Franklin, Benjamin

January 17, 1706

Boston, Massachusetts

April 17, 1790

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Scientist, inventor, author, philosopher, and one of the founding fathers of the United States

"God helps them that help themselves."

From Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack.

Throughout his lifetime Benjamin Franklin held many positions, including printer, writer, civic leader, inventor, politician, and ambassador. During the colonial period, he gained international recognition for his experiments and writings on electricity. In fact, he was the most famous scientist of his time. Before Franklin, electricity was considered a bizarre and misunderstood force. His numerous investigations established the study of electricity as a valid scientific pursuit. A native Bostonian, Franklin moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventeen. He started his own printing business and retired a rich man in 1748. Pursuing a wide range of scientific interests, his annual Poor Richard's Almanack provided a wealth of information about stars and planets, advice about medicine, weather predictions, and rhymes and witty sayings. In 1744 Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society, the first scientific organization in America. Later in life, his diplomatic work helped the United States develop relationships with European countries, especially France.

Becomes an apprentice

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was Josiah Franklin and his mother was Abiah Folger. Because his family was poor, the young Franklin did not receive a proper education. For instance, he attended the Boston Grammar School for only one year because his parents could not afford the tuition. Later he spent a year at George Brownell's English School, where he failed arithmetic. Luckily, because Franklin's parents encouraged reading, thinking, and discussion, he grew up in an intellectual environment. He began working at the age of ten as an apprentice (one who learns by practical experience) in his father's chandlery shop (a place where candles are made).

Since Franklin enjoyed reading, his parents eventually decided he should enter the printing trade. Therefore, at the age of twelve, he became an apprentice for his brother James, who ran a Boston newspaper, The New England Courant. James's printing shop was a center of social activity, which provided Ben with a constant flow of new ideas. Customers would often linger to discuss politics or religion, and they also brought books for him to borrow. During this time the ambitious young man improved his writing and editing talents. At the age of seventeen Franklin left Boston to seek his fortune elsewhere.

Settles in Philadelphia

Franklin finally settled in Philadelphia in 1726. Three years later he purchased a failing newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, and eventually made it one of the more popular papers in the colony. In 1733 he also began publishing Poor Richard's Almanack, a collection of witty sayings and pieces of advice that he wrote under the pseudonym (pen name) of Richard Saunders. During the 1730s Franklin branched out into other projects. In 1736 he founded the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia. The industrious young man also started a police force and promoted the paving and lighting of city streets. Inspired by his lifelong love of reading, Franklin founded what was probably the first circulating library in America. Established in 1731, it was originally a subscription library to which members contributed an annual fee in return for the full use of books and pamphlets. In 1736 Franklin was appointed clerk (official in charge of records) of the Pennsylvania Assembly (legislative body), where he gained valuable political experience over the next fifteen years.

Poor Richard's Almanack

In 1733 Benjamin Franklin began publishing Poor Richard's Almanack, a collection of witty sayings and pieces of advice that he wrote under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders. The Almanack was an instant and enduring success, selling more than 10,000 copies annually. The book contained Franklin's own formula for success. Sayings such as "Haste makes Waste," "God helps them that help themselves," and "Eat to live, and not live to eat" provided a practical philosophy for English colonists who had to endure a difficult life. So popular were these sayings that they have a permanent place in American culture.

Begins electrical experiments

During the 1740s scientists around the world were investigating static (accumulated) electricity. Franklin first witnessed this new force in a demonstration of the Leyden jar (a device used for producing electrical energy) in 1743. The Leyden jar was simply a bottle filled with water that had a stopper in an opening on one end. Through the stopper was inserted a metal rod that extended into the water. A machine was used to create a static electric charge that was stored in the jar. Anyone who touched the end of the charged rod received an electrical jolt. Public demonstrations, in which many people joined hands and received a shock at the same time, were highly popular at the time.

Franklin was so inspired by the Leyden jar that he conducted his own experiments, thus beginning his career as an amateur scientist. Investigating the source of the electrical shock, he poured the charged water out of the jar into another bottle and discovered that the water no longer held a charge. Franklin suspected this result indicated that the glass itself had produced the shock. To verify his theory, Franklin took a window pane and placed a sheet of lead (a heavy, soft metal) on each side. He electrified the lead, removed each sheet, and then tested the lead for a charge. Neither sheet gave a single spark, but the window pane had been charged. Franklin had unknowingly invented the electrical condenser, which was named later by Italian physicist Alessandro Volta. The condenser is now used in radios, televisions, telephones, radar systems, and many other devices.

Through further experiments, Franklin discovered that electricity is an independent force, which he called "electrical fire." According to Franklin, a substance with a shortage of electrical fire has a negative, or minus, electrical charge. An element with extra electrical charge has a positive, or plus, electrical charge. He believed that electricity flows from plus to minus, but scientists now know that the opposite is true. Franklin also introduced the important concept known as conservation of charge. (Conservation of charge states that for every amount of charge gained by one body, an equal amount of charge must be lost by another body.) The idea that the overall electrical energy in a system does not increase or decrease is now a fundamental law in science. Franklin introduced many other terms that still pertain to electricity, including battery, conductor, charge, and discharge. He also discovered that electricity moves particularly well through metals and water.

Performs kite experiment

Drawing a parallel between the sparking and crackling of the charged Leyden jar and the lightning and thunder that occur during a storm, Franklin wondered if there was an electrical charge in the sky. To test his idea he devised the Philadelphia experiment, which he published in a book that was widely read in Europe. According to his plan for the experiment, he would erect a long metal rod atop Christ Church in Philadelphia. During a lightning storm the rod would conduct electricity to a sentry box (a guard station). A man standing on an insulated (protected) platform would then collect the electric charge. Since Franklin had already published his idea, however, he was not the first to conduct the experiment. On May 10, 1752, a French scientist named D'Alibard performed the test himself by charging a Leyden jar with lightning. Franklin recognized D'Alibard as being the pioneer, but Franklin did receive credit for inventing the lightning rod (a metallic rod with one end embedded in the ground, which diverts electricity to the Earth and protects buildings against fire caused by lightning). By 1782 there were four hundred lightning rods in Philadelphia.

While waiting for the lightning rod to be installed on Christ Church, Franklin came up with an idea for a faster way to get a conductor into the sky. He made a kite by tying a large silk handkerchief to two crossed wooden sticks. Next, he attached a long silk thread that had a metal key tied at the end of the kite. Then he waited for a thunderstorm. During the storm the rain soaked the thread, making it an excellent conductor (an item that permits flow of electric current) that transmitted a static charge from the sky down to the key. When Franklin touched his knuckle to the key, a spark jumped from the key to his hand, thus proving the existence of electricity in the sky. Franklin also stored the electric charge in a Leyden jar. Fortunately, Franklin had been wise enough to connect a ground wire to his key. (A ground wire diverts an electrical charge into the Earth.) Two other scientists attempted to duplicate the experiment but neglected to use the ground wire. They were struck by lightning and killed. Even with his precautions, however, Franklin was lucky not to have been hit by lightning himself.

Investigates other scientific areas

Although Franklin was best known for his work in electricity, he investigated other areas of science as well. His interest in the weather led him to notice that weather patterns usually travel from west to east. He suggested that this was due to the circulation of air masses (large accumulations), thus establishing the meteorological (having to do with weather) concepts of high and low pressure in the atmosphere. Another of Franklin's interests was the sea. During his diplomatic career he journeyed across the Atlantic Ocean eight times, and on these trips he took notes of his observations of ocean waters. With the help of a sea captain, he created the first chart of the Gulf Stream (a warm current in the Atlantic Ocean). Franklin also devised a method of using a thermometer to gauge water temperature to determine if a ship was on course in the Gulf Stream.

Franklin also introduced several innovations in the field of medicine. He was a strong supporter of regular exercise, particularly swimming. He believed in the importance of fresh air for good health, even though at the time many people thought night air and drafts caused disease. Expanding on his electrical studies, he used electric shocks to treat people with paralysis (loss of body movement). He determined, however, that the treatment did not have any permanent benefits. When smallpox inoculation was first introduced, Franklin warned against the practice. (Smallpox is a highly contagious, often fatal disease. Inoculation is the introduction of the disease-causing agent into the body in order to create an immunity.) After his own son died of the disease, however, he reversed his opinion and published a pamphlet on the importance of inoculation.

Makes international contributions

In 1748 Franklin retired from business and scientific study to devote the rest of his life to politics and diplomacy. Three years later he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. In 1757 Franklin began his diplomatic career when he was sent to England as a lobbyist (one who represents a particular group in attempting to influence public officials). Franklin's experiments with electricity brought him great fame in America and Europe. Not only was he respected by the scientific community, he was popular with the general public. His ideas appeared in a number of writings, including articles in the leading scientific journal of the time, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. In 1751 Franklin's papers on electricity were gathered and published in a ninety-page book in London. The Royal Society, a British scientific organization, awarded Franklin the Copley Medal in 1753 for his accomplishments and made him a member of the society in 1756. (In 1744 Franklin had modeled the American Philosophical Society on the prestigious Royal Society.)

Invents practical devices

Benjamin Franklin was a great inventor who could turn ideas into practical, working items. One of his first major inventions was the Pennsylvania fireplace, now known as the Franklin stove, which he developed around 1740. Improving on an existing design, he equipped the stove with a flue (heat channel) that heats the air around it. The stove was highly efficient, and Franklin claimed it made a room twice as warm as other stoves even though it used only twenty-five percent of the usual amount of wood. Another popular Franklin invention was bifocal eyeglasses, in which the lower part of the lens is designed for near vision and the upper for distant vision. Franklin is also credited with creating the rocking chair.

Franklin received a number of honorary degrees from institutions such as Harvard University (1753), Yale University (1753), and Oxford University (1762). He was a member of the Second Continental Congress (the governing body of the Thirteen Colonies). In addition, he helped to draft the Declaration of Independence (a document that stated the American colonists' reasons for demanding freedom from Great Britain), which was completed in 1776. Two years later he signed treaties with France that may have helped America win the Revolutionary War (1775–83; a conflict in which the American colonies won independence from Great Britain).

Twenty thousand attend funeral

During his lifetime, Franklin had a long union with Deborah Reed, whom he never married because she never officially divorced her husband. Franklin already had one son, William, born to an unknown mother, who joined his family. Franklin and Reed also had two children of their own, a son Francis (who died of smallpox) and a daughter Sarah. During the last few years of his life, Franklin lived with Sarah and numerous grandchildren in a large house on Market Street in Philadelphia. He spent his time completing his Autobiography (first published in 1868), which is a classic work in American literature. Franklin died in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790, at the age of eighty-five. His funeral was attended by approximately 20,000 people, who came to mourn the passing of a great man.

For further research

Benjamin Franklin: An Enlightened American,http://www.library.advanced.org/22254/home.htm Available July 13, 1999.

Benjamin Franklin Citizen of the World. A&E Home Video, 1994. Videocassette recording.

Benjamin Franklin Scientist and Inventor. Living History Productions, 1993. Videocassette recording.

Franklin, Benjamin. Benjamin Franklin: A Biography in His Own Words. Thomas Fleming, ed. New York: Newsweek, distributed by Harper & Row, 1972.

McFarland, Philip James. The Brave Bostonians: Hutchinson, Quincy, Franklin, and The Coming of the American Revolution. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998.

Rudy, Lisa Jo, ed. The Benjamin Franklin Book of Easy and Incredible Experiments. New York: Wiley, 1995.