As a statesman,Benjamin Franklin stood in the front rank of men who built the United States.He was the only man to sign all four key documents in American history:The declaration of Independence,The treaty of Alliance with France.The Treaty of Peace with Great Britain,and The Constitution of the United States.Franklins services as minister to France helped greatly in winning the Revolutionary war .Many historians consider him the most successful diplomat ever sent abroad.
Franklin was the leader of his day in his study of electricity,as an inventor he was unequaled in the United States until the time Of Thomas Edison .He was born in Boston,Mass. on January 17,1706,the youngest son in a family of seventeen children.His parents were hard working,god fearing Christian folk.His father made soap,and candles at his shop on Milk street.
Benjamin attended school for only two years.He was excellent in reading,fair in writing,and poor in arithmetic.His father decided he could not afford any further education,and kept him home from the age of ten to help in his shop,cutting wicks,and helping make soap.His schooling had ended,but his education did not.He read every book that he could get his hands on from that point on.H eworked on his own writing style,he taught himself.Benjamin Franklin made himself one of the best educated persons of his time.
He did not care much for the trade of candle making.After becoming an apprentice to his older brother,a printer.He soon became a skilled printer himself.He worked for various printers in Philadelphia,and in London England.He became part owner of a print shop,later becoming the sole owner.He began publishing writing most of the material for this newspaper himself.
He married Deborah Reed,the daughter of his first Pennsylvania landlord.She was not nearly so educated as her husband,she often misspelled words in her letters to him.They were a loving and devoted couple who had three children.Two boys,and a girl.
Franklin was one of the first persons in the world to experiment with electricity.He conducted his most famous electrical experiment at Philadelphia in 1752.He flew a home made kite during a thunderstorm,and proved that lightning is electricity.But his scientific interests ranged far beyond electricity.He invented the lightening rod which saved many buildings from fires caused by lightening.
He gave the world several other valuable inventions,in addition to the lightning rod.The Franklin stove proved most useful to the people of his day.By arranging the flues in his own stove in an efficient way,he could make his sitting room twice as warm with one fourth as much fuel as he had been using.His stove gave more heat than other stoves and used much less fuel.People everywhere appreciate his invention of bifocal eyeglasses.This invention allowed both reading,and distsant lenses to be set in a single frame.
Franklin discovered that disease flourishes in poorly ventilated rooms.Franklin also showed Americans how to improve acid soil by using lime.He refused to patent any of his inventions to use them for profit.He preferred to have them used freely as his contribution to the comfort and convenience of everyone.Franklin's scientific work won him many high honors.
Franklin died at the age of 84.About twenty thousand people honored him at his funeral.Franklin led all the people of his time in his life long concern for the happiness,well-being,and dignity of humanity.
