Ben Franklin
By Kieran Hunter, Vince Gullo
Ben Franklin's life.
- Born in Boston Jan. 17, 1706
- Tenth son of a soap maker
- Was an apprentice to his older brother James.
- Help fund the University of Pennsylvania and first public library in America.
Ben Franklin had seventeen siblings, however he was the tenth son. Ben's father had planned for him to go to clergy. However Ben's father could only send him there for one year, so he ended up working in the shop with his brother who was a printer. Ben had wanted to write for his brothers paper but knew his brother would never allow it. He then create "Silence Dogwood" and wrote about women's issues and whatever else he thought would be educational views. Eventually owned the printer shop. Eventually helped found the University of Pennsylvania and the first library in America.
Ben's Inventions.
- Bifocal
- Open heated stove
Musical instrument using moistened glass
Rocking chair that could swat flies
Bifocals are one of Ben's major inventions. He had suffered from a presbyopia,which was a farsightedness that is caused by loss of elasticity of the lens of the eye, however it mostly occurred in middle and old aged people. So he had created glasses that people could wear having a bottom and top pair of different glass to use for distance and reading. Another one of his inventions is his Franklin stove, which was created to heat up the room using lesser fire wood and allow more air flow and less smoke than a fire place would. The third invention that was popular was his Glass Armonica, he created this invention using upright wine goblets filled with different amount of fluids in each one containing different colors for each note. The last interesting invention he created was a chair you could sit in that swatted bugs away so they wouldn't interrupt you as you would sit and read.
Links: http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/
http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/inventions.htm
Franklin's contribution to founding our nation.
- Helped draft the declaration of independence
- Went to France to make a treaty for them to help America in the war
- Member of the constitutional convention in 1787
In 1775 Franklin had returned to Philadelphia, in which he had a fully formed opinion of the Independence. Franklin had hope for an accommodation that allows Britain to maintain a its rule it had over American colonies and compromise on the representation of the colonists in Parliament. Ben negotiated the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain which ended the American Revolutionary War, securing the U.S ownership of a vast territory between Atlantic coast and Mississippi River. He also was a part of the constitutional convention in 1787 and signed the constitution. However suggesting that "hence forth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business."
Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac
- He that lies down with Dogs, shall rise up with fleas.
- You cannot pluck roses without fear of thorns,
Nor enjoy fair wife without danger of horns. - Teach your child to hold his tongue,
he'll learn fast enough to speak.
The first one means that if you allow you to get ranked very low that you with eventually become the lowest in your life and will suffer the consequences for what you'v done.
The second one has a very interesting meaning. The meaning to this one if that even thought something may be pretty but there may be a ugly, or even a hurtful side to it.
The last one means that if your child has inappropriate manners that he or she needs to learn when to have manners when speaking to someone. Otherwise they will learn the punishment for being disrespectful.