Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania

Benjamin Franklin
Born in Boston on January 17, 1706, Benjamin Franklin was the son of Josiah and Abiah Franklin.[1] While only a boy of twelve years old he bagan helping his older brother James printing pamphlets and papers. His brother started one of the first newspapers in Boston and Benjamin Franklin soon became a contributor. He secretly wrote letters under the pseudonym “Silence Dogood” which quickly became popular among the papers’ subscribers.[2]
By 1728, Franklin had begun to establish himself in Philadelphia, marrying Deborah Read whom he’d met when he first arrived in the city, and owning a print shop, general store, and book store. Five years later Franklin began publishing “Poor Richard’s Almanack”, a witty annual tome full of weather reports, news, and homilies which gained him fame throughout the colonies[3]. As with the paper in Boston, Franklin wrote under the pseudonym of “Poor Richard”. One of the most well-known phrases that survives colloquially to this day from Franklin, “a penny saved is a penny earned” comes from this very almanac. Another of his most famous lines “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” referred to fire prevention. Organizations that still exist that were founded or co-founded by Franklin include The Library Company (1731), the American Philosophical Society (1743), and the Pennsylvania Hospital (1951).
The lightning rod, bifocals, and swimfins all owe their invention to Franklin, who was always interested in the nature of the world around him. As a man who avidly swam, Franklin was always fascinated by the things such as the interaction between oil and water. Constantly drumming up experiments and tests, the most famous of which was his proof of lightning’s electric properties using a kite, Franklin was ever-inquisitive about his world. This was something which gave him a breadth of knowledge nearly unsurpassed in America at the time.
Ben Franklin gained fame as a patriot during his time as a representative of the colonies in London. During his time representing Pennsylvania, Goergia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, the infamous “Stamp Act” was vehemently opposed by the colonists. Franklin was instrumental in persuading the English Parliament to abandon the act[4].
After he was elected to the second Continental Congress, Franklin was part of the five-person committee assigned with the task of drafting a declaration of independence[5]. Franklin became the American ambassador to France shortly thereafter, no small post considering the role France played in the American Revolution.
Ben Franklin died on April 17, 1790, at age eighty-four.[6]
[1] Arthur Tourtellot, Benjamin Franklin: The Shaping of Genius (New York:Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977), 4.
[2] Ibid, 335.
[3] Ronald Clark, Benjamin Franklin: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1983), 46.
[4] Clark, Benjamin Franklin: A Biography,194.
[5]Ibid, 285.
[6]Ibid, 415.

David Mac Isaac