Benjamin Franklin

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WEEK 2 LEVEL 6

Benjamin Franklin

Most everyone has heard of Benjamin Franklin. You may have learned about his famous kite experiment. He was one of the nation’s Founding Fathers. Franklin is so well-known that many people think he was a U.S. President, but he was not. However, he has many other claims to fame, including: being a newspaper printer and writer, an inventor, a political leader, the first U.S. Postmaster General, and many more roles. Franklin led a very busy and important life.

Benjamin Franklin lived from 1706 to 1790. Late in his life, he saw exciting times when America broke away from British rule. In fact, he helped win the Revolutionary War. One important job he had was as a diplomat to France. A diplomat negotiates and arranges agreements with other countries. He traveled to Paris to ask the French government to provide money and support to beat Britain in the war. France had been Britain’s enemy for a long time. Franklin thought the French would be glad to help the Americans win the war. He was right.

The famous American was one of 17 children. He was born in Boston to a candle-maker and soap-maker named Josiah Franklin and his second

wife, Abiah. Franklin was the eighth child born to his mother. For a couple years, he worked in his father’s candle shop. After that he helped in his older brother’s printing shop. In 1728, Franklin set up a printing house with another man in Philadelphia. The next year he began publishing a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette.

From 1733-1758, Franklin published his famous Poor Richard's Almanack. An almanac lists coming events for the next year. It includes information like weather forecasts, sunrise times, and hours of high and low tides. Franklin’s included wise sayings such as “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

In the 1730s, he began a number of community projects in Philadelphia. These projects included creating the first lending library, so that people could read books for free. He also started the city’s first fire company, police unit, and hospital.

Besides leading all these projects, Franklin worked as a scientist. He invented the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, and an instrument called the glass harmonica. The lightning rod kept lightning from hitting houses and setting them on fire. His stove used less fuel than other stoves. Bifocal glasses let the wearer see both close up and far away. Franklin also wrote music and played three instruments. There was little he couldn’t do!

One reason Franklin could be involved with so many projects is that he earned a lot of money while he was young. Wealthy at age 42, he spent the rest of his life experimenting. In 1752, he conducted his famous kite experiment. On a stormy night, he and his son flew a kite with a key stuck to the string. The metal key attracted lightning from the storm as it would

attract electricity. His experiment proved that lightning is a form of electricity.

Franklin was 70 when the American colonies declared their independence from Britain. Though older, Franklin did not sit on the sidelines. He served as a representative to the Continental Congress, the acting government during the Revolutionary War. In 1776, he and a few others helped Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence. He also helped pen the treaty (agreement) with Britain that ended the War. Several years later, he was a member of the group that drafted the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution is the set of fundamental laws for the country.

Franklin died in 1790, only one year after George Washington became the first President of the United States. He was age 84. Well over 200 years later, Franklin is still one of the most famous Americans. His portrait appears on the $100 bill. Known for inventing useful items and helping start the country, the beloved founding father lived an exciting and important life.