Benjamin Franklin

The amazing life of Benjamin Franklin touched on many facets of early America, from his numerous inventions to his many writings to his role as a diplomat and as one of the nation's founders. This paper will summarize the life of Benjamin Franklin, and analyze whether there was anything "typically American" about his career and philosophy.

Benjamin Franklin was born January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Josiah Franklin, had emigrated from England in 1683, where he had been a dyer of textiles. In colonial America, however, there was little need for his skill, so Josiah had become a candlemaker (Franklin, 1961, p. 23).

Josiah had high hopes for Benjamin, his 15th child (out of 17) and youngest son. Benjamin proved precocious, quickly learning to read and write. At age 8, his father enrolled him in grammar school with the expressed hope of Benjamin becoming a minister. Benjamin rapidly progressed, but lasted less than a year. His father saw no future in schooling since he could never afford to pay for college (Franklin, p. 22).

Beginning at age 10, Benjamin apprenticed with his father for two years. He longed to go to the sea, but Josiah was dead set against it, having lost one son that way. Benjamin's love of books (he spent all his time and money on that passion) prompted Josiah to apprentice Benjamin to James, Josiah's elder son and a printer (Franklin p. 26-27).

Benjamin immersed himself in the printing business-and in books-for five yea

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am, p. 79). Franklin devoured the latest scientific treatises then set about confirming the most promising theories. By 1748, proving the existence of electricity consumed almost all of his free time. "To find extra hours he had even resigned from his printing business, sacrificing half his income, and moved to [a] house on the outskirts of Philadelphia where he was less accessible to his numerous friends" (Fleming, p. 4). Franklin's electrical research culminated one day in June 1752. He and his son William put a kite aloft in a thunderstorm to prove the existence of electricity, which Franklin captured in a jar (if a lightning bolt had hit the kite while Franklin was collecting the electricity, no doubt he and William would have been killed (Fleming, p. 4). Franklin was already famous, but his experiment made him a national figure by demonstrating that the universe worked in terms of attraction and repulsion, as Sir Isaac Newton had theorized. "Franklin's essential contribution . . . lay in his having enlarged enormously the range of phenomena subject to Sir Isaac's premise" (Ketcham p. 81-82). Franklin's scientific contributions did not end there. After observing that black cloth absorbed more heat than white fab

Category: History - B