Benjamin_Franklin

the student's work and are not examples of our expert essay writers' work. READ MORE We write essays! Benjamin Franklin Printer To Scientist To Politician History Essay Introduction Benjamin Franklin should be remembered as one of the founding father of the today’s world superpower- the United States of America. Franklin was born on January 17 1706 and lived on until April 17, 1790. Franklin a noted polymath was a leading printer author, political theorist, postmaster, scientist, civic activist, statesman as well as a diplomat. As a scientist, Franklin can be remembered as the major figure involved in the Enlighten of America and the history of physics for his unending theories and discoveries as far as electricity is concerned. He is the figure behind the invention of the “lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass 'armonica'” Franklin established the pioneering public lending library as well as the first fire department in Pennsylvania1. Franklin received the title of "The First American" for his early on and untiring demonstration for colonial agreement; as a author and spokesperson in London for numerous colonies, and later afterwards as the premier United States diplomat to France, he epitomized the budding American nation. Franklin was not only foundational but also introductory in structuring the American ethos as a matrimony of the realistic and independent values of “thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious”, with the systematic and liberal values of the illumination. According to a renowned historian Henry Steele Commager, "Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat." While To Walter Isaacson, Franklin was "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."2 Franklin, forever conceited of his working class roots, rose up the ladder to become a successful daily editor as well as a printer in Philadelphia, the then leading city in the colony. He soon turned out to be wealthy after publishing Poor Richard's Almanack and The Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin achieved global repute as a scientist for his legendary experiments in electrical energy and for his many discoveries, particularly the lightning rod. He participated and also played a crucial role in instituting the University of Pennsylvania and was thereafter elected to head the prestigious American Philosophical Society. Franklin turned into a state hero in America when he led the effort to have the congress abolish the ostracized Stamp Act. As a talented diplomat, he was extensively well-liked among the French as American minister to Paris and was a key person in the growth of affirmative Franco-American relations. For several years, Franklin was a British postmaster for the colonies, a post which later enabled him to put up the initial national communications network. Franklin was so much involved and active in society affairs, national and international affairs as well as colonial and state politics. From 1785 to 1788, Franklin served as governor and towards the end of his life; he unchained his slaves and therefore turned out to be one of the most famous abolitionists3. His colourful life and bequest of political and scientific accomplishment, as well as the rank as one of America's most significant Founding Fathers, have saw Franklin honoured on coinage and money; warships; the names of many towns, counties, educational institutions, namesakes, and companies” and even after more than two centuries since his death, innumerable cultural references4. Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston. His father wanted him to go to school with the clergy but the money was only enough to last Franklin for only two years in school. Franklin studied at Boston Latin but he did not graduate and had to continue his education through insatiable reading. At 10 his schooling ended and he started working for his father until the age of 12 when he became an apprentice for his brother who had a printer and who introduced Franklin to the printing trade. At 15 Franklin established The New-England Courant, and which happened to be the first truly independent newspaper during the colonies. After being denied the opportunity to publish a letter to the newspaper for publication, Franklin assumed the fictitious name of "Mrs. Silence Dogood", a middle-aged widow. "Mrs. Dogood"'s letters were in print, and even a subject of dialogue around town. Neither James nor the Courant's readers were conscious of the trick. Franklin was forced to leave the apprenticeship without permission soon after his brother discovered that the popular correspondence belonged to Franklin5. At 17, Franklin took off and became a fugitive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he started a new life in a new city. At first he worked in several; printer shops available in town but however he was not satisfied by the immediate prospects. It is after a few months while still working in a printing house that the then Pennsylvanian Governor convinced him to go to London supposedly to obtain equipment required in establishing another daily in Philadelphia6. At age 17, Franklin ran away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, seeking a new start in a new city. When he first arrived he worked in several printer shops around town. However, he was not satisfied by the immediate prospects. After a few months, while working in a printing house, Franklin was convinced by Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith to go to London, ostensibly to acquire the equipment necessary for establishing another newspaper in Philadelphia7. Franklin as a Printer It was not until 1727, when Franklin, by then 21 years established the Junto, a group of "like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community." The Junto was a debate group for all issues of the day and it consequently provided rise to many associations in Philadelphia. For Junto reading was a great pastime although by then books were very rare and expensive too. Therefore the members of the Junto group agreed to create a library, initially meant for their own books. However, this was not sufficient and that is the time when Franklin conceived the idea of a subscription library, and which act as a form of pooling funds to buy books for all to read. This signified the birth of the library company of Philadelphia. Until today the library company remains a great scholarly as well as a research library harbouring over 500,000 rare books8. In 1733, Franklin started to issue the renowned Poor Richard's Almanack under the nom de plume Richard Saunders, on which much of his trendy status is based. Franklin regularly wrote under pseudonyms. Even though it was known that Franklin was the author, his Richard Saunders character frequently denied it. In 1758, Franklin put in print Father Abraham’s Sermon a year after he ceased writing for the Almanack9. Franklin as an Inventor Franklin was an impressive inventor. In the midst of his numerous creations was the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, lightning rod, glass armonica, as well as the flexible urinary catheter. Franklin under no circumstances did he patent his inventions, and in his autobiography he wrote that, "... as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously. To add to his long list of inventions are social innovations, for instance paying forward. Franklin's enthralment with innovation could be regarded as philanthropic; he wrote that his technical works were to be used for mounting effectiveness and human development. One such development was his attempt to speed up news services in the course of his printing presses10. As assistant postmaster, Franklin developed an interest concerning the North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns. It was while in England in 1768 that he overheard a complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs as to why do it took a British packet ships carrying mail several weeks longer to reach New York than it took an average merchant ship to reach Newport, Rhode Island. Franklin laid the problem to his cousin Timothy Folger, a Nantucket whaler captain, who informed him that trader ships regularly circumvented a strong eastbound mid-ocean current whereas the mail packet captains navigated dead into it, thus combating an unpleasant current of 3 miles per hour (5 km/h). Franklin then laboured with Folger and other knowledgeable ship captains, learning as much as necessary to diagram the current and name it the Gulf Stream, by which it is still known today11. It required many years for British sea captains to ultimately commend Franklin's advice on navigating the current; on one occasion they did, and they were able to trim two weeks from their sailing time. But in1853, oceanographer Matthew Fontaine Maury a renown cartographer rang a bell that Franklin only planned and codified the Gulf Stream, but he did not discover it. Franklin as a Scientist In 1743, Franklin established the American Philosophical Society to assist scientific men talk about their theories and discoveries. It at this time that He began the electrical investigations and studies that, together with other scientific inquiries, would engage him for the remainder of his life, in amid bouts of moneymaking and politics12. In 1747, Franklin formally retired from printing and ventured into other businesses. He entered into a partnership with his foreman, David Hall, which offered Franklin with part of the shop's proceeds for over 18 years. This lucrative business pact not only did it provide leisure and study time but also it is during this period that be made the most discoveries that accorded him a reputation with learned people in Europe and especially in France.13 All Franklin’s discoveries resulted from his examination of electricity. Franklin projected that "vitreous" and "resinous" electrical energy were not diverse types of "electrical fluid", but rather represented the same electrical fluid under different pressures. Franklin was the first person to brand them as positive and negative in that order, as well as he was the first person to discover the principle of preservation of charge.14 Electrical experiments done by Franklin paved way to his discovery of the lightning rod. He discovered that conductors with a jagged rather than a flat point had the ability to free silently, and at a far improved distance. He construed that this information could be of great use in protecting storied buildings from lightning. In appreciation of his effort with electricity, Franklin was awarded with the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1753 while in 1756 he turn out to be one of the few 18th century Americans to be voted as a Fellow of the Society. In addition and an honour to him the cogs unit of electric charge has been named after him that is one Franklin (Fr) is equal to one stat coulomb. Franklin and his contemporary friend Leonard Euler were the only major scientists who showed support of Christiana Huygens' wave theory of light, after it was fundamentally ignored by the rest of the scientific community15. According to a well accepted myth, in 1973 a storm moving from the southwest deprived Franklin of the chance of observing a lunar eclipse. Franklin was said to have noted that the current winds were in fact from the northeast, opposing what he had expected. In communication with his brother, Franklin later learned that the matching storm had not hit Boston not until after the eclipse, in spite of the fact that Boston is to the northeast of Philadelphia. He inferred that storms were not necessarily affected by the direction of the prevailing wind, a useful concept which would have great influence in meteorology16. In addition, Franklin noted a theory of refrigeration by realizing that on a very hot day, he stayed cooler in his wet shirt in a breeze than he did on a dry one. According to Michael Faraday, Franklin's experimentation on the non-conduction of ice is significance even though the law of the broad effect of liquefaction on electrolytes is not attributed to Franklin. All franklins’ oceanographic findings are accumulated in his Maritime Observations and published by the Philosophical Society's transactions. It restricted ideas for catamaran hulls, sea anchors, shipboard lightening load as well as water tight compartments. In 1736, Franklin formed the Union Fire Company, which happened to be one of the initial volunteer fire fighting companies in America. It is also during the same year that he printed a new currency for New Jersey founded on novel anti-counterfeiting technique which he had developed. All through his career, Franklin was a supporter for paper money, printing A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency in 1729, and his printer printed money. He was central in the more unnatural and thus victorious monetary experiment in the Middle Colonies, which stopped up deflation without leading to excessive inflation17. Franklin as a Politician As Franklin matured, he began having more and more concerns regarding public affairs. For instance in 1743, he went a step ahead to setup a fourth scheme for the Academy and College of Philadelphia. Franklin became caught up in Philadelphia political affairs and rapidly developed. In October 1748, he was chosen to be a councilman, while in June 1749 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Philadelphia. In addition, in 1751 he was voted for the first time to the Pennsylvania Assembly. On August 10, 1753, Franklin was chosen joint deputy postmaster-general of North America. Well franklins most noteworthy service in his country’s politics was his improvement of the postal system, with correspondence sent out each week18. In 1751, Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond attain a charter from the Pennsylvania parliament to institute a hospital. Pennsylvania Hospital was the earliest hospital in what was to turn out to be the United States of America. In 1754, Franklin led the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress. This gathering of numerous colonies had been called upon by the Board of Trade in England to develop relations with the Indians and defence not in favour of the French. It was Franklin who actually considered a broad Plan of Union for the colony. Whilst the plan was not approved, elements of instituted their way into being in the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.19 In 1757, Franklin was sent off to England by the Pennsylvania Assembly as a regal agent to objection against the political authority of the Penn family, the proprietors of the colony. He stayed there for five years, determined to end the proprietors' privilege to capsize legislation from the voted Assembly, and their immunity from paying taxes on their land. His deficient in of important allies in Whitehall made the mission to fail. Franklin died on April 17, 1790, at the age of 84. Around 20,000 people were in attendance during his funeral. He was interred in Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia. The remains of B. Franklin Printer; Like the wrap of an old Book, Its inside torn out, and stripped of its writing and decoration, Lies here, foodstuff for Worms. But his Work shall never be wholly lost: For it will, as he supposed, emerge once more, in a new and even more ideal Edition, accurate and revised by the Author. In 1773, when Franklin's work had had transformed from printing to science and politics.20 Read more: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/benjamin-franklin-printer-to-scientist-to-politician-history-essay.php#ixzz2NwO19xjh