Ben Franklin 300Th Birthday

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Happy 300th Birthday, Ben Franklin!

by Aziz S. Inan, 2006 IEEE International Symposium Committee Member

Introduction remained there less than a year. Then, after a long sickness. Ben returned to Benjamin (Ben) Franklin was born in Ben was sent to Brownell’s English work for Samuel Keimer in the printing 1706 and this year marks his 300th School where he studied English, writing trade. In 1728, Ben resigned to form a birthday. Franklin is considered to be and mathematics. There, he acquired fair printing partnership with Hugh Mered- one of the first electrical engineers. He writing skills but failed in mathematics. ith in Philadelphia. In 1729, Ben and popularized the study of electrical sci- In 1716, Ben was removed from school Meredith purchased the failing Pennsyl- ence, performed an extremely dangerous by his father and became an assistant at vania Gazette from Keimer, and Ben kite experiment in 1752 to prove that his chandler’s shop. In 1718, Ben was immediately turned it into a success. In lightning is a form of electrical dis- apprenticed to his half-brother, James, a 1732, Ben published Poor Richard’s charge, and discovered the lightning newspaper printer. The printing job Almanac. Both of Ben’s publications, the rod. He laid the foundation of the dis- seemed like a good choice for Ben since Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard’s tinction between conductors and insula- he enjoyed reading and writing. Ben read Almanac, became very popular and made tors, the action of pointed bodies and the as much as he could and also wrote arti- Ben a wealthy person. Ben retired from role of grounding in electrical experi- cles under a pen name for James’s news- his printing business in 1748, at age ments, the analysis of the Leyden jar, the paper. He also gained the habit of hard forty-two. design of parallel-plate capacitors, and work, perseverance, and self-discipline In 1730, Ben married his former the conservation of charge principle. He while working in the printing business. fiancée, Deborah Read, and they took Ben’s also coined terms such as positive (plus) illegitimate son William (who was born charge, negative (minus) charge, and about 1728) into their home as their son. electric battery, which we still use in In 1732, Ben had another son named Fran- electrical engineering. Franklin’s contri- cis Folger Franklin, but he died of small- butions to electrical science are consid- pox at age four. Ben’s third and last child ered to be a milestone in the history of Sarah (called Sally) was born in 1743. IEEE and the shape of his famous kite Ben was a person of multiple facets and led to IEEE’s diamond-shaped logo. interests in addition to his printing busi- Although there are hundreds of books ness. In 1727, he formed the Junto, a and book chapters written about group comprised mainly of young arti- Franklin’s life and his achievements sans, which combined sociability and self- (e.g., see references in [1]), the goal of education. The Junto met regularly on this article is to help us remember Young Ben reading books Friday nights until 1765. He founded the Franklin’s life, and especially some of his Library Company in Philadelphia in 1732. contributions to electrical science. Ben becomes a successful In 1736, he was elected clerk of the Penn- printer sylvania Assembly and also started the Ben and James did not get along, and in Union Fire Company. He was appointed Ben’s early life 1723 Ben left Boston and moved to postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 and Ben Franklin was born in Boston, Mass- Philadelphia. There, he first worked for a held this position until 1753. He founded achusetts. His father, Josiah Franklin, printer named Samuel Keimer. In 1724, the American Philosophical Society in was a tallow chandler, a maker of candles he traveled to London, England, where he 1743, became a member of the Philadel- and soap, who emigrated from England found employment as a journeyman phia City Council in 1748, and a member and settled in Boston in 1683. He came printer. In this work, he met a number of of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1750. to America to practice his faith and to men who became influential in the pub- improve his finances. His mother Abiah, lishing world of the eighteenth century. Josiah’s second wife, was the daughter of After two years of experience in the print- The eighteenth century— Peter Folger, a schoolmaster and survey- ing business, Ben returned to Philadel- golden years for electrical or of Nantucket. Josiah’s two marriages phia in 1726 and began to work as a sales- science produced seventeen children; Ben was clerk for a merchant named Thomas Den- During the eighteenth century, signifi- the fifteenth child and the youngest son. ham. In 1727, Ben fell severely ill with cant progress was accomplished in the In 1714, Josiah sent Ben first to pleurisy and almost died. He recovered in study of electricity. This subject Boston Grammar School where tradition- about two months, but he then lost his intrigued many people, both in Europe al Latin education was offered, but he job because his employer Denham died and America. The accidental discovery of

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the Leyden jar around 1745-1746 by Leyden jar through one hundred and sending Ben an annual parcel of books, Pieter van Musschenbroek and his pupil, eighty guardsmen with hands linked. and included any work or curious object Andreas Cunaeus, in Leyden, Holland The King was amused and impressed as that chanced to be in vogue in London at and independently by Ewald Georg von the guardsmen all jumped up and down the time. In 1746, he sent some appara- Kleist in Germany marked a great simultaneously. In another demonstra- tus including one of the new glass tubes advancement in electrical science. It tion, he formed over two hundred monks then commonly used to excite electricity, demonstrated that electrical charge connected by iron wires between every and directions on how to use it based on could not only be stored and built up, two persons and had a Leyden jar dis- an article published in The Gentleman’s but also carried from one place to anoth- charged through them all. The shrieking Magazine. These glass tubes were about er. In almost every country in Europe, monks leaped into the air simultaneously two and a half feet long, and as thick as a traveling performers amazed the public with finer timing than could be achieved man could conveniently grasp. They were by carrying out dazzling and mysterious by the most skilled group of ballet rubbed with a piece of cloth or buckskin, electrical experiments involving dis- dancers. Experimenters in France and and then held in contact with the object charging Leyden jars—people were eager elsewhere killed birds and other animals to be charged. Ben had already seen one to observe electrical shocks and feel their by the discharge of the Leyden jar; they of these tubes in Boston and was aston- effects. A standard trick during these sent Leyden jar discharges over long dis- ished by its properties. Ben wrote in his performances involved suspending a boy tances through water across rivers and autobiography, “I eagerly seized the from the ceiling with numerous insulat- lakes; they magnetized needles with it opportunity of repeating what I had seen ing silk threads, rubbing his feet with and melted thin wire. The Leyden jar cer- in Boston, and, by much practice, either an electrostatic machine or a glass tainly played a key role in all of these acquired great readiness in performing tube, and drawing electric sparks from explorations. those also which we had an account of his face or hands. From one end of the from England, adding a number of new world to the other, traveling electricians ones. I say with much practice, for my made fortunes with their performances. house was continually full, for some time, with people who came to see these new wonders.”

Musschenbroek experimenting with a Leyden jar Glass tube sent to Ben by Collinson Ben around 1748 Ben joined forces with his colleagues Ben is introduced to electricity in Philadelphia, Ebenezer Kinnersley Ben became acquainted with the won- (Ben’s principal co-experimenter), ders of electrical science for the first time Thomas Hopkinson and Philip Syng, when he met a Scottish lecturer named forming a team to carry out electrical Dr. Archibald Spencer in Boston around experiments and research electrical sci- 1743 and later in Philadelphia in 1744. ence. Electrical phenomena became Ben’s Dr. Spencer traveled to different cities passion. In 1747, Ben wrote to Collinson, and offered courses including demonstra- “For my own part, I never was before tions on various scientific topics. Ben engaged in any study that so totally found Dr. Spencer’s lectures and demon- engrossed my attention and my time as strations on electrical phenomena to be this has lately done.” Ben described these intriguing and fascinating. This subject initial experiments performed by his captured his attention. team in a series of five letters that he During the next few years, Ben wrote to Collinson regularly from 1747 A suspended boy being charged via an queried Peter Collinson, a Fellow of the to 1750. With Ben’s approval, Collinson electrostatic machine Royal Society of London and the Library shared these letters with the Royal Soci- Company’s London agent, regarding the ety of London. In 1751, Collinson also Abbe Nollet, court electrician to King subject of electricity. Collinson had a published the first five letters in a small Louis XV of France, conducted Leyden wide range of scientific interests and booklet entitled “Experiments and jar discharge experiments on himself. He acquaintances, especially involving elec- Observations on Electricity, made at then, in the King’s presence, discharged a tricity. Collinson was accustomed to Philadelphia in America.” This booklet

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later became one of the most widely pointed bodies, both in drawing off and charge is never created or destroyed but reprinted scientific books of the eigh- throwing off the electrical fire.” In this only transferred from one place to anoth- teenth century. There were five editions letter, Ben reported that a pointed metal er, is what is known today as the princi- printed in English, three in French, one object causes an electrified (charged) ple of conservation of electric charge. in German, and one in Italian. insulated conducting body to lose (discharge) its electrical fire (charge) when the point was six to eight inches away; but a blunt metal object would not pro- duce such an effect until it was an inch or so away, and then there would be an accompanying spark. He also reported that pointed wooden bodies would cause an effect similar to the pointed metal bodies, provided that the wood was not dry. According to Ben, the pointed object should be touching something (ground- Ben working with his electrostatic ed) in order to have the maximum draw machine effect. Ben also introduced the concept that rubbing glass with leather does not Ben analyzes the Leyden jar actually create electricity; rather, during Ben and his group carried out experi- the friction process the glass simply takes ments on the Leyden jar when all the some “electrical fire” out of the leather electricians in Europe wondered about and leaves a deficiency behind. Ben intro- how this device worked. Ben referred to duced terms such as being electrified pos- this device as Musschenbroek’s “wonder- Electrostatic machine owned by Ben itively (or plus) and negatively (or minus) ful bottle.” The Leyden jar is basically a to describe these electrical states. The glass bottle partially filled with water or One of Ben’s first recorded discoveries glass was assumed to be electrified posi- metal pellets on the inside; the outside is concerned the action of pointed bodies. tively and the rubbing material negative- coated with metal foil. The interior In a letter to Collinson dated 1747, Ben ly. Ben’s idea that there are two states of material was connected electrically by a described this as “the wonderful effect of electricity, positive and negative, that wire running through a cork in the neck

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of the bottle. When the outer coating bottle affected its capacity. To study this in water or ice. 8. Rending bodies it pass- was grounded, as by being held in the question, Ben constructed a parallel-plate es through. 9. Destroying animals. 10. hands of an experimenter, and the wire capacitor, which used a sheet of sash-glass Melting metals. 11. Firing inflammable was brought to a charged body, the jar with thin lead plates fastened to each side substances. 12. Sulfurous smell. Points seemed capable of accumulating and of the sheet. Ben reported that this capac- attract the electric fluid. We do not know holding a vast amount of electricity. Ben itor produced the same type of electrical whether this property is in lightning. discovered that if the wire and the water effects as the Leyden jar, and demonstrat- But since they agree in all particulars inside the glass bottle are electrified posed that the force is a property of glass as wherein we can already compare them, is itively or plus, then the outer coating is glass, and is not related to its geometric it not probable they agree likewise in simultaneously electrified negatively or shape. Ben also reported that he charged this? Let the experiment be made.” minus in exact proportion. In a letter to eleven panes of large sash-glass, each Ben put a metal object on an insulat- Collinson written in 1747, Ben provided armed with lead plates pasted on both ing stand and strongly electrified it. an analysis of the behavior of the Leyden sides and hooked together in series by Then, using a blunt metal rod in his hand, jar by explaining the concept of equal wire and chain. In his letter, he referred he found that he had to bring it within an plus and minus states combined with the to this structure as an electric battery, a inch of the electrified object to discharge non-electric characteristics of the glass term he introduced for the first time. it and that this discharge was accompa- bottle. In this letter, Ben expressed his nied by a strong and noisy spark. Then, he astonishment on the operation of the repeated the same experiment using a Leyden jar as, “So wonderfully are these sharp-pointed grounded metal rod and two states of electricity, the plus and found that he could discharge the object minus, combined and balanced in this even when the pointed end of the rod was miraculous bottle (!), situated and relat- as far as six or seven inches away from the ed to each other in a manner that I can by object. Moreover, the discharge was silent no means comprehend!” and a pale glow appeared at the point of the rod. Now, the question Ben recorded in his notebook was whether a pointed grounded metal rod would have the same effect with lightning as it does in the electrical experiment. If so, this would imply that the thundercloud producing lightning is electrified. Also, such a pointed metal rod, even when it is at a considerable distance away from the cloud, could possibly be used to discharge the electrified cloud silently and without the destruction often caused by lightning. From Ben’s book To investigate this question, Ben pro- posed the following experiment: “On the Ben discovers the lightning rod top of some high tower or steeple, place a Among all of Ben’s achievements, his kind of sentry box big enough to contain study of the phenomenon of lightning a man and an electrical [insulating] and his invention of the lightning rod are stand. From the middle of the stand let the ones that gained him international an iron rod rise and pass bending out of fame and popularity as a scientist. The the door, and then upright twenty to resemblance of electrical sparks and thirty feet, pointed very sharp at the end. 5th edition of Ben’s book, published in crackling noises to lightning had led If the electrical stand be kept clean and 1774 some scientists before Ben to speculate dry, a man standing on it when such that lightning might be an electric phe- clouds are passing low, might be electri- In another letter to Collinson, dated nomenon, but there had been no experi- fied and afford sparks, the rod drawing 1748, Ben used the terms charging and ments to prove it. In performing his elec- [electric] fire to him from the cloud.” To discharging in describing how a Leyden trical experiments, Ben also began to avoid danger, Ben advised the man to be jar works, and he noted the importance of sense some common patterns between the well insulated and to hold in his hand a grounding when charging or discharging two, and in 1749, he listed in his note- wax handle (insulator) affixed to “a loop the jar. He then announced the most book twelve similarities between light- of a wire” attached to the ground; he astonishing discovery of all, that in the ning and electricity. He wrote, “Electrical could bring the loop to the rod so that Leyden jar “the whole force of the bottle, fluid agrees with lightning in these par- “the sparks, if the rod is electrified, will and power of giving a shock, is in the ticulars: 1. Giving light. 2. Color of the strike from the rod to the wire, and not GLASS ITSELF.” Further, Ben’s team car- light. 3. Crooked direction. 4. Swift affect him.” ried out a series of experiments to inves- motion. 5. Being conducted by metals. 6. Thomas-François Dalibard, who had tigate whether the geometry of the glass Crack or noise in exploding. 7. Subsisting translated Ben’s Experiments and Obser-

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vations book into French, first performed denly stood erect from the string. Ben state.” He also concluded, “So that, for the sentry box experiment in May 1752, put his knuckle near the metal key and the most part, in thunder-strokes, it is at Marly-la-Ville, France. Dalibard suc- received a strong spark! He then charged the earth that strikes into the clouds, and ceeded in drawing sparks from the base of a Leyden jar, and caused a spark from it to not the clouds that strike into the earth.” a forty-foot tall vertical pointed iron rod ignite a flare. Ben had demonstrated that He posited, however, that the effects of that had been carefully insulated from lightning was an electrical phenomenon. lightning would be the same regardless ground. He reported his success to the He conducted this experiment without of whether the current flowed up from Paris Academy of Sciences stating, “In knowledge of Dalibard’s success and the ground or down from the cloud. following the path that Mr. Franklin has reported his experiment to Collinson in Others repeated Ben’s lightning traced for us, I have obtained complete October 1752. experiments in countries such as France, satisfaction.” Germany, and England. In 1753, in St. Petersburg, Georg Wilhelm Richmann was instantly struck dead by a bolt of lightning while performing a variation of Ben’s sentry box experiment because he was standing on the floor and not on an electrical stand. Scientists published detailed reports on the effect of lightning on the various organs of Richmann’s body. Richmann became the first human casualty of the new electrical science. In his 1767 “The History and Present State of Electricity” book, Joseph Priestley offered the following comment on Rich- mann’s death: “But it is not given to every electrician to die in so glorious a manner as the justly envied Richmann.” In 1752, Ben published instructions for installing a lightning rod in his Poor Ben and his son William getting Richard’s Almanac. It was in Philadel- ready for the famous kite experiment phia that the first lightning rods ever to Dalibard’s experiment be installed were put in service. Since Having demonstrated that lightning lightning was a potential threat in Later, Ben devised a second experi- was indeed an electrical discharge, Ben Philadelphia, protective rods were soon ment that involved a kite to test the elec- pursued his original concept that tall installed on some buildings. By 1782, trification of clouds. He constructed the insulated metal rods could be used to there were about four hundred lightning kite using a large, thin silk handkerchief, determine whether thunderclouds are rods in Philadelphia. At their early a cross of two light cedar strips, and a electrified or not and tall grounded metal stages, lightning rods also faced some tail. He fastened a pointed wire to the top rods could be used to protect against opposition by theologians because it was of the kite and to the kite string. The lightning by transferring a lightning argued that thunder and lightning were wire extended about a foot above the kite. flash harmlessly to ground. After learn- symbols of God’s power and that it would The kite string was hemp twine, which is ing about Dalibard’s successful experi- be unholy to try to interfere with their slightly conducting when dry, but more ment, in September 1752, Ben installed powers of destruction. To this argument, so when damp. It was joined at the bot- a tall insulated test rod on the roof of his John Winthrop from Harvard College tom end to a silk ribbon about three feet house to make experiments and observa- provided the common sense reply: “It is long to serve as an insulator, and whose tions on electrified clouds passing over- as much our duty to secure ourselves other end Ben would hold in his hand to head. The conductor rod stretched from against the effects of lightning as against control the kite. Ben tied a metal key to the roof down a stairwell to ground, but those of rain, snow, and wind, by the the twine where it joined the silk ribbon. it had a gap in the middle. A small ball means God has put into our hands.” Upon the approach of a thunderstorm, was suspended between the chimes Ben’s lightning experiments spread Ben and his son raised the kite and stood mounted at each end of the gap, and the his fame to the public at large in Europe. under a shed so that the silk ribbon by ball was placed so that the chimes would Scientists in London were surprised by which they held the kite string would ring whenever the rod was electrified. (A the success of both experiments and in not get wet. In June of 1752, Ben, with similar “electric chime” had been invent- 1753 the Royal Society of London award- the aid of his son William, flew the kite ed a few years earlier by Andrew Gordon, ed Ben the Sir Godfrey Copley gold on a Philadelphia commons on a stormy a Scottish Benedictine teaching in Ger- medal, their highest award. In 1756, Ben day. When a thundercloud passed over many.) Using his apparatus, Ben discov- was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. the kite, and the string had become wet ered, “That the clouds of a thunder-gust In his “The History and Present State of enough to conduct electricity, the loose are most commonly in a negative state of Electricity,” Priestley described the kite ends of the fibers of the kite string sud- electricity, but sometimes in a positive experiment as drawing “lightning from

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the heavens” and then characterized this discovery as “the greatest, perhaps, in the whole compass of philosophy since the time of Sir Isaac Newton.” Ben also received honorary degrees from Harvard (1753), Yale (1753) and William and Mary (1756).

Other important events in Ben’s life Ben made a second trip to England in 1757 and remained there until 1762 as the Pennsylvania Assembly’s agent. He was a moderate politically and worked hard for a peaceful resolution of the dif- ferences between the American colonies and the British. He was sent back again in 1764 for further negotiations. In 1776, at the age of seventy, Ben was the oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence. After being elected a com- missioner to France, Ben went to Paris in 1776 and played a crucial role as a polit- ical figure in getting support from France to win the American Revolutionary War against the British. When he left France to return to Philadelphia in 1785, he had a large stone in his bladder that made traveling very painful. Ben served as a delegate to the Constitutional Conven- tion in 1787. He completed his service as president of the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania in 1788, after which he ended his career in public office. In 1787, Ben Franklin next to the electric chimes he installed to sense atmospheric electricity he accepted the position of president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting Abo- lition of Slavery and he signed an impor- lenses, the Franklin stove, and the glass titled, “Benjamin Franklin,” at the tant document against slavery in 1790. At harmonica. Ben is also the first person 2006 IEEE International Symposium age eighty-four, Ben died of pleurisy in who conceived the idea of daylight sav- on Electromagnetic Compatibility, Philadelphia on April 17, 1790. ings time. Portland, Oregon, August 14-18, Although Ben failed mathematics at Three hundred years after his birth- 2006. an early age, he later overcame this defi- day, Ben’s legacy lives: every tall building ciency. In midlife, for his amusement, around us is protected day and night by Editor’s Note: Aziz Inan is a Professor of he made magic squares and circles, his most famous invention, the lightning Electrical Engineering in the School of Engi- some of which were very complex and rod. Ben also holds a special spot in the neering at the University of Portland in Port- obviously required math skills in com- IEEE’s history: in 1990, the Benjamin land, Oregon. He lent his considerable engi- putation. Published in England and Franklin House in London where Ben neering talent and enthusiasm to the 2006 France from 1767 to 1773, they have lived between 1757 and 1775 was named IEEE International Symposium on EMC, attracted much attention and comment an IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engi- most notably in organizing the “Fundamen- ever since. Ben constructed a special 16 neering and Computing. After the IEEE tals of EMC” tutorial as well as the special by 16 magic square containing consecu- Foundation completed its restoration, session on the 300th anniversary of the birth tive numbers such that the sums of all this house was opened to the public on of Benjamin Franklin. Professor Inan shared numbers in each row, column, and diag- Ben’s 300th birthday, January 17, 2006. some of this information on Franklin to a onal are 2,056. Ben referred to this wider audience at the EMC Awards Lun- magic square as “the most magically cheon. Much of that material is included here magical of any magic square ever made References: for the reader’s enjoyment. For more informa- by any magician.” [1] A. S. Inan, Remembering Benjamin tion, please contact Professor Inan at (503)- Among Ben’s other notable inventions Franklin on his 300th Birthday, pre- 943-7429, e-mail: [email protected] or visit are swim fins, the rocking chair, bifocal sented during the Special Session the site: http://faculty.up.edu/ainan

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