Ben Franklin

Silence Do good, and “her” 14 Imaginative and witty letters were published In his brother’s newspaper. But James was angry when he found out the letters were his brother’s, and Ben left his apprenticeship shortly afterward, going to New York, but settling in Philadelphia, which was his home base for the rest of his life.

In late 1727, Franklin formed the “Junta,” a social and self-improvement study group for young men, and early the next year was able to establish his own print shop with a partner.After publishing another pamphlet, “The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency,” Franklin was able to purchase The Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper from a former boss, and was elected the official printer of Pennsylvania. He was also able to take Deborah Read as his common-law wife in 1730, after her husband disappeared after stealing a slave. Their first son, Francis, was born in 1732 (although he died four years later of smallpox).

Franklins and success grew during the , especially with the publication of Poor Richards Almanacs at the end of 1732.Franklin amassed real estate and businesses, organized the union Fire Company to counteract dangerous fire hazards, established a lending library so there could share his passion for reading, and was elected Grand Master of the Pennsylvania Masons, clerk of the state assembly and postmaster of Philadelphia. In The Franklin started expanding into scientific pursuits and the Invention of the Franklin stove.

His pamphlet “A Proposal for Promoting useful Knowledge” underscored his interests. HIS beloved daughter Sarah was born In 1743.He became a soldier in the Pennsylvania militia at the age of 42, but his abiding interest in electricity was overwhelming at this time. Then He conducted the famous kite experiment in 1752 after some of his theories on electricity were published in England the previous year. In 1775, Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress and as postmaster general for the colonies, having mapped the postal routes In 1762. And In 1776, he was one of five men to draft the Declaration of Independence.Franklin was also one of the 13 men who drafted the Articles of Confederation.

Much has been made of Franklins life in Paris as essentially the first U. S. In 1752, on a dark June afternoon in Philadelphia, the 46 year-old Ben Franklin decided to fly a kite. With the help of his son, William, they attached his kite to a silk string, tying an iron key at the other end. Next, they tied a thin metal wire from the key and Inserted the wire Into a Elided Jar, a container for storing an electrical silk ribbon to the key.Holding onto the kite by the silk ribbon, Ben flew the kite and once it was aloft, he retreated into a barn so that he would not get wet. The thunder storm cloud passed over Franklins kite, whereupon the negative charges in the cloud passed onto his kite, down the wet silk string, to the key, and into the Jar.

Ben however, was unaffected by the negative charges because he was holding the dry silk ribbon, insulating him from the charges on the key. When he moved his free hand near the iron key, he received a shock. Why?Because the negative charges in the key were so strongly attracted to the positive charges in his body, a spark Jumped from the key to his hand. Franklins experiment successfully showed that lightning was static electricity. Deborah, his wife of 44 years, died in 1774, two years before he accepted the post, and Franklin had a rich romantic life in his nine years abroad. He even proposed marriage, to a widow named , at the age of 74, but she rejected him. Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the home of his daughter, Sarah Bach.

He was 84, suffered from gout and had complained of ailments for some time, completing his will a little more than a year and a half prior to his death. Franklin had actually written his epitaph when he was 22: The body of B. Franklin, Printer (Like the Cover of an Old Book Its Contents torn Out and Script of its Lettering and Gilding) Lies Here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be Lost; for it will (as he Believed) Appear once More In a New and More Elegant Edition Revised and Corrected By the Author.