Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) was an American printer, writer, scientist, inventor and diplomat, one of the founders of the United States. His Poor Richard's Almanack spread proverbs that are still quoted, and his Autobiography is a classic of American literature.
Works
Poor Richard's Almanack
Boston and Philadelphia
Franklin was born in Boston on 17 January 1706, the fifteenth of seventeen children of a soap and candle maker. He left school at ten and was apprenticed to his brother James, a printer, for whose newspaper he secretly wrote letters signed 'Silence Dogood'.
At seventeen he ran away to Philadelphia. He became a printer and owner of the Pennsylvania Gazette, and from 1732 to 1758 published Poor Richard's Almanack under the name of Richard Saunders. He founded a lending library, a fire company and the academy that became the University of Pennsylvania.
The scientist
Having retired from business in his forties, Franklin devoted himself to science. His experiments on electricity, including the famous kite experiment of 1752, showed that lightning is electrical, and he invented the lightning rod.
He also invented the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and a musical instrument, the glass armonica, and charted the Gulf Stream. His work earned him honours from the Royal Society in London and from universities in Britain and America.
The founder
Franklin spent many years in London as agent of the American colonies. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776, then went to France, where he won the alliance of Louis XVI and became a celebrity in Paris.
He negotiated the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the war with Britain, and took part in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He died in Philadelphia on 17 April 1790, aged eighty-four.
Anecdotes
Silence Dogood
At sixteen, Franklin slipped letters under the door of his brother's printing shop, signed by an imaginary widow, Silence Dogood. James printed fourteen of them before learning who had written them, and was not pleased.
A fur cap in Paris
In France Franklin wore a simple fur cap instead of a wig. Parisians saw him as the image of the wise, plain-living American, and his face appeared on medallions, snuffboxes and prints.
Frequently asked questions
What is Poor Richard's Almanack?
A yearly almanac Franklin published from 1732 to 1758, with weather forecasts, calendars, poems and witty proverbs supposedly written by 'Poor Richard' Saunders.
Did Franklin really fly a kite in a storm?
According to his own account and that of the scientist Joseph Priestley, he did so in 1752 to show that lightning is electricity. Some historians have doubted the details.
Was Franklin ever president?
No. He was a diplomat, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution, and president of the executive council of Pennsylvania.