Benjamin Franklin ABOUT HIM

Tegan Hannigan | Benjamin Franklin | 28th April 2020 Family, birth and hometown. Benjamin Franklin was born on the 17th of January 1706 by Abiah Folger and Josiah Franklin. Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston and was the third youngest out of 17 children 7 of them being from Josiah’s late wife Anne Child. These 7 were called:

- Elizabeth

- Samuel

- Hannah

- Josiah Jr.

- Ann

- Joseph I (died shortly after birth)

- Joseph II

In 1989 when Anne Child died Josiah found a new wife, Benjamin Franklin’s mother and had 10 additional children:

- John

- Peter

- Mary

- James

- Sarah

- Ebenezer

- Thomas

- Benjamin

- Lydia

- Jane

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Childhood At 8 years old young Benjamin Franklin started attending South Grammar School (Boston Latin) showing early talent moving from the middle of the class to the top of it within a year. The following year he attended George Brownell’s English School, a school for writing and arithmetic. He showed great talent for writing and little for arithmetic.

Young Franklin loved reading; he would borrow books from friends and save every penny to buy books. When he was 16, he became a vegetarian partly because he did not like to eat anything that was killed and partly to save money to buy books. He read voraciously trying to improve his writing style, grammar and eloquence.

Jobs and Apprenticeships. At 10 his father took him in as an apprentice in his soap and candle making shop. This shop was located at Hanover & Union streets, the building was torn down in 1858.

Benjamin was in charge of cutting wicks for candles, filling moulds, attending the shop and running errands. His father intended for his young son to inherit the business when he retired however Benjamin did not want to follow his father’s steps, he wanted to be a sailor. He was employed in this father’s business for 2 years.

In 1717 his brother James returned from England with a press and letters to set his printing business in Boston. To prevent Benjamin from becoming a sailor, as his brother Josiah had, his father sent him to work with his brother James as an apprentice. He made him sign an indenture for his apprenticeship which bounded him until he turned 21 and only then he could earn wages. James became abusive towards Benjamin because of his potential.

The New England Courant. In 1721 James Franklin founded the New England Courant; the second newspaper in America, the first one was the Boston Newsletter.

The New England Courant was a liberal newspaper publishing humorous articles and cartoons against the colonial government. One of the pieces published in June

PAGE 2 1722 offended the Assembly and James was jailed for two weeks for contempt as he did not disclose the author. While James was in jail Benjamin ran the business.

When James was discharged, he was prohibited from printing the Courant so it was advertised as printed by Benjamin Franklin.

The Courant was published until June 1726 for a total of 255 issues. Conservative and puritanical Boston was no place for a publication like the Courant. James was the first fighter for journalistic freedom in America and the most important journalistic influence on Benjamin Franklin. James Franklin closed up his printing shop and moved to more liberal Rhode Island.

Philadelphia. When James was banned from printing the Courant, Benjamin was secretly discharged of his apprenticeship so that the newspaper was pretended to be printed by him. In 1723 at age 17, Benjamin took advantage of this clause and decided to leave his abusive brother and go to New York in search of work.

He left Boston to New York with very little money in his pocket. Unable to find work in New York he proceeded to Philadelphia where he found employment in the printing house of Samuel Keimer. He lodged in John Read’s house. Franklin eventually married his daughter, Deborah Read, in 1730.

Through his brother-in-law, Robert Holmes, he met Sir William Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania. He liked Franklin’s company and usually took him to dine in his home. The governor offered him government business if he was to set up his own printing shop. With a recommendation letter from the governor and after a 7-month absence Franklin returned to Boston to ask his father for a loan.

Back in Boston his father declined to give him the loan, in his opinion he was still too young to be trusted with the management of a business and a great amount of money. Josiah Franklin was proud of his son for obtaining such important recommendation form a governor and creating a good reputation in such a short period of time. He promised him that when he turned 21, he would help him financially.

Franklin returned to Philadelphia where he continued working for Samuel Keimer.

PAGE 3 Benjamin Franklin’s hobbies. Benjamin Franklin's hobbies were reading, writing, printing, experimenting, inventing, debating, traveling and being active in politics.

Benjamin Franklin and electricity. Benjamin Franklin was the first person to coin and use the terms positive and negative charge. He discovered, through experiments, that electricity is not generated by rubbing two objects, but is rather transferred from one object to the other. Franklin also discovered that positive and negative charge is always balanced in all objects in nature. This balance is achieved by transfer of positive charge from a higher charged to a lower charged body. This is called Principle of Conservation of Electricity. Ben Franklin was the first person to use the terms charging and discharging while describing transfer of electricity.

Ben Franklin built an electric battery using glass windowpanes and thin lead plates. Using his “electric battery,” a term he coined himself, he showed how electricity could be stored in the glass and passed through it.

During Benjamin Franklin’s time, Leyden Jars were used to store and transfer electricity. These jars were made of glass, covered with metal foil on the inner and outer surfaces and filled with water. Franklin did extensive experiments with Leyden Jars and discovered that the electricity was stored in the jar rather than water, as was believed. He found that jars could be made of any material. However, the amount of electricity stored would depend on the type of material used.

One of the most famous experiments done by Benjamin Franklin was the Kite Experiment. He attached a long wire to a kite made of silk. He used it to draw electricity from storm clouds and charge a Leyden Jar. Through his experiments, he proved that storm clouds carried electricity and lightning was nothing but a heavily charged spark of electricity. This was a path breaking discovery of his times because in those days thunderstorms and lightning strikes caused widespread damage to wooden structures.

Franklin built a setup called Franklin Bells which served as a warning for approaching thunder clouds. He also used the setup to collect charge and use it for other experiments.

Franklin discovered that when a pointed object is held towards a charged object, it draws electricity from the object. After the Kite Experiment, he wondered if a metal rod could be used to draw electricity from the thunder clouds. That was the birth of lightning rod!! He constructed the first lightning rod to be installed at tops of buildings. These rods transferred the sudden burst of electricity discharge and passed it to the ground through a wire without causing any damage. It is still used in buildings today.

PAGE 4 Fun facts on Benjamin Franklin. - Franklin was a fashion icon in France. - He’s a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. - Franklin created a phonetic alphabet. - Franklin designed a musical instrument used by Mozart and Beethoven. - He only had two years of formal education.

The death of Benjamin Franklin. Due to an illness Benjamin Franklin died at the age of 84 in his bed on April 17th, 1790. It is said that Benjamin Franklin wanted to die.

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