Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an American polymath, statesman, scientist, inventor, and diplomat who played a pivotal role in the founding of the United States.[5][4][1] A printer, publisher, author, inventor, scientist, and diplomat, he was one of the foremost of the American Founding Fathers and helped draft the Declaration of Independence.[2]

Early Life and Education

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts.[5][1] He came from a modest family and was one of seventeen children.[2][1] His father, Josiah Franklin, was a chandler (soap and candle maker) who could not afford to put his children through school.[5][8]

Franklin's father wanted him to become a preacher and sent him to grammar school when he was eight years old.[6][1] At Boston Latin School, young Benjamin showed early talent, moving from the middle of the class to the top within a year.[3] After less than a year, for financial reasons, he transferred to Mr. George Brownell's school for writing and arithmetic, where he stayed until he was ten, doing well in writing but badly in arithmetic.[6]

Since his family could only afford Franklin's education for two years, he dropped out and began working for his father at age ten.[1][2] His further education came from his own reading and lifelong conversation and debate with his friends.[6] With a limited formal education, Franklin was effectively self-taught, and he was an avid reader who taught himself to become a skilled writer.[4][9]

Key Influences and Mentors

At age 12, Franklin became an apprentice to his older brother James, a Boston printer.[1][9] Under James, Franklin began working for one of the first newspapers in America, The New England Courant.[1][8] Young Franklin discovered a volume of The Spectator—featuring Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele's famous periodical essays—and saw in it a means for improving his writing. He read these papers over and over, copied and recopied them, and then tried to recall them from memory. He even turned them into poetry and then back into prose.[2]

Franklin realized that writing competently was such a rare talent in the 18th century that anyone who could do it well immediately attracted attention. "Prose writing" became, as he recalled in his Autobiography, "of great Use to me in the Course of my Life, and was a principal Means of my Advancement."[2]

Professional Development

While working at the print shop, Franklin wrote under the pseudonym Silence Dogood.[1][4] Benjamin, now 16, read and perhaps set in type contributions to his brother's newspaper and decided that he could do as well himself.[2] At age 17, Franklin ran away from his apprenticeship to Philadelphia, then to London, then back to Philadelphia, where he set up a print shop and began to publish The Pennsylvania Gazette.[5][1]

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726, and two years later opened a printing shop.[9] Franklin and his partner's first coup was securing the printing of Pennsylvania's paper currency. In 1748 Franklin, at age 42, had become wealthy enough to retire from active business.[17] He became a silent partner in the printing firm of Franklin and Hall, realizing in the next 18 years an average profit of over £600 annually.[17]

Scientific Achievements and Inventions

Around 1748 Franklin began his electricity research, establishing electricity and meteorology as viable fields of study.[5] In the 1740s electricity was one of these curious amusements.[17] Franklin did not invent electricity, but he discovered many things about it, previously not understood. Before Franklin started his scientific experimentation, it was thought that electricity consisted of two opposing forces. Franklin showed that electricity consisted of a "common element" which he named "electric fire."[13]

Franklin's work became the basis for the single fluid theory.[13] Not only did Franklin have to posit theories, he also had to create a new language to fit them. Some of the electrical terms which Franklin coined during his experiments are still the terms we use today. He coined new English words for the new science of electricity—conductor, charge, discharge, condense, armature, electrify, and others.[17]

Franklin wanted to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning, and his conclusion was that lightning was a form of static electricity. To further confirm his observations, Franklin devised the famed experiment using a kite and a key.[12][16] Franklin's experiment demonstrated the connection between lightning and electricity. Instead of being struck by lightning, the kite picked up the ambient electrical charge from the storm.[12]

Franklin discovered that by linking multiple jars together he could increase the amount of charge they could store. He called this new assembly of Leyden jars a "battery," and he is credited as being the first to use the term in relation to electricity.[14] His work led to the invention of the lightning rod which saved buildings from being struck by lightning.[15] Franklin's pointed lightning rod design proved effective and soon topped buildings throughout the Colonies.[20]

Franklin's other notable inventions included bifocals—tired of switching between two pairs of eyeglasses, he invented "double spectacles," or what we now call bifocals. He had the lenses from his two pairs of glasses sliced in half horizontally and then remade into a single pair.[20] The Franklin stove, invented in 1742, was a metal-lined fireplace designed to stand a few inches away from the chimney. A hollow baffle at the rear let the heat from the fire mix with the air more quickly, and an inverted siphon helped to extract more heat. His invention also produced less smoke than a traditional fireplace.[20]

Personal Life

In 1730, Franklin began living with Deborah Read, the daughter of his former Philadelphia landlady, as his common-law wife. Read's first husband had abandoned her; however, due to bigamy laws, she and Franklin could not have an official wedding ceremony.[9][17] Franklin and Read had a son, Francis Folger Franklin (1732-36), who died of smallpox at age 4, and a daughter, Sarah Franklin Bache (1743-1808).[9][17]

Franklin had another son, William Franklin (c. 1730-1813), who was born out of wedlock. William Franklin served as the last colonial governor of New Jersey, from 1763 to 1776, and remained loyal to the British during the American Revolution. He died in exile in England.[9]

Civic Leadership and Public Service

While in Philadelphia, Franklin created the first volunteer firefighting company and became involved with public affairs. In 1743, he founded the American Philosophical Society and began researching electricity.[1] He published the oft-quoted Poor Richard's Almanack, established Philadelphia's first public library, and created both America's first volunteer firefighting company and the first fire insurance company. He opened the University of Pennsylvania, founded the American Philosophical Society for scientists, and obtained a charter to start America's first hospital, the Pennsylvania Hospital.[5]

In 1737, the British appointed him postmaster of Philadelphia, and he went on to become, in 1753, joint postmaster general for all the American colonies. In this role he instituted various measures to improve mail service; however, the British dismissed him from the job in 1774 because he was deemed too sympathetic to colonial interests. In July 1775, the Continental Congress appointed Franklin the first postmaster general of the United States.[9]

Revolutionary War and Diplomatic Career

During the American Revolution, he served in the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776.[9] His most striking contribution was his suggestion to Thomas Jefferson that the phrase 'We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable' be changed to 'We hold these truths to be self evident', which thereby neatly substituted natural law for divine sanction.[29]

The greatest achievement of Franklin's public career occurred during his tenure as one of the fledgling nation's ambassadors. His work as minister to France (1776-85) was critical to the achievement of the nation's first foreign alliance, so essential to the success of the Revolutionary War effort.[21] Benjamin Franklin was the reason why France opened its coffers so wide to the unproven Americans. To put it simply, the French liked him and trusted him. "Nothing could have been more critical to our Revolution than that affection."[24]

In October 1777, the Continental Army won a significant victory over the British during the Battle of Saratoga, forcing a British army to surrender. The battle showed that the United States had the potential to win and the French to sign the 1778 Alliance Treaty, solidifying the Franco-American alliance.[1] In 1783, Franklin aided in the surrender under the Treaty of Paris.[1] He also negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.[9]

Constitutional Convention

In 1785, Franklin returned to the United States and was immediately assigned to represent Pennsylvania in the Constitutional Convention.[1] He was elected in 1787 to represent Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention, which drafted and ratified the new U.S. Constitution.[25] At age 81, Franklin was the oldest representative at the convention.[1] The oldest delegate at the age of 81, Franklin initially supported proportional representation in Congress, but he fashioned the Great Compromise that resulted in proportional representation in the House of Representatives and equal representation by state in the Senate.[25]

When the time came to sign the document, Franklin encouraged his fellow delegates to take this spirit of compromise to its conclusion by lending the Constitution their unanimous support, despite the fact that he himself did not approve of every aspect of the new plan of government. He concluded: "On the whole... I cannot help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention... would with me, on this occasion, doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to the instrument."[21]

Later Life and Views on Slavery

In earlier years he had not only owned enslaved people but had profited from including slave advertisements in his newspapers. However, his views changed over time and he became first an advocate of "negro education" and then of abolition.[29] In 1787, Franklin became President of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.[29] During his life, Franklin's views on slavery changed dramatically. In 1748, he purchased his first slave, but by 1760 he had freed all of his slaves. He became a staunch abolitionist and spent much of his later life campaigning for an end to slavery.[7]

Legacy and Impact

Of the "Founding Fathers," Benjamin Franklin alone signed the three pivotal documents associated with the nation's birth: the Declaration of Independence; the Treaty of Paris; and the United States Constitution.[5][29] To those can be added an important fourth, the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France. As the United States' minister in France from 1776, Franklin brought the French into the war against Britain and kept them there. This made him second only to Washington for his importance in winning the War of American Independence.[29]

On April 17, 1790, Franklin died in his Philadelphia home.[1][5] Over 20,000 people attended his funeral in Pennsylvania to celebrate his life, accomplishments, and impact on the founding of the United States.[1] The nation, and particularly Philadelphia, mourned the loss of its favorite son and paid him unprecedented public tributes.[5]

In 1753, he received the prestigious Copley Medal from the Royal Society, in recognition of his "curious experiments and observations on electricity."[12] Yale honored Franklin with the honorary degree of Master in Arts in 1753 for his scientific accomplishments.[4] Franklin's scientific contributions, civic innovations, diplomatic achievements, and role in establishing American independence established him as one of the most influential figures in American history.