widely reprinted and translated.[61][62][63][64] He and a friend also used chess as a means of learning theItalian language, which both were studying; SONY VAIO VGN-CS17G/Q laptop keyboard
the winner of each game between them had the right to assign a task, such as parts of the Italian grammar to be learned by heart, to be performed by the loser before their next meeting.[65] Franklin was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 1999.[60] HP Pavilion dv6-3230us laptop keyboard
In 1736, Franklin created the Union Fire Company, one of the first volunteer firefighting companies in America. In the same year, he printed a new currency for New Jersey based on innovative anti-counterfeiting techniques he had devised. Throughout his career, Franklin was an advocate for paper money, publishing A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency in 1729, TOSHIBA Satellite M645-S4050 Keyboard
and his printer printed money. He was influential in the more restrained and thus successful monetary experiments in the Middle Colonies, which stopped deflation without causing excessive inflation. In 1766 he made a case for paper money to the British House of Commons.[66] DELL Vostro PP37L Keyboard
As he matured, Franklin began to concern himself more with public affairs. In 1743, he set forth a scheme for The Academy, Charity School, and College of Philadelphia. He was appointed president of the Academy on November 13, 1749; the Academy and the Charity School opened on August 13, 1751. ACER Aspire 2920Z Keyboard
In 1743, Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society to help scientific men discuss their discoveries and theories. He began the electrical research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life, in between bouts of politics and moneymaking.[8] Lenovo Thinkpad T420 Keyboard
In 1747, he retired from printing and went into other businesses.[67] He created a partnership with his foreman, David Hall, which provided Franklin with half of the shop's profits for 18 years. HP G72-b60US Keyboard
This lucrative business arrangement provided leisure time for study, and in a few years he had made discoveries that gave him a reputation with educated persons throughout Europe and especially in France. IBM Lenovo Thinkpad X201 Keyboard
Franklin became involved in Philadelphia politics and rapidly progressed. In October 1748, he was selected as a councilman, in June 1749 he became a Justice of the Peace for Philadelphia, and in 1751 he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. SAMSUNG N150 Keyboard
On August 10, 1753, Franklin was appointed joint deputy postmaster-general of North America. His most notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal system, with mail sent out every week.[8]
In 1751, Franklin and Dr. HP G62-224CA Keyboard
Pennsylvania Hospital was the first hospital in what was to become the United States of America.
Between 1750 and 1753, the “educational triumvirate” [68] of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the American Dr. Samuel Johnson of Stratford, Connecticut, DELL Precision M4500 Keyboard
and the immigrant Scottish schoolteacher Dr. William Smith built on Franklin's initial scheme and created whatPresident James Madison of the College of William and Mary called a "new-model"[69] plan or style of American College. DELL Vostro 1014 Keyboard
Franklin solicited, printed in 1752, and promoted an American textbook of moral philosophy from the American Dr. Samuel Johnson titledElementa Philosophica[70] to be taught in the new colleges to replace courses in denominational divinity. HP Pavilion dm3-1020CA Keyboard
HP 597635-001 Keyboard
In June 1753, Johnson, Franklin, and Smith met in Stratford.[71] They decided the new-model college would focus on the professions, with classes taught in English instead of Latin, have subject matter experts as professors instead of one tutor leading a class for four years, and there would be no religious test for admission.[72] TOSHIBA Satellite L775D-S7226 Keyboard
Johnson went on to found King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City in 1754, while Franklin hired William Smith as Provost of the College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1755. At its first commencement, on May 17, 1757, Compaq Presario CQ42-228LA Keyboard
seven men graduated; six with a Bachelor of Arts and one as Master of Arts. It was later merged with the University of the State of Pennsylvania to become the University of Pennsylvania: Penn. The College was to become influential in guiding the founding documents of the United States: Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E520 laptop keyboard
in the Continental Congress, for example, over one third of the college-affiliated men who contributed the Declaration of Independence between September 4, 1774, and July 4, 1776, were affiliated with the College.[73] SONY VAIO VGN-AR670 laptop keyboard
In 1753, both Harvard University[74] and Yale University[75] awarded him honorary degrees.[76]
In 1754, he headed the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress. This meeting of several colonies had been requested by the Board of Trade in England to improve relations with the Indians and defense against the French. HP Mini 210-2003sl laptop keyboard
Franklin proposed a broad Plan of Union for the colonies. While the plan was not adopted, elements of it found their way into the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
In 1756, Franklin organized the Pennsylvania Militia (see "Associated Regiment of Philadelphia"
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under heading of Pennsylvania's 103rd Artillery and 111th Infantry Regiment at Continental Army). He used Tun Tavern as a gathering place to recruit a regiment of soldiers to go into battle against the Native American uprisings that beset the American colonies. Reportedly Franklin was elected "Colonel" of the Associated Regiment but declined the honor. Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E525 Keyboard
Also in 1756, Franklin became a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (now the Royal Society of Arts or RSA, which had been founded in 1754), SONY VAIO VGN-FS295XP Keyboard
whose early meetings took place in coffee shops in London's Covent Garden district, close to Franklin's main residence in Craven Street during his missions to England. The Craven street residence, which he used on various lengthy missions from 1757 to 1775, is the only of his residences to survive. It opened to the public as the Benjamin Franklin House museum on January 17, 2006. IBM 42T3671 Keyboard
After his return to the United States in 1775, Franklin became the Society's Corresponding Member and remained closely connected with the Society. The RSA instituted a Benjamin Franklin Medal in 1956 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Franklin's birth and the 200th anniversary of his membership of the RSA. HP 519265-001 Keyboard
In 1757, he was sent to England by the Pennsylvania Assembly as a colonial agent to protest against the political influence of the Penn family, the proprietors of the colony. He remained there for five years, SONY VAIO VGN-N21S/W Keyboard
striving to end the proprietors' prerogative to overturn legislation from the elected Assembly, and their exemption from paying taxes on their land. His lack of influential allies in Whitehall led to the failure of this mission. HP pavilion DV7-1000 Keyboard
Whilst in London, Franklin became involved in radical politics. He was a member of the Club of Honest Whigs, alongside thinkers such as Richard Price, the minister of Newington Green Unitarian Church who ignited the Revolution Controversy. HP Envy 15 Keyboard
During his stays at Craven Street between 1757 and 1775, Franklin developed a close friendship with his landlady, Margaret Stevenson and her circle of friends and relations, in particular her daughter Mary, who was more often known as Polly. Compaq Presario CQ57 Series Keyboard
In 1759, he visited Edinburgh with his son, and recalled his conversations there as "the densest happiness of my life".[77]In February 1759, the University of St Andrews awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree and in October of the same year, he was granted Freedom of the Borough of St. Andrews.[78] SONY Vaio PCG-K215M Keyboard
In 1762, Oxford University awarded Franklin an honorary doctorate for his scientific accomplishments; from then on he went by "Doctor Franklin." He also managed to secure an appointed post for his illegitimate son, William Franklin, by then an attorney, as Colonial Governor of New Jersey.[8] ACER TravelMate 6292 Keyboard
He joined the influential Lunar Society, in Birmingham, with whom he regularly corresponded and, on occasion, visited in Birmingham.
At this time, many members of the Pennsylvania Assembly were feuding with William Penn's heirs, who controlled the colony as proprietors. HP 519265-001 Keyboard
After his return to the colony, Franklin led the "anti-proprietary party" in the struggle against the Penn family, and was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House in May 1764. His call for a change from proprietary to royal government was a rare political miscalculation, Lenovo 3000 G530 4151 Keyboard
however: Pennsylvanians worried that such a move would endanger their political and religious freedoms. Because of these fears, and because of political attacks on his character, Franklin lost his seat in the October 1764 Assembly elections. DELL FM8 Keyboard
The anti-proprietary party dispatched Franklin to England again to continue the struggle against the Penn family proprietorship. During this trip, events drastically changed the nature of his mission.[79] DELL 0PVDG3 Keyboard
Franklin spent two months in Germany in 1766, but his connections to the country stretched across a lifetime. He declared a debt of gratitude to German scientist Otto von Guericke for his early studies of electricity. Franklin also co-authored the first treaty of friendship between Germany and America in 1785. TOSHIBA PK130260100 Keyboard
In September 1767, Franklin visited Paris with his usual traveling partner, Sir John Pringle. News of his electrical discoveries was widespread in France. His reputation meant that he was introduced to many influential scientists and politicians, and also to King Louis XV.[80] SONY VAIO VGN-CR42S Keyboard
While living in London in 1768, he developed a phonetic alphabet in A Scheme for a new Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling. This reformed alphabet discarded six letters Franklin regarded as redundant (c, j, q, w, x, and y), and substituted six new letters for sounds he felt lacked letters of their own. His new alphabet, however, never caught on, and he eventually lost interest.[81]
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Darwin at Litchfield.[82] Franklin belonged to a gentleman's club (which he called "honest Whigs"), which held stated meetings, and included members such as Richard Price and Andrew Kippis. IBM MCF-217PAM05 CPU Fan
He was also a corresponding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, which included such other scientific and industrial luminaries as Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Josiah Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin. He had never been to Ireland before, APPLE 661-4952 CPU Fan
and met and stayed with Lord Hillsborough, whom he believed was especially attentive. Franklin noted of him that "all the plausible behaviour I have described is meant only, by patting and stroking the horse, to make him more patient, Dell Vostro 3500 CPU Fan
while the reins are drawn tighter, and the spurs set deeper into his sides."[83] InDublin, Franklin was invited to sit with the members of the Irish Parliament rather than in the gallery. He was the first American to receive this honor.[82] Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX CPU Fan
While touring Ireland, he was moved by the level of poverty he saw. Ireland's economy was affected by the same trade regulations and laws of Britain that governed America. Franklin feared that America could suffer the same effects should Britain’s "colonial exploitation" continue.[84] HP 646578-001 CPU Fan
In Scotland, he spent five days with Lord Kames near Stirling and stayed for three weeks with David Humein Edinburgh.
In 1773, Franklin published two of his most celebrated pro-American satirical essays: "Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One",HP Pavilion dv9230us CPU Fan
and "An Edict by the King of Prussia".[85] He also published an Abridgment of the Book of Common Prayer, anonymously with Francis Dashwood. Among the unusual features of this work is a funeral service reduced to six minutes in length, "to preserve the health and lives of the living."[80] IBM Lenovo Thinkpad X200 Series CPU Fan
In June 1773 Franklin obtained private letters of Thomas Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver, governor and lieutenant governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, that proved they were encouraging the Crown to crack down on the rights of Bostonians. Franklin sent them to America, where they escalated the tensions. HP KSB06105HA CPU Fan
The British began to regard him as the fomenter of serious trouble. Hopes for a peaceful solution ended as he was systematically ridiculed and humiliated bySolicitor-General Alexander Wedderburn, before the Privy Council on January 29, 1774. He returned to Philadelphia in March 1775, and abandoned his accommodationist stance.[86] IBM ThinkPad T60 2637 CPU Fan
Coming of Revolution
In 1763, soon after Franklin returned to Pennsylvania from England for the first time, the western frontier was engulfed in a bitter war known as Pontiac's Rebellion. The Paxton Boys, a group of settlers convinced that the Pennsylvania government was not doing enough to protect them from American Indian raids, murdered a group of peaceful Susquehannock APPLE MG62090V1-Q020-S99 CPU Fan
Indians and marched on Philadelphia. Franklin helped to organize a local militia to defend the capital against the mob. He met with the Paxton leaders and persuaded them to disperse. Franklin wrote a scathing attack against the racial prejudice of the Paxton Boys. "If anIndian injures me," he asked, "does it follow that I may revenge that Injury on all Indians?"[87] HP 535766-001 CPU Fan
He provided an early response to British surveillance through his own network of counter-surveillance and manipulation. “He waged a public relations campaign, secured secret aid, played a role in privateering expeditions, and churned out effective and inflammatory propaganda.”[88] HP Envy 17-1090eo CPU Fan
By the time Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, after his second mission to Great Britain, theAmerican Revolution had begun – with fighting between colonials and British at Lexington and Concord. Dell Vostro 3350 CPU Fan
The New England militia had trapped the main British army in Boston. The Pennsylvania Assembly unanimously chose Franklin as their delegate to the Second Continental Congress. In June 1776, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. TOSHIBA NSK-TK001 Keyboard
Although he was temporarily disabled by gout and unable to attend most meetings of the Committee, Franklin made several "small but important"[90] changes to the draft sent to him by Thomas Jefferson. TOSHIBA 9J.N7482.901 Keyboard
At the signing, he is quoted as having replied to a comment by Hancock that they must all hang together: "Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."[91] HP Pavilion dv6-2112sa Keyboard
On July 26, 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the United States Post Office and named Benjamin Franklin as the first United States Postmaster General. Franklin had been a postmaster for decades and was a natural choice for the position.[92] Lenovo 45N2106 Keyboard
Franklin had just returned from England and was appointed chairman of a Committee of Investigation to establish a postal system. The report of the Committee, providing for the appointment of a postmaster general for the 13 American colonies, HP AEUT5U00010 Keyboard
was considered by the Continental Congress on July 25 and 26. On July 26, 1775, Franklin was appointed Postmaster General, the first appointed under the Continental Congress. It established a postal system that became the United States Post Office, a system that continues to operate today.[93] HP Pavilion dv7-6187cl CPU Fan
In December 1776, Franklin was dispatched to France as commissioner for the United States. He took with him as secretary his 16-year-old grandson, William Temple Franklin. They lived in a home in the Parisian suburb of Passy, donated by Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, who supported the United States. Franklin remained in France until 1785. HP KSB06105HA CPU Fan
He conducted the affairs of his country toward the French nation with great success, which included securing a critical military alliance in 1778 and negotiating theTreaty of Paris (1783). HP Pavilion dv7-3065dx CPU Fan
Among his associates in France was Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau—a French Revolutionary writer, orator and statesman who in early 1791 would be elected president of the National Assembly.[94] In July 1784, Franklin met with Mirabeau and contributed anonymous materials that the Frenchman used in his first signed work: HP Pavilion dv7-2043cl CPU Fan
Considerations sur l’ordre de Cincinnatus.[95] The publication was critical of the Society of the Cincinnati, established in the United States. Franklin and Mirabeau thought of it as a “noble order,” inconsistent with the egalitarian ideals of the new republic.[96] HP 646578-001 CPU Fan
During his stay in France, Benjamin Franklin was active as a freemason, serving as Grand Master of the Lodge Les Neuf Sœurs from 1779 until 1781. His lodge number was 24. He was a Past Grand Master of Pennsylvania. SONY VAIO PCG-6L2L CPU Fan
In 1784, when Franz Mesmer began to publicize his theory of "animal magnetism", which was considered offensive by many, Louis XVI appointed a commission to investigate it. These included the chemist Antoine Lavoisier, the physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly, and Benjamin Franklin.[97] HP Pavilion dv7-2043cl CPU Fan
Franklin's advocacy for religious tolerance in France contributed to arguments made by French philosophers and politicians that resulted in Louis XVI's signing of the Edict of Versailles in November 1787. This edict effectively nullified the Edict of Fontainebleau, which had denied non-Catholics civil status and the right to openly practice their faith.[98] SONY Vaio VPC-EB1S0E/BJ CPU Fan
Franklin also served as American minister to Sweden, although he never visited that country. He negotiated a treaty that was signed in April 1783. On August 27, 1783, in Paris, Franklin witnessed the world's first hydrogen balloon flight.[99] HP KSB06105HA CPU Fan
Le Globe, created by professor Jacques Charles and Les Frères Robert, was watched by a vast crowd as it rose from the Champ de Mars (now the site of the Eiffel Tower).[100] This so enthused Franklin that he subscribed financially to the next project to build a manned hydrogen balloon.[101] SONY Vaio VGN-BX760PS5 CPU Fan
On December 1, 1783, Franklin was seated in the special enclosure for honoured guests when La Charlière took off from the Jardin des Tuileries, piloted by Jacques Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert.[99][102] HP Pavilion dv7-2043cl CPU Fan
When he returned home in 1785, Franklin occupied a position only second to that of George Washington as the champion of American independence. Le Ray honored him with a commissioned portrait painted by Joseph Duplessis, HP Pavilion dv7-3065dx CPU Fan
which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. After his return, Franklin became an abolitionist and freed his two slaves. He eventually became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.[103] HP 550 CPU Fan
In 1787, Franklin served as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention. He held an honorary position and seldom engaged in debate. He is the only Founding Father who is a signatory of all four of the major documents of the founding of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris and the United States Constitution. HP Pavilion dv7-3170ep CPU Fan
In 1787, a group of prominent ministers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, proposed the foundation of a new college named in Franklin's honor. Franklin donated £200 towards the development of Franklin College (now called Franklin & Marshall College). IBM 26R8197 CPU Fan
Between 1771 and 1788, he finished his autobiography. While it was at first addressed to his son, it was later completed for the benefit of mankind at the request of a friend.
Franklin strongly supported the right to freedom of speech: HP Pavilion dv7-6187cl CPU Fan
"In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech ... Toshiba Satellite A205-S5831 CPU Fan
Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech, which is the right of every man ..." (1722)[104]
In his later years, as Congress was forced to deal with the issue of slavery, Franklin wrote several essays that stressed the importance of the abolition of slavery and of the integration of blacks into American society. These writings included: TOSHIBA NSK-T4D01 Keyboard
In 1790, Quakers from New York and Pennsylvania presented their petition for abolition to Congress. Their argument against slavery was backed by thePennsylvania Abolitionist Society and its president, Benjamin Franklin. HP 405963-001 Keyboard
Special balloting conducted October 18, 1785, unanimously elected Franklin the sixth president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, replacing John Dickinson. The office of president of Pennsylvania was analogous to the modern position of governor. SAMSUNG Q35 Keyboard
It is not clear why Dickinson had to be replaced with less than two weeks remaining before the regular election. Franklin held that office for slightly over three years, longer than any other, and served the constitutional limit of three full terms. Shortly after his initial election he was reelected to a full term on October 29, HP Pavilion dv6-2133ee Keyboard
1785, and again in the fall of 1786 and on October 31, 1787. Officially, his term concluded on November 5, 1788, but there is some question regarding the de facto end of his term, suggesting that the aging Franklin may not have been actively involved in the day-to-day operation of the council toward the end of his time in office.
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Franklin felt that organized religion was necessary to keep men good to their fellow men, but rarely attended religious services himself.[105] When Franklin met Voltaire in Paris and asked this great apostle of the Enlightenment to bless his grandson, Voltaire said in English, "God and Liberty," and added, "this is the only appropriate benediction for the grandson of Monsieur Franklin."[106] ACER 9J.N1H82.01D Keyboard
Franklin’s parents were both pious Puritans.[107] The family attended the old South Church, the most liberal Puritan congregation in Boston, where Benjamin Franklin was baptized in 1706.[108] Franklin’s father, a poor chandler, owned a copy of a book, Bonifacius: Essays to Do Good, by the Puritan preacher and family friend Cotton Mather, HP Pavilion dv7-2185dx CPU Fan
which Franklin often cited as a key influence on his life.[109] Franklin’s first pen name, Silence Dogood, paid homage both to the book and to a famous sermon by Mather. The book preached the importance of forming voluntary associations to benefit society. Franklin learned about forming do-good associations from Cotton Mather, HP Pavilion dv7-3125eo CPU Fan
but his organizational skills made him the most influential force in making voluntarism an enduring part of the American ethos.[110]
Franklin formulated a presentation of his beliefs and published it in 1728.[111] It did not mention many of the Puritan ideas as regards belief in salvation, the divinity of Jesus, and indeed most religious dogma. He clarified himself as a deist in his 1771 autobiography,[112] HP Pavilion dv4-1133tx CPU Fan
although he still considered himself a Christian.[113] He retained a strong faith in a God as the wellspring of morality and goodness in man, and as a Providential actor in history responsible for American independence.[114] HP 606013-001 CPU Fan
It was Ben Franklin who, at a critical impasse during the Constitutional Convention in June 1787, attempted to introduce the practice of daily common prayer with these words:
... In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. – Our prayers, HP COMPAQ KSB05105HA CPU Fan
Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. ... And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance. HP 538340-001 CPU Fan
I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? HP Pavilion dv6-2150us CPU Fan
We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that "except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: ... I therefore beg leave to move – that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, DELL MD538 CPU Fan
and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.[115] SONY VAIO VGN-CS31S/R Keyboard
However, the motion met with resistance and was never brought to a vote.[116]
· Franklin was an enthusiastic supporter of the evangelical minister George Whitefield during the First Great Awakening. Franklin did not subscribe to Whitefield’s theology, Lenovo IBM ThinkPad Edge E420 Keyboard
but he admired Whitefield for exhorting people to worship God through good works. Franklin published all of Whitefield’s sermons and journals, thereby boosting the Great Awakening.[117]
When he stopped attending church, Franklin wrote in his autobiography: Lenovo IBM ThinkPad Edge S420 Keyboard
... Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; Lenovo IBM ThinkPad Edge E420S Keyboard
that He made the world, and governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter.[118][119] Lenovo IBM ThinkPad T420 Keyboard
Franklin retained a lifelong commitment to the Puritan virtues and political values he had grown up with, and through his civic work and publishing, he succeeded in passing these values into the Lenovo IBM ThinkPad T420i Keyboard
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