Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

In his many careers as a printer, moralist, essaylist, civic

leader, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, and

philosopher, Benjamin Franklin Became both a spokesman

and a model for the national character of later generations

of Americans. After less than two years of formal

schooling, Franklin was pressed into his father's trade. At

the age of 16, Franklin wrote some pieces in a

courant,"Silence Dogwood." Though penniless and

unknown, Franklin soon found a job as a printer. Aafter a

year he went to England, where he became a master

printer, sowed some wild oats, astonished Londoners with

his swimming feats, and lived among the famous writers of

London. In 17227, Franklin began his career as a civic

leader by organizing a club of aspiring tradesmen called the

JJunto, which met each week for discussion and planning.

Franklin began yet another career when in 1740 he

invented the Pennsylvania fireplace, later called the Franklin

stove, which soon heated buildings all over Europe and

North America. He also read treaties on electricity and and

began a series of experiments with his friends in

Philadelphia. Experiments he proposed, first tried in France

in 1752, showed that lightning was in fact a form of el!

ectricity. Later that year his famous kite experiment, in

which he flew a kite with the wire attached to a key during

a thunderstorm. His later achievements included formulating

a theory of heat absorption, measuring Gulf Stream,

designing ships, tracking storm paths, and inventing bifocal

lenses. In 1751, Franklin was elected to the Pennsylvania

Assembly, causing the beginning of nearly 40 years as a

puublic official. At home from 1762 to 1764, Franklin

traveled throghout the colonies, reorganizing the

AAmerican postal system. He also built aa new house on

Market Street in Philadelphia, now reconstructed and open

to visitors, and otherwise provided for his family. From

April 1775 to October 1776, Franklin served on the

Pennsylvania Committee of Safety and in the Continental

Congress, submitted articles of confederation for the united

colonies, proposed a new constitution for Pennsylvania,

and helped draft the Decclaration of Independence.