The Life Of Ben Franklin Essay, Research Paper
Benjamin Franklin was born January 17, 1706. His father Josiah Franklin was a soap maker and wanted little Ben to follow in his footsteps by the time he was of age. Abiah Franklin his mother stayed home and took care of Ben’s 9 other siblings. Ben as a young child never had any formal education except for to years of school, he taught himself whatever he could find. His first invention was at the age of ten, he loved to swim and figured maybe he could swim faster with some paddles, so he made to round paddles with thumb holes and leather straps, but he found that they were to heavy and did not make him a faster swimmer.
When Ben was twelve years old he wanted to be a printer, so he asked his brother, Joseph, for a job. His brother made him sign a contract that stated that Ben would become his indentured servant. In other words Ben was to work for his brother, and if he ran away his brother could punish him severely. So Ben came to work for his brother from 1718 to 1723, when he then ran away and sailed to Philadelphia looking for another job as a printer. There he met the governor of Pennsylvania, Sir William Keith, who promised Ben that he would pay for all the printing equipment and his passage to London, England. In 1728 at 20 years old, he started his printing business with a partner, and later borrowed money and bought his partners share so that he was the sole owner.
On September 1, 1730 he married Deborah Read, they had a son who died at age four and a daughter named Sarah that out lived them all.
In 1732 he started to publish Poor Richard’s Almanac, an almanac is a guide it tells when certain events are going to happen, and thing like when to plant crops. It was one of his most successful publishing’s, and lasted until 1757.
In 1752 Benjamin Franklin conducted the famous kite experiment with his son William Franklin. This is probably what Ben Franklin is best known for, and is depicted in many pictures of this event, but most of the pictures aren’t accurate. Some pictures have Ben standing next to his what looks like a ten year old William, but William was actually in his late teens. Some pictures show them holding the string with a key attatched to it as a bolt of lighting strikes the kite. This is not what actually happened. The truth is that Ben and his son where inside of a shed holding a piece of silk, which was a great insulator for electricity, this piece of silk was tied to the string which was tied to the key, and the string connected to the kite, which had another piece of silk at the end except since the piece of silk was wet it conducted electricity. That is the truth about how Ben Franklin “discovered” electricity.
In 1762 Ben Franklin invented the armonica a musical instrument, it consisted of about 37 glass discs which would turn using a foot peddle, as the glass discs turned the operator would put their finger on a certain disc to play the desired note.
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When Ben returned home he found he was to late, his wife Deborah had died from a stroke. Later he was elected to the Continental Committee and a long diplomatic mission to Canada kept him busy.
In 1776 Ben Franklin was one of three men selected to write the Declaration of Independence, that stated the creation of a new nation. The Declaration of Independence was actually written by Thomas Jefferson, and Franklin only made minor changes to it, making some of the sentences sharper. The only problem was that a new nation would require money and friends in high places, so it was decided that Benjamin was to go to France. On October 27, 1776 Franklin set sail for France on a ship named the Reprisal. With him he brought his two grandsons- William Franklin Jr. and Benjamin Franklin Bache-Sally’s child. Back then it was dangerous for Ben to cross the ocean, because if a British ship captured his ship then he would be killed on the spot for being a traitor. Luckily the Reprisal was a heavily armed ship, and on December 3, 1776 Ben Franklin and his two grandsons landed in France.
When Franklin arrived he expected that he would have to make new friends in high places there, but to his surprise he found that he was a very famous man there from his writings. At that time Ben Franklin did not know that his stay in France would be such a long one, eight and a half years. He quickly made friends and got France to agree to a treaty of friendship between the United States and France. Before long a steady stream of money and supplies were sent to America from France. In 1778 France went to war with England. In 1784 treaties were signed by all the countries involved in the Revolutionary War.
In May of 1775 Ben received word that his stay in France was at an end and that it was time to return home. On September 14, Franklin’s ship docked in Philadelphia. He had arrived home just in time, because the Constitutional Convention was to be held in several years. In 1784 Ben Franklin invented the bifocals. The bifocals had a lens that helped his eyesight, and another lens for reading books. In the hot summer of 1787 the Constitutional Convention that was held in a building near Franklin’s house. He urged all the delegates to sign the document even if they didn’t like some parts as he himself.
In the spring of 1790 Franklin became ill to a disease called pleurisy, the illness that twice almost killed him. On April 17, 1790 Benjamin Franklin died.
I really admire Benjamin Franklin for all the hard work he did and how he would never give up no matter what. He was very determined, you have to be in order to teach yourself math and science and how to read. He was a very accomplished person who knew how to get what he needed. He was honest person, that set goals for himself and accomplished much more that most people do.
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