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Dash, Joan, and Dušan Petričić. A Dangerous Engine: Benjamin Franklin, from Scientist to Diplomat. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006.

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Benjamin Franklin at the age of 10 was apprenticed by his father into his father's company. His dad's company consisted of making soap and cutting wicks for candles. He ended up running away when he was 17 then traveled to New York, Philadelphia, and to London.

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While he was shopping he had seen and heard a girl that was laughing at him which would later become his wife and business partner. Her job was selling paper, parchment, ink, goose feathers, cheese, tea, coffee, sherry, iron stoves, spectacles, and cakes of Crown soap made by Benjamin's sister. His wife was described as short tempered and plain looking, but at the same time generous, warmhearted, and a tender nurse.

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At the age of 21 Benjamin Franklin had started a club for young men with the goal of self improvement. The group would first meet in taverns and later on began to rent quarters on Pewter Platter Alley. The group held serious discussions which ended up being the reason that libraries were created.

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In the text on page 58, it states, "For Franklin the end of hostilities meant he was free to return to experiments. Before doing do he moved his family out of the house..." Benjamin Franklin ended up buying a farm in New Jersey and expected to live well on the welcome of the properties. He bought two slaves, man and wife, for his personal house. Franklin had never really been with the movement of owning slaves and had seen them as lazy and unreliable.This was also when Benjamin had his first taste of politics.

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Benjamin Franklin had met a girl by the name of Polly, which he saw as the perfect grand daughter to have and was hoping that his son would marry her. His son ended up marrying Elizabeth Downes, which he didn't have a problem with but the marriage hurt him and affected his affection for William forever. William had found out he had an infant son with a mother unknown except to him and instead of him being a father for the child, he sent the boy to a foster family.

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During the year of 1764 Benjamin Franklin was trying to run for the Governor's party but ended up losing. According to the text on page 111, the reasoning for his loss is as stated, "... concentrated on Franklin's extravagance in London, his immorality in general, and the electrical discoveries they claimed were mostly stolen from others."

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Benjamin Franklin had created the Stamp Act which he had seen as a minor issue and didn't understand why everyone was so mad. According to the story on pages 114 and 115 it states, "In mid-September, rumors spread through town about an angry mob making ready to march on Franklin's house. " This led to them preparing for an attack but they ended up not having to worry because they had gathered hundreds of supports and police officers.

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Franklin's wife Debbie had suffered from a stroke that left her with partial Palsy in the Tongue, and had a sudden loss of memory. This was all due to dissatisfied distress because of the many years she had been waiting for her husband to return home to her. Franklin did absolutely nothing to relieve her distress because he was comfortable, happy, and busy where he was at.

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According to the text on page 30, it states, "Franklin electrified the iron fence surrounding his house for the amusement of visitors." Benjamin Franklin had the idea of electrocuting a fence so that any farm animal trying to escape would be shocked by the impact. He tested his theory on turkeys to make sure it would actually work and on impact the turkeys were thrown into violent convulsions but would come back to life within fifteen minutes. He also got curious and electrocuted a turkey with 5 Leyden jars which ended up killing it and making it tender.

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Benjamin Franklin found out that when you have a pointed out iron rod it will attract lightning in the case of a storm. He wants to use this method of controlling lightning to be able to start a controllable fire and start a candle light. He created a pamphlet that was published in the spring of 1751 to share this information with his crew and wrote about it in his autobiography.

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According to page 45, Benjamin Franklins law on electricity is summed up as the following: "Electricity is a fluid from one object to another--one object gaining an excess, the other having a shortage. When two bodies with an excess of electrical fluid meet, they repel each other. The same is true for two bodies with a negative supply of fluid. But a positively charged body attracts a neutral one of one negatively charged, because 'common matter is a kind of sponge to the electrical fluid." This shows us how Benjamin Franklin was able to come up with the idea that energy cannot simply disappear but instead is transferred.

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Benjamin and his crew wanted to test out some theories they had in mind because they wanted to understand how they could manage to control electricity and find a good source for it. They ended up deciding they were going to use a cannonball and place it in the mouth of a clean, dry, glass bottle. They took a piece of cork and suspended it nearby, it was hanging by a silk thread long enough to allow the cork to rest against the shot and so Franklin electrified and glass and had an immediate effect.

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On page 79, it states, "A surgeon came to examine Richmann, who was entirely lifeless; he had been killed quickly, and probably painlessly, by electrical shock from his apparatus." Just a few moths later Franklin's own encounter with electricity during a storm had taken place in the year of 1752, the date is not entirely certain, but he would go months before deciding to speak out about it.

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According to pages 126-127, it states " Franklin throughly disapproved of the tea dumping called it an 'act of violent injustice on our part,' and even offered to pay for the tea out of his own pocket, provided the acts against Massachusetts were repealed--a condition that made his offer impossible to accept." He is the spokesman for Massachusetts, but the Boston part of it claimed the right to govern and tax themselves denying anyone authority over them.

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According to the biography on page 132, "Humiliated, without influence, aware that there were men in high places working to see him imprisoned. Franklin knew that London papers were calling him 'Old Doubleface,' and 'this old snake,' and 'the living emblem of iniquity in grey hairs.' " This shows us that everyone started turning on him since every deal he wanted to make was very 1 sided and only helpful to the United States.

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After having an oversea crossing once the boat had arrived at the destination Benjamin Franklin was unable to stand and so they needed to carry him to the inn. He was 70 years old and suffering from a mixed amount of ailments, one being gout, a painful affliction to the legs and feet.

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Franklin and his grandsons had moved out to a small village named Passy, about a mile away from the city. They had settled into a mansion that belonged to Jacques de Chaumont, a wealthy and ambitious business man. He was involved with supplying weapons to America and had hope for commercial contracts in the later future.

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Franklin had started a friendship with a lady by the name of Madame Helvétius and before they knew it he was trying to press her into marrying him. He tried to make it seem like it was a humorous manner to ask her in so that if he was rejected he could have claimed to simply be joking.

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On page 56, it states, "Franklin was seventy-eight when he invented bifocals, a pair of glasses in which the upper half is a distance lens, and the lower half is a close up lens."The point of bifocals was to have to spend less money on 2 pairs of glasses, one for close sight, and another for long distance. He made them out of convenience for travel, looking at the scenery, and for looking through the carriage window.

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In the biography, "A DANGEROUS ENGINE," by Joan Dash on page 226, it states, "He died on April 17, 1790, a few months after his eighty-fourth birthday, with his grandsons Temple and Benny Bache at his bedside."

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Benjamin Franklin was a founding father of the United States

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Benjamin Franklin was a founding father of the United States

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The Founding Fathers may have been idealistic about Enlightenment principles like "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," but they were deeply realistic about the chances of a scrappy, underfunded colonial army to defeat the wealthy and powerful British Empire.

To win the Revolution, America needed allies, but more importantly it needed manpower, munitions and a lot of money.

That's how 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin-famed inventor, publisher and elder statesman of the Continental Congress -found himself sailing to France in October of 1776. Although a monarchy itself, France was America's best hope for backing the colonists in their bid for freedom from Great Britain, France's perennial rival.

Franklin spent the next nine years in Paris as America's first foreign ambassador. Without Franklin's celebrity status, savvy networking abilities and unapologetic Francophilia, the American Revolution would almost certainly have failed. Instead, Franklin convinced France to nearly bankrupt its own government in order to ensure American independence.

A Celebrity on a Secret Mission

In accepting his mission to France, Franklin put his life on the line. Not only was the Atlantic crossing treacherous for all of the normal reasons-stormy seas, shipboard illnesses, piracy-but Franklin was also sailing as a traitor. By signing the Declaration of Independence just months earlier, Franklin would have been hanged if captured by the British Navy.

Franklin survived the arduous journey-his seventh trans-Atlantic crossing-and arrived in Paris as a bona fide 18th-century celebrity.

"Franklin was the most famous American in the world," says biographer Stacy Schiff. "He was the discoverer of electricity, a man of genius, a successor to Newton and Galileo. He also counted among the greatest celebrities in Paris; he could not walk through the street without attracting a crowd."

Franklin's unmistakeable image-wearing glasses and a fur cap instead of a wig-was embossed on collectible candy dishes, stitched into clothing and engraved into snuff boxes and walking sticks.

While Franklin himself was famous, most French people knew nothing about the American Colonies or their politics. Even foreign ambassadors stationed in France had no idea why the famed scientist had come to Paris. For his health, maybe, or to ensure that his 16-year-old grandson William Temple Franklin received a proper European education? The Portuguese ambassador, Schiff reports, was sure that Franklin's plan was to retire to a Swiss chateau with his vast wealth.

In reality, Franklin had only one reason for being in Paris-to convince the French to make a very expensive bet on America. But first, he had to let all of the political pieces fall into place. Or more accurately, Franklin had to use all of his unique talents to make sure that they fell into place.

Bluffing His Way to an Alliance

For his first 18 months in Paris, Franklin was in a difficult position. The Continental Army suffered a string of defeats and it wasn't at all clear that the Americans had a fighting chance. Versailles was quietly supportive of the Revolution, but the French crown couldn't risk backing the wrong horse and getting ensnared in another losing war with England.

So Franklin did something that his younger American colleagues found incredibly frustrating-he played the waiting game. Now in his 70s, Franklin had little to prove and was in no hurry to prove it. Instead of banging on the door of the French foreign minister, the Count de Vergennes, Franklin attended salons with influential aristocrats and engaged in a very French, very laissez-faire charm offensive.

"Franklin was at all times a master psychologist," says Schiff. "He read people, and cultures, easily. He quickly mastered the French art of accomplishing much while appearing to accomplish little."

Franklin was also a confident bluffer. He insisted that Washington commanded an army of 80,000 men, when 14,000 was closer to the truth. Franklin laughed off every British victory, insisting that King George III was playing right into the Americans' hands. The Patriots had superior firepower, fiercer fighters, and more than anything, an unquenchable thirst for freedom. The British would need an army of 200,000 to beat them.

None of this was true, of course. The Americans were dangerously low on supplies and outgunned in every battle. In private, Franklin was deeply anxious. For a year, Franklin had heard almost nothing from Congress, leaving him to fear the worst.

Then, on December 4, 1777, an American messenger arrived at Franklin's estate with two pieces of news. First, the bad news: the British had occupied Philadelphia, the American capital, and Washington's army had retreated to winter camp at Valley Forge. But there was also good news-fantastic news, even! In October, the Americans had dealt a stunning defeat to the British at the Battle of Saratoga, capturing General John Burgoyne and his men. (The hero on the American side was General Benedict Arnold.)

Franklin didn't need to bluff anymore. Versailles was so impressed by the decisive victory at Saratoga that France signed treaties of alliance with the Americans on February 6, 1778.

A Very Busy American in Paris

As the lead American ambassador in France, Franklin had his hands full. His main duty was to solicit money, weapons, uniforms, ammunition and other critical supplies from the Count de Vergennes, which itself was a full-time job.

"At one point Franklin received a 38-page shopping list," says Schiff. "It included a frigate, a ship of the line, and 49,000 uniforms-as well as spoons, trumpets, paint and thimbles. The list left Franklin speechless."

On top of that, Franklin's home in the village of Passy outside of Paris was continuously bombarded with visitors, each seeking an audience with the famous American ambassador.

According to French custom, Franklin always made time for guests-invited or not. Some were French industrialists hoping to sell shoes, blankets and beer to the American army. Others were eager to enlist and fight (if the rumors of free tracts of land in America were true). Inventors wanted Franklin's opinion on their ideas for novel explosives or "fireproof wood," and every American in France with a hard-luck story needed Franklin to arrange their free passage home.

To meet all of these demands without offending French social sensibilities, Franklin lived a type of double life. To outside observers, he was the quintessential cultured French gentleman, the type who arrived appropriately late for appointments and greeted unexpected guests with wine and unrushed conversation. But in private, Franklin put in 14-hour days, often waking in the middle of the night to finish piles of paperwork.

Franklin was so good at making hard work look easy that he fooled even his American colleagues into thinking he was more interested in flirting with French widows than laboring for the Revolution. And no one misunderstood and resented Franklin's tactics more than John Adams.

Adams and Franklin, Founding Frenemies

John Adams arrived in France in 1778 to replace Silas Deane, an American ambassador dismissed for fraud. Adams was a brilliant writer and political philosopher, but his blunt, straight-talking demeanor clashed with French courtly manners. Instead of easing Franklin's load in Paris, Adams's very presence became an obstacle.

"The two men got off on the wrong foot and remained there," says Schiff. "It didn't help that Adams failed to ingratiate himself at Court and resented Franklin's tremendous celebrity."

In letters home, Adams complained bitterly about Franklin-everything from the older statesman's inferior French to the way the famous inventor was greeted like "an opera girl" everywhere he went.

As foreign ambassadors, Adams and Franklin couldn't have been more different in style and personality. Adams refused to acknowledge America's indebtedness to France and approached Versailles with urgent ultimatums for more supplies and military support. In contrast, Franklin was ingratiating and patient-always careful to make requests of America's benefactors, not demands.

By the end of the war, Adams and Franklin still disliked each other immensely, but they were able to see past their differences long enough to successfully negotiate a peace treaty with Britain that recognized America's independence. Through it all, Adams's opinion of Franklin never improved.

"If I was in Congress, and this gentleman and the marble Mercury in the garden at Versailles were in nomination for an embassy, I would not hesitate to give my vote for the statue," Adams wrote a colleague in 1783, "upon the principle that it would do no harm."

Franklin's Homecoming

America could not have won the Revolutionary War without France. Schiff estimates the total value of French material and manpower at roughly $20 billion in today's money. It was enough to bankrupt the government of Louis XVI, one of the aggravating factors that led to the French Revolution.

"When the British surrendered at Yorktown they did so to forces that were nearly equal parts French and American," says Schiff, "all fed, clothed and paid by France, and protected by a French navy."

Benjamin Franklin was the reason why France opened its coffers so wide to the unproven Americans. To put it simply, the French liked him and trusted him.

"Nothing could have been more critical to our Revolution than that affection," says Schiff. "Every other American envoy who approached Versailles bungled along the way. Franklin was inventing the foreign service out of whole cloth. And he was, as we know from so many other realms, a brilliant inventor."

Franklin was almost 80 when he crossed the Atlantic a final time and returned to a Philadelphia he hardly recognized. America had changed immensely in the nine years he was laboring abroad, and that included a new generation of politicians. Franklin had hoped to receive some compensation for his difficult mission-as others had-but Congress didn't want to dwell on the debt America owed to France.

"The French mission had been, hands down, the most taxing assignment of Franklin's life," says Schiff. "Congress never offered a settling of accounts, a reward, or so much as a single syllable of thanks."

HISTORY Vault: The American Revolution

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Ben Franklin in Paris: How the Founding Father Won France's Support | HISTORY

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As colonists faced tough odds in the Revolutionary War, America's first diplomat worked his charm to win France's vital backing.

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Franklin was fascinated by electricity and devoted much of his time to studying its properties.
NPS photo

Growing up during the age of Enlightenment, Franklin applied the reason-based scientific method set out by Isaac Newton and others. Above all, he was driven by curiosity. He would research and experiment for the mere purpose of learning, and it was only later that he would seek a practical application for his scientific knowledge.

Nautical Inventions

Early in his life, Franklin's flair for innovation and youthful love of swimming led him to produce "a method in which a swimmer may pass to greater distances with much facility, by means of a sail." Centuries before windsurfing, Franklin discovered he could harness the power of the wind with his kite and be pulled effortlessly across a mile-wide pond. At the age of 11, he also created an early version of what we now know as swim fins. "I made two oval palettes... They much resembled a painter's palette... I also fitted the soles of my feet a kind of sandals." In 1968, Franklin's swim fin invention earned him a place in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Franklin crossed the Atlantic by ship eight times during his life, voyages that provided him with ample opportunity to observe the ocean and the weather. His charting of the Gulf Stream contributed to an understanding of how the ocean's currents could affect global trade by helping ship captains sail within the Gulf Stream and thus reduce the lengthy ocean crossing. Because he was interested in improving travel to make it more efficient, comfortable, and convenient, he imagined various ways to streamline vessels for speedier voyages.

Experiments with Electricity

Franklin was fascinated by electricity and devoted much of his time after he retired to studying its properties. Some of his research resulted in "tricks" that he used to amuse others, like a charged metal spider that moved like the real thing and an electrified fence that created sparks. He coined the terms "battery," "positive charge," and "negative charge," and discovered new ways to generate, store, and deploy electricity. His design and promotion of the use of lightning rods helped prevent untold numbers of structural fires throughout the world.

His famous kite experiment occurred in June 1752, and though it is said to have taken place in Philadelphia, the exact location remains unclear. Franklin asked his son William to fly a silk kite, to which he had attached a wire on top and a key at the end of a string. Ultimately, the kite-and therefore the key-amassed an electric charge from a storm cloud. Franklin was then able to collect some of the charge and compare it to the electricity he had created in other experiments. He did not publicly mention the experiment until October, four months after it took place, at which point Franklin did not clarify that he had conducted the experiment himself-an issue that has caused some scholars to doubt Franklin's story.

Franklin's electrical experiments launched him into an international network of men (and some women) who worked in fields today known as physics, chemistry, biology, botany, and paleontology. To share and exchange such knowledge, Franklin proposed a society "to be called the American Philosophical Society" which remains today a world-renowned institution headquartered in Philadelphia.

Botany

Benjamin Franklin was no stranger to the pleasures of food and drink-he liked good wine, and he liked good food. He also knew that the economic stability for the colonies depended on agriculture, exports, and trade. So he gathered information about which types of crops would thrive in the climates and conditions of the colonies, and he imagined the possibilities of growing plants for medical help, protein, and his own culinary pleasure.

Whether he was in Philadelphia or London, Franklin drew on his network of friends and scientists across the globe and eagerly participated in a whirlwind of botanical exchange. John Bartram, in Philadelphia, sent acorn, magnolia, and honey locust seeds to Franklin in London. Franklin sent naked oats and Swiss barley seeds from London to Deborah in Philadelphia, who gave some to Bartram. Bartram sent seeds to Franklin in London, and Franklin sent seeds back to Bartram. Seeds were sent from East India to London to Savannah, from Philadelphia to Amsterdam and Bordeaux, from London to Turkey to Philadelphia, and on and on until the colonies had been thoroughly pollinated by Franklin and his friends!

Volcanoes

The year was 1783. Europe had been wallowing in a dense fog for months. The sun was unable to penetrate the thick cloud layer and there was hardly a summer at all that year. The first snow of the winter, unable to melt, had frozen to the ground, and every snow since had only accumulated.

Franklin, in France at the time, had witnessed the bizarre fog. But for Franklin, the fog had to have a rational explanation. It was a puzzle to be solved. In May of 1784, Franklin suggested a possible cause, theorizing that " It was the vast quantity of smoke, long continuing to issue during the summer from Hecla in Iceland, and that other volcano which arose out of the sea near that island; which smoke might be spread by various winds over the northern part of the world."

His theory was correct. Iceland's Laki fissures had been continuously spewing lava since June of that year, one of the largest volcanic eruptions that had ever been recorded. The eruptions released tons of toxic gases into the atmosphere. The change in atmosphere, combined with what had already been an unusually warm summer, caused major weather shifts in the weather throughout Europe and North America for months.

Silkworms

Silk dresses were in vogue throughout Europe and the colonies, and the finest silk came from Asia. But Benjamin Franklin wanted to make silk right here at home. He figured that if the colonists succeeded, they could make money and have inexpensive access to fine silk.

The process of making silk, however, is no easy task. Silk comes from the larvae of a moth called the Bombyx mori. This moth can neither see nor fly, and it lays about 500 eggs in only a few days before dying. These eggs produce about 30,000 worms, which may only be kept alive by a diet of the ever-so-slightly wilted leaves of the White Mulberry Tree, which is only found in Asia.

The American Philosophical Society offered cash prizes for colonists who could succeed in making silk. Sadly, the White Mulberry tree did not flourish in the colonies and the process of making silk was just too laborious for the colonists-not to mention the silkworms.

Storms

Never one to miss a lunar eclipse, Franklin set himself up one evening in 1743, ready to watch his favorite nighttime show. His very own almanac had predicted that the eclipse would begin around 9 o'clock that evening. A strong wind began to blow, thick clouds and rain blew in blocking his view... and the eclipse went on without him. Much to his astonishment, he later read about the eclipse as having been seen farther northeast in Boston: "...what surpriz'd me, was to find in the Boston Newspaper an Account ... of that Eclipse ... for I thought, as the Storm came from the NE. it must have begun sooner at Boston than with us, and consequently have prevented such Observation. I wrote my Brother about it, and he inform'd me, that the Eclipse was over there, an hour before the storm began!"

This led him to study the path of storms, and he deduced that storms which seem to blow from the northeast are actually moving from the southwest as the winds are moving from the northeast, making them especially powerful storms that blow from south to north.

Transit of Venus

In Franklin's time, the shape and design of our solar system was already well-known, but the actual size was still a mystery. What was missing was a single measurement: the distance between any two heavenly bodies could provide them with the size of the solar system. It was predicted that with the help of relatively simple mathematics, the distance between the Earth and the Sun could be measured during the Transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769, in which Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun.

European nations and North American colonies spent fortunes sending explorers to the far corners of the Earth to witness the rare cosmic event. Scientists risked their lives sneaking past enemy war ships, battling diseases, and journeying the open seas for years at a time to record Venus' measurements. In Philadelphia, scientists set up an observatory in the Pennsylvania State House Yard (now known as Independence Square) to view the phenomenon. Their measurements, along with calculations from over 170 other observers at over 70 locations around the globe, enabled scientists to figure out the distance between the Earth and the Sun (Astronomical Unit or AU), and begin to understand the size of our solar system.

Once the observations were documented, someone needed to publish and disseminate the findings for the entire world to see-someone well-connected, and well-versed in both science and astronomy. Benjamin Franklin took the lead, making certain that the American Philosophical Society published the Transit of Venus reports and disseminated them far and wide, formally establishing the size of our solar system.

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Benjamin Franklin and Science - Independence National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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Growing up during the age of Enlightenment, Franklin applied the reason-based scientific method set out by Isaac Newton and others. Above all, he was driven by curiosity. He would research and experiment for the mere purpose of learning, and it was only later that he would seek a practical application for his scientific knowledge.

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By Brian P. Raftery, MA

In preparing to co-author a new course in American literature, I re-read "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." As you may know, it was an enormously popular and influential work in its era, and it continues to be studied in literature, history and philosophy courses to the present day.

The autobiography recounts Benjamin Franklin's prototypically American success story, which starts with his early life as the 15th of 17 children of a poor tallow chandler in Boston. It follows him through an unhappy apprenticeship in an older brother's printing shop until he leaves Boston at the age of 17 to make his own way.

Through hard work, thrift, intelligence and skill, he became a prosperous printer and one of Philadelphia's leading citizens. As a civic activist, Franklin played a central role in the establishment of a fire department, a postal service, a hospital, a library and an academy that eventually became the University of Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Franklin came to be seen as the "first American," a sobriquet that reflects the idea that the virtues he exemplified and wrote about were those admired and shared by many of his contemporaries.

He was, for example, industrious, self-educated, frugal and optimistic. He tried to live in a manner consistent with the virtues necessary for an individual to achieve success while contributing to the advancement of society and the well-being of his fellow citizens.

Below are Benjamin Franklin's 13 virtues and precepts, taken from his autobiography:

1. Eat not to dullness. Drink not to elevation.

2. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversations.

3. Let all your things have their places.

4. Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself, i.e. waste nothing.

6. Lose no time. Be always employ'd in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Avoid extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.

11. Be not disturbed at trifles or accidents, common or unavoidable.

12. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring.

13. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Which of these virtues do you think do today's Americans value? Put another way, how would a list of contemporary American virtues differ from Franklin's, and what do those differences suggest about the future of our country?
Grand Canyon University's References: College of Humanities and Social Sciences allows students to grow and expand their knowledge in their field. To learn more about GCU's programs, visit our website or request more information by using the button at the top of the page.

Norton Anthology of American Literature (Seventh Edition): Volume A. "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Part Two)," pp. 526-7.

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Benjamin Franklin and the Civic Virtues of the First American

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By Brian P. Raftery, MA In preparing to co-author a new course in American literature, I re-read "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." As you may know, it was an enormously popular and influential work in its era, and it continues to be studied in literature, history and philosophy courses to the present day.

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Benjamin Franklin was many things in his lifetime: a printer, a postmaster, an ambassador, an author, a scientist, and a Founding Father. Above all, he was an inventor, creating solutions to common problems, innovating new technology, and even making life a little more musical. Despite creating some of the most successful and popular inventions of the modern world, Franklin never patented a single one, believing that they should be shared freely:

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Almanacs contained astrological data to help farmers know when to plant and harvest their crops. It was also believed in early America that the alignment of the stars and moon had a direct bearing on one's well-being. Consequently, almanacs contained information which even allowed readers to predict when they would be sick!

They provided travelers with information on the best roads to take and the best inns along the route, recipes and tips for the woman of the house, tables to calculate time using a sundial, as well as calendars, comics, and puzzles. Due to their utility, most publishers designed them to be carried around, a sort of portable dictionary much like our cellphones today.

Poor Richard's Almanack was based on the character of Richard Saunders, a creation of Franklin's wit. Through the entertaining writings and witticisms of Saunders, Franklin made Richard and his wife Brigid part of many early American homes.

In addition to the standard almanac information, Poor Richard contained sayings that reflected the genius of Franklin and his emphasis on hard work and frugality. Many of these proverbs have become standard in the American vocabulary such as, "diligence is the mother of good luck", "never leave that till tomorrow, which you can do today", and "do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."

Franklin even had fun with his competitors by predicting the exact date of death for several of them. Naturally, these predictions caused angry rebuttals and the on-going public argument entertained his readers and made them more attached to Poor Richard, Franklin's ultimate goal.

Franklin published Poor Richards Almanack for 25 years with the final edition appearing in 1758. In his farewell edition, Franklin included a pamphlet entitled The Way to Wealth, perhaps his most popular work of his very popular Almanack. As only Franklin could do, he created the character of Father Abraham, a sort of ancient wiseman, as its author. It was essentially a consolidation of some of the best witticisms from the Almanack and a "how-to-guide" for becoming wealthy.

Franklin's last major literary work was The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, although Franklin called it his Memoirs. A true classic and one of the most widely read books of its kind, Franklin began this work in 1771 while he was living in England. Composed of four parts, the book followed several starts and stops, with Franklin beginning the last section in 1790, a few months before his death.

The first part, dealing with his life to age 25, is generally considered the best part of the book and is presented as a letter to his son William, then-Royal Governor of New Jersey. The other three parts continue to tell Franklin's story but only up to the 1760s. Unfortunately, Franklin never completed his memoir, so we do not have his experiences in his own words from the American Revolution to read and enjoy.

That aside, The Autobiography is both entertaining and informative. Franklin's wit is constantly on display and the reader gets a chance to see the world in the eyes of one of the most talented men America has ever produced.

WHY IT MATTERS

So why should the early life of Ben Franklin matter to us today? Benjamin Franklin's writings enlightened and entertained his readers. Moreover, his work in the printing business greatly expanded and improved the newspaper network and, consequently, the flow of information in early America. This incredible, self-made man rose from humble beginnings to a position of prominence by hard work and diligence. Franklin set a wonderful example for other Americans to follow.

SUGGESTED READING

Poor Richard's Almanack, especially his final pamphlet The Way to Wealth, is a must read for all Americans. Franklin's almanack was an institution in America from 1733-1758. It is both witty and instructive, a fun read for everyone.

PLACES TO VISIT

The Benjamin Franklin Museum in Philadelphia is a great place to visit. Located inside Independence National Historical Park, it details Franklin's life and legacy with many outstanding exhibits.

Until next time, may your motto be "Ducit Amor Patriae", Love of country leads me.

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Ben Franklin's Writing Enlightens and Entertains America - Americana Corner

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Benjamin Franklin was the leading printer in British America, but he was also one of the most successful authors of his time. Over the course of Franklin's impressive life, he wrote two of the greatest treasures of American literature, Poor Richard's Almanack and his Memoirs, also called The Autobio