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Benjamin Franklin

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 28, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

One of the leading figures of early American history, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor and diplomat. Born into a Boston family of modest means, Franklin had little formal education. He went on to start a successful printing business in Philadelphia and grew wealthy. Franklin was deeply active in public affairs in his adopted city, where he helped launch a lending library, hospital and college and garnered acclaim for his experiments with electricity, among other projects. During the American Revolution , he served in the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He also negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War (1775-83). In 1787, in his final significant act of public service, he was a delegate to the convention that produced the U.S. Constitution .

Benjamin Franklin’s Early Years

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in colonial Boston. His father, Josiah Franklin (1657-1745), a native of England, was a candle and soap maker who married twice and had 17 children. Franklin’s mother was Abiah Folger (1667-1752) of Nantucket, Massachusetts , Josiah’s second wife. Franklin was the eighth of Abiah and Josiah’s 10 offspring.

Did you know? Benjamin Franklin is the only Founding Father  to have signed all four of the key documents establishing the U.S.: the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Treaty of Alliance with France (1778), the Treaty of Paris establishing peace with Great Britain (1783) and the U.S. Constitution (1787).

Franklin’s formal education was limited and ended when he was 10; however, he was an avid reader and taught himself to become a skilled writer. In 1718, at age 12, he was apprenticed to his older brother James, a Boston printer. By age 16, Franklin was contributing essays (under the pseudonym Silence Dogood) to a newspaper published by his brother. At age 17, Franklin ran away from his apprenticeship to Philadelphia, where he found work as a printer. In late 1724, he traveled to London, England, and again found employment in the printing business.

Benjamin Franklin: Printer and Publisher

Benjamin Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726, and two years later opened a printing shop. The business became highly successful producing a range of materials, including government pamphlets, books and currency. In 1729, Franklin became the owner and publisher of a colonial newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette , which proved popular—and to which he contributed much of the content, often using pseudonyms. Franklin achieved fame and further financial success with “Poor Richard’s Almanack,” which he published every year from 1733 to 1758. The almanac became known for its witty sayings, which often had to do with the importance of diligence and frugality, such as “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

In 1730, Franklin began living with Deborah Read (c. 1705-74), the daughter of his former Philadelphia landlady, as his common-law wife. Read’s first husband had abandoned her; however, due to bigamy laws, she and Franklin could not have an official wedding ceremony. Franklin and Read had a son, Francis Folger Franklin (1732-36), who died of smallpox at age 4, and a daughter, Sarah Franklin Bache (1743-1808). Franklin had another son, William Franklin (c. 1730-1813), who was born out of wedlock. William Franklin served as the last colonial governor of New Jersey , from 1763 to 1776, and remained loyal to the British during the American Revolution . He died in exile in England.

Benjamin Franklin and Philadelphia

As Franklin’s printing business prospered, he became increasingly involved in civic affairs. Starting in the 1730s, he helped establish a number of community organizations in Philadelphia, including a lending library (it was founded in 1731, a time when books weren’t widely available in the colonies, and remained the largest U.S. public library until the 1850s), the city’s first fire company , a police patrol and the American Philosophical Society , a group devoted to the sciences and other scholarly pursuits. 

Franklin also organized the Pennsylvania militia, raised funds to build a city hospital and spearheaded a program to pave and light city streets. Additionally, Franklin was instrumental in the creation of the Academy of Philadelphia, a college which opened in 1751 and became known as the University of Pennsylvania in 1791.

Franklin also was a key figure in the colonial postal system. In 1737, the British appointed him postmaster of Philadelphia, and he went on to become, in 1753, joint postmaster general for all the American colonies. In this role he instituted various measures to improve mail service; however, the British dismissed him from the job in 1774 because he was deemed too sympathetic to colonial interests. In July 1775, the Continental Congress appointed Franklin the first postmaster general of the United States, giving him authority over all post offices from Massachusetts to Georgia . He held this position until November 1776, when he was succeeded by his son-in-law. (The first U.S. postage stamps, issued on July 1, 1847, featured images of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington .)

Benjamin Franklin's Inventions

In 1748, Franklin, then 42 years old, had expanded his printing business throughout the colonies and become successful enough to stop working. Retirement allowed him to concentrate on public service and also pursue more fully his longtime interest in science. In the 1740s, he conducted experiments that contributed to the understanding of electricity, and invented the lightning rod, which protected buildings from fires caused by lightning. In 1752, he conducted his famous kite experiment and demonstrated that lightning is electricity. Franklin also coined a number of electricity-related terms, including battery, charge and conductor.

In addition to electricity, Franklin studied a number of other topics, including ocean currents, meteorology, causes of the common cold and refrigeration. He developed the Franklin stove, which provided more heat while using less fuel than other stoves, and bifocal eyeglasses, which allow for distance and reading use. In the early 1760s, Franklin invented a musical instrument called the glass armonica. Composers such as Ludwig Beethoven (1770-1827) and Wolfgang Mozart (1756-91) wrote music for Franklin’s armonica; however, by the early part of the 19th century, the once-popular instrument had largely fallen out of use.

READ MORE: 11 Surprising Facts About Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution

In 1754, at a meeting of colonial representatives in Albany, New York , Franklin proposed a plan for uniting the colonies under a national congress. Although his Albany Plan was rejected, it helped lay the groundwork for the Articles of Confederation , which became the first constitution of the United States when ratified in 1781.

In 1757, Franklin traveled to London as a representative of the Pennsylvania Assembly, to which he was elected in 1751. Over several years, he worked to settle a tax dispute and other issues involving descendants of William Penn (1644-1718), the owners of the colony of Pennsylvania. After a brief period back in the U.S., Franklin lived primarily in London until 1775. While he was abroad, the British government began, in the mid-1760s, to impose a series of regulatory measures to assert greater control over its American colonies. In 1766, Franklin testified in the British Parliament against the Stamp Act of 1765, which required that all legal documents, newspapers, books, playing cards and other printed materials in the American colonies carry a tax stamp. Although the Stamp Act was repealed in 1766, additional regulatory measures followed, leading to ever-increasing anti-British sentiment and eventual armed uprising in the American colonies .

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in May 1775, shortly after the Revolutionary War (1775-83) had begun, and was selected to serve as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, America’s governing body at the time. In 1776, he was part of the five-member committee that helped draft the Declaration of Independence , in which the 13 American colonies declared their freedom from British rule. That same year, Congress sent Franklin to France to enlist that nation’s help with the Revolutionary War. In February 1778, the French signed a military alliance with America and went on to provide soldiers, supplies and money that proved critical to America’s victory in the war.

As minister to France starting in 1778, Franklin helped negotiate and draft the 1783  Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.

Benjamin Franklin’s Later Years

In 1785, Franklin left France and returned once again to Philadelphia. In 1787, he was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention. (The 81-year-old Franklin was the convention’s oldest delegate.) At the end of the convention, in September 1787, he urged his fellow delegates to support the heavily debated new document. The U.S. Constitution was ratified by the required nine states in June 1788, and George Washington (1732-99) was inaugurated as America’s first president in April 1789.

Franklin died a year later, at age 84, on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia. Following a funeral that was attended by an estimated 20,000 people, he was buried in Philadelphia’s Christ Church cemetery. In his will, he left money to Boston and Philadelphia, which was later used to establish a trade school and a science museum and fund scholarships and other community projects.

More than 200 years after his death, Franklin remains one of the most celebrated figures in U.S. history. His image appears on the $100 bill, and towns, schools and businesses across America are named for him.

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Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin is best known as one of the Founding Fathers who never served as president but was a respected inventor, publisher, scientist and diplomat.

Quick Facts

Silence dogood, living in london, wife and children, life in philadelphia, poor richard's almanack, scientist and inventor, electricity, election to the government, stamp act and declaration of independence, life in paris, drafting the u.s. constitution, accomplishments, who was benjamin franklin.

Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father and a polymath, inventor, scientist, printer, politician, freemason and diplomat. Franklin helped to draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution , and he negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War .

His scientific pursuits included investigations into electricity, mathematics and mapmaking. A writer known for his wit and wisdom, Franklin also published Poor Richard’s Almanack , invented bifocal glasses and organized the first successful American lending library.

FULL NAME: Benjamin Franklin BORN: January 17, 1706 DIED: April 17, 1790 BIRTHPLACE: Boston, Massachusetts SPOUSE: Deborah Read (1730-1774) CHILDREN: William, Francis, Sarah ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, in what was then known as the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Franklin’s father, English-born soap and candlemaker Josiah Franklin, had seven children with first wife, Anne Child, and 10 more with second wife, Abiah Folger. Franklin was his 15th child and youngest son.

Franklin learned to read at an early age, and despite his success at the Boston Latin School, he stopped his formal schooling at 10 to work full-time in his cash-strapped father’s candle and soap shop. Dipping wax and cutting wicks didn’t fire the young boy’s imagination, however.

Perhaps to dissuade him from going to sea as one of his other sons had done, Josiah apprenticed 12-year-old Franklin at the print shop run by his older brother James.

Although James mistreated and frequently beat his younger brother, Franklin learned a great deal about newspaper publishing and adopted a similar brand of subversive politics under the printer’s tutelage.

When James refused to publish any of his brother’s writing, 16-year-old Franklin adopted the pseudonym Mrs. Silence Dogood, and “her” 14 imaginative and witty letters delighted readers of his brother’s newspaper, The New England Courant . James grew angry, however, when he learned that his apprentice had penned the letters.

Tired of his brother’s “harsh and tyrannical” behavior, Franklin fled Boston in 1723 although he had three years remaining on a legally binding contract with his master.

He escaped to New York before settling in Philadelphia and began working with another printer. Philadelphia became his home base for the rest of his life.

Encouraged by Pennsylvania Governor William Keith to set up his own print shop, Franklin left for London in 1724 to purchase supplies from stationers, booksellers and printers. When the teenager arrived in England, however, he felt duped when Keith’s letters of introduction never arrived as promised.

Although forced to find work at London’s print shops, Franklin took full advantage of the city’s pleasures—attending theater performances, mingling with the locals in coffee houses and continuing his lifelong passion for reading.

A self-taught swimmer who crafted his own wooden flippers, Franklin performed long-distance swims on the Thames River. (In 1968, he was inducted as an honorary member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame .)

In 1725 Franklin published his first pamphlet, "A Dissertation upon Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain," which argued that humans lack free will and, thus, are not morally responsible for their actions. (Franklin later repudiated this thought and burned all but one copy of the pamphlet still in his possession.)

In 1723, after Franklin moved from Boston to Philadelphia, he lodged at the home of John Read, where he met and courted his landlord’s daughter Deborah.

After Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726, he discovered that Deborah had married in the interim, only to be abandoned by her husband just months after the wedding.

The future Founding Father rekindled his romance with Deborah Read and he took her as his common-law wife in 1730. Around that time, Franklin fathered a son, William, out of wedlock who was taken in by the couple. The pair’s first son, Francis, was born in 1732, but he died four years later of smallpox. The couple’s only daughter, Sarah, was born in 1743.

The two times Franklin moved to London, in 1757 and again in 1764, it was without Deborah, who refused to leave Philadelphia. His second stay was the last time the couple saw each other. Franklin would not return home before Deborah passed away in 1774 from a stroke at the age of 66.

In 1762, Franklin’s son William took office as New Jersey’s royal governor, a position his father arranged through his political connections in the British government. Franklin’s later support for the patriot cause put him at odds with his loyalist son. When the New Jersey militia stripped William Franklin of his post as royal governor and imprisoned him in 1776, his father chose not to intercede on his behalf.

After his return to Philadelphia in 1726, Franklin held varied jobs including bookkeeper, shopkeeper and currency cutter. In 1728 he returned to a familiar trade - printing paper currency - in New Jersey before partnering with a friend to open his own print shop in Philadelphia that published government pamphlets and books.

In 1730 Franklin was named the official printer of Pennsylvania. By that time, he had formed the “Junto,” a social and self-improvement study group for young men that met every Friday to debate morality, philosophy and politics.

When Junto members sought to expand their reading choices, Franklin helped to incorporate America’s first subscription library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, in 1731.

In 1729 Franklin published another pamphlet, "A Modest Enquiry into The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency," which advocated for an increase in the money supply to stimulate the economy.

With the cash Franklin earned from his money-related treatise, he was able to purchase The Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper from a former boss. Under his ownership, the struggling newspaper was transformed into the most widely-read paper in the colonies and became one of the first to turn a profit.

He had less luck in 1732 when he launched the first German-language newspaper in the colonies, the short-lived Philadelphische Zeitung . Nonetheless, Franklin’s prominence and success grew during the 1730s.

Franklin amassed real estate and businesses and organized the volunteer Union Fire Company to counteract dangerous fire hazards in Philadelphia. He joined the Freemasons in 1731 and was eventually elected grand master of the Masons of Pennsylvania.

At the end of 1732, Franklin published the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack .

In addition to weather forecasts, astronomical information and poetry, the almanac—which Franklin published for 25 consecutive years—included proverbs and Franklin’s witty maxims such as “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” and “He that lies down with dogs, shall rise up with fleas.”

In the 1740s, Franklin expanded into science and entrepreneurship. His 1743 pamphlet "A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge" underscored his interests and served as the founding document of the American Philosophical Society , the first scientific society in the colonies.

By 1748, the 42-year-old Franklin had become one of the richest men in Pennsylvania, and he became a soldier in the Pennsylvania militia. He turned his printing business over to a partner to give himself more time to conduct scientific experiments. He moved into a new house in 1748.

Franklin was a prolific inventor and scientist who was responsible for the following inventions:

• Franklin stove : Franklin’s first invention, created around 1740, provided more heat with less fuel.
• Bifocals : Anyone tired of switching between two pairs of glasses understands why Franklin developed bifocals that could be used for both distance and reading.
• Armonica : Franklin’s inventions took on a musical bent when, in 1761, he commenced development on the armonica, a musical instrument composed of spinning glass bowls on a shaft. Both Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed music for the strange instrument.
• Rocking chair
• Flexible catheter
• American penny

Franklin also discovered the Gulf Stream after his return trip across the Atlantic Ocean from London in 1775. He began to speculate about why the westbound trip always took longer, and his measurements of ocean temperatures led to his discovery of the existence of the Gulf Stream. This knowledge served to cut two weeks off the previous sailing time from Europe to North America.

Franklin even devised a new “scheme” for the alphabet that proposed to eliminate the letters C, J, Q, W, X and Y as redundant.

Franklin’s self-education earned him honorary degrees from Harvard , Yale , England’s University of Oxford and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

In 1749, Franklin wrote a pamphlet concerning the education of youth in Pennsylvania that resulted in the establishment of the Academy of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania .

In 1752, Franklin conducted the famous kite-and-key experiment to demonstrate that lightning was electricity and soon after invented the lightning rod.

His investigations into electrical phenomena were compiled into “Experiments and Observations on Electricity,” published in England in 1751. He coined new electricity-related terms that are still part of the lexicon, such as battery, charge, conductor and electrify.

In 1748, Franklin acquired the first of several enslaved people to work in his new home and in the print shop. Franklin’s views on slavery evolved over the following decades to the point that he considered the institution inherently evil, and thus, he freed his enslaved people in the 1760s.

Later in life, he became more vociferous in his opposition to slavery. Franklin served as president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and wrote many tracts urging the abolition of slavery . In 1790 he petitioned the U.S. Congress to end slavery and the trade.

Franklin became a member of Philadelphia’s city council in 1748 and a justice of the peace the following year. In 1751, he was elected a Philadelphia alderman and a representative to the Pennsylvania Assembly, a position to which he was re-elected annually until 1764. Two years later, he accepted a royal appointment as deputy postmaster general of North America.

When the French and Indian War began in 1754, Franklin called on the colonies to band together for their common defense, which he dramatized in The Pennsylvania Gazette with a cartoon of a snake cut into sections with the caption “Join or Die.”

He represented Pennsylvania at the Albany Congress, which adopted his proposal to create a unified government for the 13 colonies. Franklin’s “Plan of Union,” however, failed to be ratified by the colonies.

In 1757 Franklin was appointed by the Pennsylvania Assembly to serve as the colony’s agent in England. Franklin sailed to London to negotiate a long-standing dispute with the proprietors of the colony, the Penn family, taking William and his two enslaved people but leaving behind Deborah and Sarah.

He spent much of the next two decades in London, where he was drawn to the high society and intellectual salons of the cosmopolitan city.

After Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1762, he toured the colonies to inspect its post offices.

After Franklin lost his seat in the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1764, he returned to London as the colony’s agent. Franklin returned at a tense time in Great Britain’s relations with the American colonies.

The British Parliament ’s passage of the Stamp Act in March 1765 imposed a highly unpopular tax on all printed materials for commercial and legal use in the American colonies. Since Franklin purchased stamps for his printing business and nominated a friend as the Pennsylvania stamp distributor, some colonists thought Franklin implicitly supported the new tax, and rioters in Philadelphia even threatened his house.

Franklin’s passionate denunciation of the tax in testimony before Parliament, however, contributed to the Stamp Act’s repeal in 1766.

Two years later he penned a pamphlet, “Causes of the American Discontents before 1768,” and he soon became an agent for Massachusetts, Georgia and New Jersey as well. Franklin fanned the flames of revolution by sending the private letters of Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson to America.

The letters called for the restriction of the rights of colonists, which caused a firestorm after their publication by Boston newspapers. In the wake of the scandal, Franklin was removed as deputy postmaster general, and he returned to North America in 1775 as a devotee of the patriot cause.

In 1775, Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress and appointed the first postmaster general for the colonies. In 1776, he was appointed commissioner to Canada and was one of five men to draft the Declaration of Independence.

After voting for independence in 1776, Franklin was elected commissioner to France, making him essentially the first U.S. ambassador to France. He set sail to negotiate a treaty for the country’s military and financial support.

Much has been made of Franklin’s years in Paris, chiefly his rich romantic life in his nine years abroad after Deborah’s death. At the age of 74, he even proposed marriage to a widow named Madame Helvetius, but she rejected him.

Franklin was embraced in France as much, if not more, for his wit and intellectual standing in the scientific community as for his status as a political appointee from a fledgling country.

His reputation facilitated respect and entrees into closed communities, including the court of King Louis XVI . And it was his adept diplomacy that led to the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which ended the Revolutionary War. After almost a decade in France, Franklin returned to the United States in 1785.

Franklin was elected in 1787 to represent Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention , which drafted and ratified the new U.S. Constitution.

The oldest delegate at the age of 81, Franklin initially supported proportional representation in Congress, but he fashioned the Great Compromise that resulted in proportional representation in the House of Representatives and equal representation by state in the Senate . In 1787, he helped found the Society for Political Inquiries, dedicated to improving knowledge of government.

Franklin was never elected president of the United States. However, he played an important role as one of eight Founding Fathers, helping draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

He also served several roles in the government: He was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly and appointed as the first postmaster general for the colonies as well as diplomat to France. He was a true polymath and entrepreneur, which is no doubt why he is often called the "First American."

Franklin died on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the home of his daughter, Sarah Bache. He was 84, suffered from gout and had complained of ailments for some time, completing the final codicil to his will a little more than a year and a half prior to his death.

He bequeathed most of his estate to Sarah and very little to his son William, whose opposition to the patriot cause still stung him. He also donated money that funded scholarships, schools and museums in Boston and Philadelphia.

Franklin had actually written his epitaph when he was 22: “The body of B. Franklin, Printer (Like the Cover of an Old Book Its Contents torn Out And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding) Lies Here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be Lost; For it will (as he Believ'd) Appear once More In a New and More Elegant Edition Revised and Corrected By the Author.”

In the end, however, the stone on the grave he shared with his wife in the cemetery of Philadelphia’s Christ Church reads simply, “Benjamin and Deborah Franklin 1790.”

The image of Franklin that has come down through history, along with his likeness on the $100 bill, is something of a caricature—a bald man in a frock coat holding a kite string with a key attached. But the scope of things he applied himself to was so broad it seems a shame.

Founding universities and libraries, the post office, shaping the foreign policy of the fledgling United States, helping to draft the Declaration of Independence, publishing newspapers, warming us with the Franklin stove, pioneering advances in science, letting us see with bifocals and lighting our way with electricity—all from a man who never finished school but shaped his life through abundant reading and experience, a strong moral compass and an unflagging commitment to civic duty. Franklin illuminated corners of American life that still have the lingering glow of his attention.

• A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.
• Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.
• From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books.
• So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.
• In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.
• Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day.
• There never was a good war or a bad peace.
• In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
• Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins.
• He does not possess wealth, it possesses him.
• Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no other.

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The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin Hardcover – September 19, 2000

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• Print length 759 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Doubleday
• Publication date September 19, 2000
• Dimensions 6.25 x 1.75 x 9.25 inches
• ISBN-10 0385493282
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Franklin is best remembered for other things, of course. His still-famous Poor Richard's Almanac helped him secure enough financial freedom as a printer to retire and devote himself to the study of electricity (which began, amusingly, with experiments on chickens). His mind never rested: He invented bifocals, the armonica (a musical instrument made primarily of glass), and, in old age, a mechanical arm that allowed him to reach books stored on high shelves. He served American interests as a diplomat in Europe; without him, France might not have intervened in the American Revolution. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He possessed a sense of humor, too. In 1776, when John Hancock urged the colonies to "hang together," Franklin is said to have commented, "We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." Franklin's accomplishments were so numerous and varied that they threaten to read like a laundry list. Yet Brands pours them into an engrossing narrative, and they leap to life on these pages as the grand story of an exceptional man. The First American is an altogether excellent biography. --John J. Miller

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday; First Edition (September 19, 2000)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 759 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385493282
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385493284
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.45 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.75 x 9.25 inches
• #125 in U.S. Colonial Period History
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About the author

H. w. brands.

H.W. Brands taught at Texas A&M University for sixteen years before joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is the Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History. His books include Traitor to His Class, Andrew Jackson, The Age of Gold, The First American, and TR. Traitor to His Class and The First American were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.

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Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, Inventor, Statesman

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Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706–April 17, 1790) was a scientist, publisher, and statesman in colonial North America, where he lacked the cultural and commercial institutions to nourish original ideas. He dedicated himself to creating those institutions and improving everyday life for the widest number of people, making an indelible mark on the emerging nation.

Fast Facts: Benjamin Franklin

• Born : January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts
• Parents : Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger
• Died : April 17, 1790 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Education : Two years of formal education
• Published Works : The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack
• Spouse : Deborah Read (common law, 1730–1790)
• Children : William (unknown mother, born about 1730–1731), Francis Folger (1732–1734), Sarah Franklin Bache (1743–1808)

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Josiah Franklin, a soap and candlemaker, and his second wife Abiah Folger. Josiah Franklin and his first wife Anne Child (m. 1677–1689) immigrated to Boston from Northamptonshire, England in 1682. Anne died in 1689 and, left with seven children, Josiah soon married a prominent colonist named Abiah Folger.

Benjamin was Josiah's and Abiah's eighth child and Josiah's 10th son and 15th child—Josiah would eventually have 17 children. In such a crowded household, there were no luxuries. Benjamin's period of formal schooling was less than two years, after which he was put to work in his father's shop at the age of 10.

Colonial Newspapers

Franklin's fondness for books finally determined his career. His older brother James Franklin (1697–1735) was the editor and printer of the New England Courant , the fourth newspaper published in the colonies. James needed an apprentice, so in 1718 the 13-year-old Benjamin Franklin was bound by law to serve his brother. Soon after, Benjamin began writing articles for this newspaper. When James was put in jail in February 1723 after printing content considered libelous, the newspaper was published under Benjamin Franklin's name.

Escape to Philadelphia

After a month, James Franklin took back the de facto editorship and Benjamin Franklin went back to being a poorly treated apprentice. In September 1723, Benjamin sailed for New York and then Philadelphia, arriving in October 1723.

In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin found employment with Samuel Keimer, an eccentric printer just beginning a business. He found lodging at the home of John Read, who would become his father-in-law. The young printer soon attracted the notice of Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith, who promised to set him up in his own business. For that to happen, however, Benjamin had to go to London to buy a printing press .

London and 'Pleasure and Pain'

Franklin set sail for London in November 1724, engaged to John Read's daughter Deborah (1708–1774). Governor Keith promised to send a letter of credit to London, but when Franklin arrived he discovered that Keith had not sent the letter; Keith, Franklin learned, was known to have been a man who dealt primarily in "expectations." Benjamin Franklin remained in London for nearly two years as he worked for his fare home.

Franklin found employment at the famous printer's shop owned by Samuel Palmer and helped him produce "The Religion of Nature Delineated" by William Wollaston, which argued that the best way to study religion was through science. Inspired, Franklin printed the first of his many pamphlets in 1725, an attack on conservative religion called "A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain." After a year at Palmer's, Franklin found a better paying job at John Watt's printing house; but in July 1726, he set sail for home with Thomas Denham, a sensible mentor and father figure he had met during his stay in London.

During the 11-week voyage, Franklin wrote "Plan for Future Conduct," the first of his many personal credos describing what lessons he had learned and what he intended to do in the future to avoid pitfalls.

Philadelphia and the Junto Society

After returning to Philadelphia in late 1726, Franklin opened a general store with Thomas Denham and when Denham died in 1727, and Franklin went back to work with the printer Samuel Keimer.

In 1727 he founded the Junto Society, commonly known as the "Leather Apron Club," a small group of middle-class young men who were engaged in business and who met in a local tavern and debated morality, politics, and philosophy. Historian Walter Isaacson described the Junto as a public version of Franklin himself, a "practical, industrious, inquiring, convivial, and middle-brow philosophical [group that] celebrated civic virtue, mutual benefits, the improvement of self and society, and the proposition that hardworking citizens could do well by doing good."

Becoming a Newspaper Man

By 1728, Franklin and another apprentice, Hugh Meredith, set up their own shop with funding from Meredith's father. The son soon sold his share, and Benjamin Franklin was left with his own business at the age of 24. He anonymously printed a pamphlet called "The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency," which called attention to the need for paper money in Pennsylvania. The effort was a success, and he won the contract to print the money.

In part driven by his competitive streak, Franklin began writing a series of anonymous letters known collectively as the "Busy-Body" essays, signed under several pseudonyms and criticizing the existing newspapers and printers in Philadelphia—including one operated by his old employer Samuel Keimer, called The Universal Instructor in All Arts and Sciences and Pennsylvania Gazette . Keimer went bankrupt in 1729 and sold his 90-subscriber paper to Franklin, who renamed it The Pennsylvania Gazette . The newspaper was later renamed The Saturday Evening Post .

The Gazette printed local news, extracts from the London newspaper Spectator , jokes, verses, humorous attacks on rival Andrew Bradford's American Weekly Mercury , moral essays, elaborate hoaxes, and political satire. Franklin often wrote and printed letters to himself, either to emphasize some truth or to ridicule some mythical but typical reader.

A Common Law Marriage

By 1730, Franklin began looking for a wife. Deborah Read had married during his long stay in London, so Franklin courted a number of girls and even fathered an illegitimate child named William, who was born between April 1730 and April 1731. When Deborah's marriage failed, she and Franklin began living together as a married couple with William in September 1730, an arrangement that protected them from bigamy charges that never materialized.

A Library and 'Poor Richard'

In 1731, Franklin established a subscription library called the Library Company of Philadelphia , in which users would pay dues to borrow books. The first 45 titles purchased included science, history, politics, and reference works. Today, the library has 500,000 books and 160,000 manuscripts and is the oldest cultural institution in the United States.

In 1732, Benjamin Franklin published "Poor Richard's Almanack." Three editions were produced and sold out within a few months. During its 25-year run, the sayings of the publisher Richard Saunders and his wife Bridget—both aliases of Benjamin Franklin—were printed in the almanac. It became a humor classic, one of the earliest in the colonies, and years later the most striking of its sayings were collected and published in a book.

Deborah gave birth to Francis Folger Franklin in 1732. Francis, known as "Franky," died of smallpox at the age of 4 before he could be vaccinated. Franklin, a fierce advocate of smallpox vaccination, had planned to vaccinate the boy but the illness intervened.

Public Service

In 1736, Franklin organized and incorporated the Union Fire Company, based on a similar service established in Boston some years earlier. He became enthralled by the Great Awakening religious revival movement , rushing to the defense of Samuel Hemphill, attending George Whitefield's nightly outdoor revival meetings, and publishing Whitefield's journals between 1739 and 1741 before cooling to the enterprise.

During this period in his life, Franklin also kept a shop in which he sold a variety of goods. Deborah Read was the shopkeeper. He ran a frugal shop, and with all his other activities, Benjamin Franklin's wealth rapidly increased.

American Philosophical Society

About 1743, Franklin moved that the Junto society become intercontinental, and the result was named the American Philosophical Society . Based in Philadelphia, the society had among its members many leading men of scientific attainments or tastes from all over the world. In 1769, Franklin was elected president and served until his death. The first important undertaking was the successful observation of the transit of Venus in 1769; since then, the group has made several important scientific discoveries.

In 1743, Deborah gave birth to their second child Sarah, known as Sally.

An Early 'Retirement'

All of the societies Franklin had created up to this point were noncontroversial, in so far as they kept with the colonial governmental policies. In 1747, however, Franklin proposed the institution of a volunteer Pennsylvania Militia to protect the colony from French and Spanish privateers raiding on the Delaware River. Soon, 10,000 men signed up and formed themselves into more than 100 companies. It was disbanded in 1748, but not before word of what Pennsylvania colony's leader Thomas Penn called "a part little less than treason" was communicated to the British governor.

In 1748 at the age of 42, with a comparatively small family and the frugality of his nature, Franklin was able to retire from active business and devote himself to philosophical and scientific studies.

Franklin the Scientist

Although Franklin had neither formal training nor grounding in math, he now undertook a vast amount of what he called " scientific amusements. " Among his many inventions was the "Pennsylvania fireplace" in 1749, a wood-burning stove that could be built into fireplaces to maximize heat while minimizing smoke and drafts. The Franklin stove was remarkably popular, and Franklin was offered a lucrative patent that he turned down. In his autobiography, Franklin wrote, "As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously." He never patented any of his inventions.

Benjamin Franklin studied many different branches of science. He studied smoky chimneys; he invented bifocal glasses ; he studied the effect of oil upon ruffled water; he identified the "dry bellyache" as lead poisoning; he advocated ventilation in the days when windows were closed tight at night, and with patients at all times; and he investigated fertilizers in agriculture. His scientific observations show that he foresaw some of the great developments of the 19th century.

Electricity

His greatest fame as a scientist was the result of his discoveries in electricity . During a visit to Boston in 1746, he saw some electrical experiments and at once became deeply interested. His friend Peter Collinson of London sent him some of the crude electrical apparatuses of the day, which Franklin used, as well as some equipment he had purchased in Boston. He wrote in a letter to Collinson: "For my own part, I never was before engaged in any study that so engrossed my attention and my time as this has lately done."

Experiments conducted with a small group of friends and described in this correspondence showed the effect of pointed bodies in drawing off electricity. Franklin decided that electricity was not the result of friction, but that the mysterious force was diffused through most substances, and that nature always restored its equilibrium. He developed the theory of positive and negative electricity, or plus and minus electrification.

Franklin carried on experiments with the Leyden jar, made an electrical battery, killed a fowl and roasted it upon a spit turned by electricity, sent a current through water to ignite alcohol, ignited gunpowder, and charged glasses of wine so that the drinkers received shocks.

More importantly, he began to develop the theory of the identity of lightning and electricity and the possibility of protecting buildings with iron rods. He brought electricity into his house using an iron rod, and he concluded, after studying electricity's effect on bells, that clouds were generally negatively electrified. In June 1752, Franklin performed his famous kite experiment, drawing down electricity from the clouds and charging a Leyden jar from the key at the end of the string.

Peter Collinson gathered Benjamin Franklin's letters together and had them published in a pamphlet in England, which attracted wide attention. The Royal Society elected Franklin a member and awarded him the Copley medal with a complimentary address in 1753.

Education and the Making of a Rebel

In 1749, Franklin proposed an academy of education for the youth of Pennsylvania. It would be different from the existing institutions ( Harvard , Yale , Princeton , William & Mary) in that it would be neither religiously affiliated nor reserved for the elites. The focus, he wrote, was to be on practical instruction: writing, arithmetic, accounting, oratory, history, and business skills. It opened in 1751 as the first nonsectarian college in America, and by 1791 it became known as the University of Pennsylvania .

Franklin also raised money for a hospital and began arguing against British restraint of manufacturing in America. He wrestled with the idea of enslavement, personally enslaving and then selling an African American couple in 1751, and then keeping an enslaved person as a servant on occasion later in life. But in his writings, he attacked the practice on economic grounds and helped establish schools for Black children in Philadelphia in the late 1750s. Later, he became an ardent and active abolitionist.

Political Career Begins

In 1751, Franklin took a seat on the Pennsylvania Assembly, where he (literally) cleaned up the streets in Philadelphia by establishing street sweepers, installing street lamps, and paving.

In 1753, he was appointed one of three commissioners to the Carlisle Conference, a congregation of Native American leaders at Albany, New York, intended to secure the allegiance of the Delaware Indians to the British. More than 100 members of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora) attended; the Iroquois leader Scaroyady proposed a peace plan, which was dismissed almost entirely, and the upshot was that the Delaware Indians fought on the side of the French in the final struggles of the French and Indian War.

While in Albany, the colonies' delegates had a second agenda, at Franklin's instigation: to appoint a committee to "prepare and receive plans or schemes for the union of the colonies." They would create a national congress of representatives from each colony, who would be led by a "president general" appointed by the king. Despite some opposition, the measure known as the "Albany Plan" passed, but it was rejected by all of the colonial assemblies as usurping too much of their power and by London as giving too much power to voters and setting a path toward union.

When Franklin returned to Philadelphia, he discovered the British government had finally given him the job he had been lobbying for: deputy postmaster for the colonies.

Post Office

As deputy postmaster, Franklin visited nearly all the post offices in the colonies and introduced many improvements into the service. He established new postal routes and shortened others. Postal carriers now could deliver newspapers, and the mail service between New York and Philadelphia was increased to three deliveries a week in summer and one in winter.

Franklin set milestones at fixed distances along the main post road that ran from northern New England to Savannah, Georgia, to enable the postmasters to compute postage. Crossroads connected some of the larger communities away from the seacoast with the main road, but when Benjamin Franklin died, after also serving as postmaster general of the United States, there were still only 75 post offices in the entire country.

Defense Funding

Raising funds for the defense was always a grave problem in the colonies because the assemblies controlled the purse-strings and released them with a grudging hand. When the British sent General Edward Braddock to defend the colonies in the French and Indian war, Franklin personally guaranteed that the required funds from the Pennsylvania farmers would be repaid.

The assembly refused to raise a tax on the British peers who owned much of the land in Pennsylvania (the "Proprietary Faction") in order to pay those farmers for their contribution, and Franklin was outraged. In general, Franklin opposed Parliament levying taxes on the colonies—no taxation without representation—but he used all his influence to bring the Quaker Assembly to vote for money for the defense of the colony.

In January 1757, the Assembly sent Franklin to London to lobby the Proprietary faction to be more accommodating to the Assembly and, failing that, to bring the issue to the British government.

Franklin reached London in July 1757, and from that time on his life was to be closely linked with Europe. He returned to America six years later and made a trip of 1,600 miles to inspect postal affairs, but in 1764 he was again sent to England to renew the petition for a royal government for Pennsylvania, which had not yet been granted. In 1765, that petition was made obsolete by the Stamp Act, and Franklin became the representative of the American colonies against King George III and Parliament.

Benjamin Franklin did his best to avert the conflict that would become the American Revolution. He made many friends in England, wrote pamphlets and articles, told comical stories and fables where they might do some good, and constantly strove to enlighten the ruling class of England upon conditions and sentiment in the colonies. His appearance before the House of Commons in February 1766 hastened the repeal of the Stamp Act . Benjamin Franklin remained in England for nine more years, but his efforts to reconcile the conflicting claims of Parliament and the colonies were of no avail. He sailed for home in early 1775.

During Franklin's 18-month stay in America, he sat in the Continental Congress and was a member of the most important committees; submitted a plan for a union of the colonies; served as postmaster general and as chairman of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety; visited George Washington at Cambridge; went to Montreal to do what he could for the cause of independence in Canada; presided over the convention that framed a constitution for Pennsylvania; and was a member of the committee appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence and of the committee sent on the futile mission to New York to discuss terms of peace with Lord Howe.

Treaty With France

In September 1776, the 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin was appointed envoy to France and sailed soon afterward. The French ministers were not at first willing to make a treaty of alliance, but under Franklin's influence they lent money to the struggling colonies. Congress sought to finance the war with paper currency and by borrowing rather than by taxation. The legislators sent bill after bill to Franklin, who continually appealed to the French government. He fitted out privateers and negotiated with the British concerning prisoners. At length, he won from France recognition of the United States and then the Treaty of Alliance .

The U.S. Constitution

Congress permitted Franklin to return home in 1785, and when he arrived he was pushed to keep working. He was elected president of the Council of Pennsylvania and was twice reelected despite his protests. He was sent to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, which resulted in the creation of the Constitution of the United States . He seldom spoke at the event but was always to the point when he did, and all of his suggestions for the Constitution were followed.

America's most famous citizen lived until near the end of the first year of President George Washington's administration. On April 17, 1790, Benjamin Franklin died at his home in Philadelphia at age 84.

• Clark, Ronald W. "Benjamin Franklin: A Biography." New York: Random House, 1983.
• Fleming, Thomas (ed.). "Benjamin Franklin: A Biography in His Own Words." New York: Harper and Row, 1972.
• Franklin, Benjamin. "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909.
• Isaacson, Walter. "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life." New York, Simon and Schuster, 2003.
• Lepore, Jill. "Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin." Boston: Vintage Books, 2013. 
• American History Timeline: 1726 to 1750
• History of the United States Postal Service
• The Pennsylvania Colony: A Quaker Experiment in America
• American History Timeline - 1701 - 1725
• Thomas Paine, Political Activist and Voice of the American Revolution
• Inventions and Scientific Achievements of Benjamin Franklin
• Continental Congress: History, Significance, and Purpose
• Brief History of the Declaration of Independence
• Committees of Correspondence: Definition and History
• The Albany Plan of Union
• Major Events That Led to the American Revolution
• Benjamin Franklin Printables
• Samuel Morse and the Invention of the Telegraph
• Biography of Benjamin Banneker, Author and Naturalist
• American Revolution: General Sir Henry Clinton
• American Revolution: Boston Tea Party

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9 Books About Benjamin Franklin, “The First American”

Read up on the man who defined the American ethos.

• Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Diplomat. Scientist. Writer. Philosopher. Founding Father of the United States. The man who flew a kite and a key in a storm and discovered electricity. Benjamin Franklin’s fascinating and eventful life makes for enthralling reading, especially in our own politically turbulent, rapidly changing times. It’s understandable that readers would seek out material on a figure who served as a force of change in his own times. But where does one start? 

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There is an abundance of biographies available on Franklin and the accomplishments and controversies that made up his 84 years. Below are nine remarkable and highly recommended biographies written by trustworthy historians. With unique styles and approaches to 18th-century American politics and scientific advancements, each author can sign their name to their work as proudly as Franklin signed his to the 1776 Declaration of Independence. 

The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1

By J.A. Leo Lemay

The sheer size of the volumes from Lemay’s series may seem daunting at first, but if you're seeking out a richly detailed and thorough biography, this is the one for you. The three volumes divide Benjamin Franklin’s life into the following time categories: 1706-1730, 1730-1747, and 1748-1757. Each volume specifically focuses on a role Franklin played in his lifetime, with the first being his work as a journalist, the second being his life as a printer and publisher of monumental works, and the third being his triple-act as a solider, scientist, and politician (the job titles he is most famous for). It's up to you to decide which of Franklin’s illustrious careers you would like to commit your attention to. 

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Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

By Walter Isaacson

This lengthy biography was produced by a professor of history and seasoned biographer of other innovators, including Leonardo da Vinci , Albert Einstein , and Steve Jobs. Isaacson’s approach to Franklin’s life is that of a biographer who appreciates and admires geniuses. 

This biography explores the broader spectrum of Franklin’s scientific and governmental achievements, from his discovery of electricity to his establishment of local lending libraries to his project of redesigning kitchen stoves so they wouldn’t smoke so much. Isaacson presents Franklin as a full enterprising spirit and human being, just as he does with his other subjects. 

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Young Benjamin Franklin: The Birth of Ingenuity

By Nick Bunker

This biography is an ideal choice for readers and researchers who are looking for the psychological elements that shaped Franklin into a Founding Father. It was written by a Pulitzer Prize finalist who tackles his subject matter with intensity and insight. 

This biography, as the title suggests, focuses primarily on young Franklin’s struggles to navigate through the brutal worlds of imperialist England and colonial-age America, which was not so much an idealistic promised land as raw material to be molded and reshaped by strong-willed individuals with big ideas. The book ends when Franklin is age 41 and is in the process of discovering electricity.

Benjamin Franklin in London

By George Goodwin

From 1724-1726 Franklin was a printer’s apprentice in London, and from 1757-1775 he called Britain’s capital his home yet again. It was in London during this second stretch where he would defend American interests and socialize with some of the era’s great minds, such as Enlightenment philosopher David Hume and physician and inventor Erasmus Darwin. This biography explores Franklin’s inner tug-of-war and how he teetered between his identity as an Anglophile and his role as an American representative. Goodwin’s work is an interesting journey through Franklin’s divided locations and principles. 

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The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin

By H.W. Brands

This biography was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, written by a well-respected professor of history. Its wealth of source material includes Franklin’s letters and correspondence, some of which has never been published before. Like Lemay’s work, this book is profound and accurate, leading readers by the hand through Franklin’s journey from obscurity to notoriety. Unlike some of the others included on this list, the book doesn’t focus on one particular aspect of Franklin’s life, but on his status as a Renaissance man of his time, who thrived in science, publishing, travel, the military, and politics alike. 

By Thomas Fleming

Thomas Fleming presents Franklin as a man of courage and innovation during a time when society was undergoing a dramatic transition into modernity and industrialization. This book particularly finds its grounding in Franklin’s political and scientific breakthroughs, such as his discovery of electricity and his part in America’s road to independence. As an ambassador he was also essential in the process of maintaining shaky relationships with the British Empire and the rest of Europe during these tempestuous times. This book is about a man brave enough to face the wrath of kings and diplomats as well as the wrath of the natural world. 

Related: 9 Fascinating Books About the Founding Fathers of America

A Little Revenge: Benjamin Franklin and His Son

By Willard Sterne Randall

What is a historical figure’s life without a bit of family drama? In the spirit of American freedom and a break from age-old traditions, Franklin entered into a common-law marriage with a woman named Deborah Read and also conducted love affairs on the side. One of these affairs produced his illegitimate son William Franklin, whose animosity with his father is the center of this account. 

Though Franklin had hoped, and almost expected, that William would follow in his footsteps and fight for American independence, William stayed rigidly loyal to the British crown, leading to imprisonment, exile, and a soured, never-resolved relationship between father and son. This book is a good choice for readers interested in the more scandalous side of Franklin’s personal life. 

Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father

By Thomas S. Kidd

With Franklin’s public and historic image being that of a man of science, his religious faith, or lack thereof, is an aspect of his life that is often overlooked. This account tackles the subject head-on. Relying on Franklin’s letters, essays, and other personal writings, the book explores Franklin’s relationships with devout family members and acquaintances whose influence partially bound him to his strict Puritan upbringing, even as he was embracing Revolutionary ideas and upheavals. 

Throughout his life, Franklin’s faith swayed, and he tended to lean towards skepticism and deism, meaning that he believed it was humans, not God, who influenced and manipulated events on Earth. It was this philosophy that likely allowed him the brashness to fly a kite in a storm. 

Related: 6 Historical Political Cartoons That Capture the Hopes and Fears of the Past

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

By Benjamin Franklin

And finally, here is a version of events “straight from the horse’s mouth,” as the English idiom goes. Written during the author-politician’s retirement years, between 1771 and 1790 (the year of his death), this is a first-person retelling of a most extraordinary life. Franklin leads his readers from his sheltered upbringing in Boston to his ardent participation in the American Revolution. Franklin uses his autobiography as a platform for penning his own wisdom and advice for leading a productive and virtuous life, as he abhorred idleness and complacency above anything else. Though the shortest book on the list, it nevertheless has had the longest and largest impact on American history. 

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Benjamin Franklin’s Inventions

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:

"That as we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of others, we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."

Here are some of Benjamin Franklin’s most significant inventions:

Lightning rod.

Franklin is known for his experiments with electricity - most notably the kite experiment  -  a fascination that began in earnest after he accidentally shocked himself in 1746. By 1749, he had turned his attention to the possibility of protecting buildings—and the people inside—from lightning strikes. Having noticed that a sharp iron needle conducted electricity away from a charged metal sphere, he theorized that such a design could be useful:

"May not the knowledge of this power of points be of use to mankind, in preserving houses, churches, ships, etc., from the stroke of lightning, by directing us to fix, on the highest parts of those edifices, upright rods of iron made sharp as a needle...Would not these pointed rods probably draw the electrical fire silently out of a cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible mischief!"

Franklin’s pointed lightning rod design proved effective and soon topped buildings throughout the Colonies. Learn more about the lightning rod .

Like most of us, Franklin found that his eyesight was getting worse as he got older, and he grew both near-sighted and far-sighted. Tired of switching between two pairs of eyeglasses, he invented “double spectacles,” or what we now call bifocals. He had the lenses from his two pairs of glasses - one for reading and one for distance - sliced in half horizontally and then remade into a single pair, with the lens for distance at the top and the one for reading at the bottom.

An avid swimmer, Franklin was just 11 years old when he invented swimming fins—two oval pieces of wood that, when grasped in the hands, provided extra thrust through the water. He also tried out fins for his feet, but they weren’t as effective. He wrote about his childhood invention in an essay titled “On the Art of Swimming”:

“When I was a boy, I made two oval [palettes] each about 10 inches long and six broad, with a hole for the thumb in order to retain it fast in the palm of my hand. They much resembled a painter’s [palettes]. In swimming, I pushed the edges of these forward and I struck the water with their flat surfaces as I drew them back. I remember I swam faster by means of these [palettes], but they fatigued my wrists.”

Franklin Stove

The Franklin Stove.

In 1742, Franklin—perhaps fed up with the cold Pennsylvania winters—invented a better way to heat rooms. The Franklin stove, as it came to be called, was a metal-lined fireplace designed to stand a few inches away from the chimney. A hollow baffle at the rear let the heat from the fire mix with the air more quickly, and an inverted siphon helped to extract more heat. His invention also produced less smoke than a traditional fireplace, making it that much more desirable.

Urinary Catheter

Franklin was inspired to invent a better catheter in 1752 when he saw what his kidney (or bladder) stone-stricken brother had to go through. Catheters at the time were simply rigid metal tubes—none too pleasant. So Franklin devised a better solution: a flexible catheter made of hinged segments of tubes. He had a silversmith make his design and he promptly mailed it off to his brother with instructions and best wishes.

"Of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction."

So wrote Franklin about the musical instrument he designed in 1761. Inspired by English musicians who created sounds by passing their fingers around the brims of glasses filled with water, Franklin worked with a glassblower to re-create the music (“incomparably sweet beyond those of any other”) in a less cumbersome way.

The armonica (the name is derived from the Italian for “harmony”) was immediately popular, but by the 1820s it had been nearly forgotten. Get the full story here .

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Everything you've ever wanted to know about the American Revolution

Benjamin Franklin Biography & Facts

About the author.

Edward A. St. Germain created AmericanRevolution.org in 1996. He was an avid historian with a keen interest in the Revolutionary War and American culture and society in the 18th century. On this website, he created and collated a huge collection of articles, images, and other media pertaining to the American Revolution. Edward was also a Vietnam veteran, and his investigative skills led to a career as a private detective in later life.

Quick facts

• Born: 17 January 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Though associated with Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin was born and raised in Boston. He did not arrive in Philadelphia until he was 17 (6-Oct-1723).
• In addition, Franklin also spent some 28 years abroad, in England and France, at various times throughout his life.
• Deborah Read, his future wife, saw him on the first day he arrived in Philadelphia with a roll of bread “under each Arm, and the eating of the other [third one].” They did not marry until 7 years later (1-Sep-1730).
• Poor Richard’s Almanack, published each year from 1732 to 1757, made Franklin a very wealthy man. He himself estimated (in his Autobiography ) that it sold “annually near ten Thousand” copies.
• Besides his printing business, Franklin was also postmaster of Pennsylvania beginning in 1737. In 1753, he became one of two deputy postmasters of North America, a post he held for 20 years.
• By retiring from the printing business in 1748 (in a lucrative arrangement with his foreman), Franklin had the leisure time to study, experiment, and invent. His subsequent work and publications on electricity made him the most famous man in the North American colonies and a celebrity in Europe.
• Franklin was always a “civic organizer” — initiating street paving, lamp lighting, firefighting, book-lending, and more — and was involved in elective politics from 1751 onward. So his involvement in the American Revolution was natural, but not inevitable. But for events, he may have chosen to stay in England, which is where he was from 1764 to 1775.
• Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1775, was elected to the Second Continental Congress , made small corrections to The Declaration of Independence, signed it, and in December 1776 was sent to France as U.S. Commissioner to plead the American cause. He stayed there throughout the war, extracting much-needed money and supplies from the French, despite little American success on the battlefield.
• Franklin owned two slaves, George and King, who worked as his personal servants.
• Died: 17 April 1790 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Buried at Christ Church Burial Ground, Philadelphia.

Introduction

Benjamin Franklin, American diplomat, statesman, and scientist, was born in a house on Milk Street — opposite the Old South Church — in Boston, Massachusetts in 1706. He was the tenth son of Josiah Franklin, and the eighth child and youngest son of ten children borne by Abiah Folger, his father’s second wife. Born at Ecton in Northamptonshire, England, the elder Franklin’s strongly Protestant family can be traced back nearly four centuries. He had married young and migrated from Banbury to Boston in 1685.

The autodidact

Benjamin Franklin could not remember when he did not know how to read. At eight years old he was sent to Boston Grammar School, destined by his father for the church as a “tithe” of his sons. But it was not to be. He spent a year there and then a year in a school for writing and arithmetic. When he was ten, he was removed from school to assist his father in his business of  tallow chandler  (candle maker) and soap boiler. In his 13th year he was apprenticed to his half-brother James, who was establishing himself in the printing business, and who, in 1721. started one of the earliest newspapers in America, the  New England Courant.

Franklin’s tastes had at first been for the sea rather than the pulpit; now they inclined to intellectual pleasures. At an early age he had made himself familiar with  The Pilgrim’s Progress,  with John Locke’s,  An Essay Concerning Human Understanding , and with  The Spectator.  Thanks to his father’s excellent advice, he gave up writing doggerel verse (much of which had been printed by his brother and sold on the streets) and turned to prose composition. His success in reproducing articles he had read in  The Spectator  led him to write an article for his brother’s paper, which he slipped under the door of the printing shop with no name attached. It was printed and attracted some attention. After repeated successes of the same sort, Franklin threw off his disguise and contributed regularly to the  Courant.

The journalist

When, after various journalistic indiscretions, James Franklin in 1722 was forbidden to publish the  Courant,  Benjamin Franklin’s name appeared as publisher instead — and received with much favor — chiefly because of the cleverness of his articles signed  Dr Janus.  But Franklin’s management of the paper and his free-thinking displeased the authorities. In addition, the relationship between the two brothers also soured — possibly, as Franklin himself thought, because of his brother’s jealousy of his superior ability.

So Franklin quit his brother’s employ. He first made his way to New York City, then on 6 October 1723 he arrived in Philadelphia and soon found a job with a printer named Samuel Keimer. A rapid composer of type and a workman of resource, Franklin was soon recognized as the master-spirit of the shop.

Recognizing his talent, the governor of Pennsylvania, Sir William Keith (1680—1749), urged Franklin to start his own business. When Franklin unsuccessfully appealed to his father for the means to do so, Keith promised to furnish him with what he needed for the equipment of a new printing office and sent him to England to buy the materials. Keith had repeatedly promised to send a letter of credit by the ship on which Franklin sailed, but on arrival in England, no such letter was found.

Franklin reached London in December 1724 and found employment first at Palmer’s, a famous printing house in Bartholomew Close, and afterwards at Watts’s Printing House. At Palmer’s he had set up a second edition of William Wollaston’s  Religion of Nature Delineated.  But to refute this book and to prove that there could be no such thing as religion, he wrote and printed a small pamphlet, A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain  — which brought him some curious acquaintances, and of which he soon became thoroughly ashamed.

After a year and a half in London, Franklin was persuaded by a friend, a Quaker merchant named Denham, to return with him to America and engage in mercantile business. He gave up his printing work and returned to North America. (Franklin had so many skills, his feats as a swimmer being one of them. A few days before sailing he received a tempting offer to remain and give lessons in swimming —and he might have consented  had the overtures been sooner made. )

He reached Philadelphia in October 1726.

However, a few months later, Denham died, and Franklin was induced by large wages to return to his old employer Keimer. But they quarrelled repeatedly and Franklin thought of himself as ill-used and kept only to train apprentices until they could in some degree take his place.

In 1728 Franklin and Hugh Meredith, a fellow-worker at Keimer’s, set up in business for themselves (with capital furnished by Meredith’s father). In 1730 the partnership was dissolved, and Franklin, through the financial assistance of two friends, secured the sole management of the printing house.

In September 1729, he bought, at a merely nominal price,  The Pennsylvania Gazette,  a weekly newspaper which Keimer had started nine months before (to defeat a similar project of Franklin’s) — and which Franklin oversaw until 1765. Franklin’s superior management of the paper, his new type,  some spirited remarks  on the controversy between the Massachusetts Assembly and Governor Burnet, brought his paper into immediate notice, and his success both as a printer and as a journalist was assured and complete.

The community organizer

In 1731 Franklin established in Philadelphia one of the earliest circulating libraries in America. In 1732 he published the first of his Almanacks under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders. These “Poor Richard’s Almanacks” were issued for the next 25 years with remarkable success — with annual sales averaging 10,000 copies — far exceeding the sale of any other publication in the colonies, and making Franklin a rich man. Beginning in 1733 Franklin taught himself enough French, Italian, Spanish and Latin to read these languages with some ease. In 1736, he was chosen clerk of the General Assembly — and served in that capacity until 1751.

In 1737 he was appointed postmaster at Philadelphia, and about the same time he organized the first police force and fire company in the colonies. In 1749, after he had written  Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania,  he and twenty-three other citizens of Philadelphia formed themselves into an association for the purpose of establishing an academy — opened in 1751, chartered in 1753 — which eventually became the University of Pennsylvania. In 1727 he organized a debating club, the “Junto,” in Philadelphia, and later he was one of the founders of the American Philosophical Society (1743). He took the lead in the organization of a militia force, the paving of the city streets, improved the method of street lighting, and assisted in the founding of a city hospital (1751). In brief, he initiated nearly every measure or project for the welfare and prosperity of Philadelphia undertaken in his day.

The politician and diplomat

In 1751, Franklin became a member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, in which he served for 13 years. In 1753 he and William Hunter were put in charge of the postal service of the colonies. He visited nearly every post office in the colonies and increased the mail service between New York and Philadelphia from once to three times a week in summer, and from twice a month to once a week in winter. By the time he left in 1774, not only had the postal service been brought to a high state of efficiency, but it was also a financial success for Franklin.

When war with France appeared imminent in 1754, Franklin was sent to the Albany Convention, where he submitted his plan for colonial union. When the home government sent over General Edward Braddock with two regiments of British troops, Franklin undertook to secure the requisite number of horses and wagons for the march against Fort Duquesne; he became personally responsible for payment to the Pennsylvanians who furnished them.

Notwithstanding the alarm occasioned by Braddock’s defeat, the old quarrel between the proprietors of Pennsylvania and the Assembly prevented any adequate preparations for defense;  with incredible meanness  the proprietors had instructed their governors to approve no act for levying the necessary taxes, unless the vast estates of the proprietors were by the same act exempted. So great was the confidence in Franklin in this emergency, that early in 1756 the governor of Pennsylvania placed him in charge of the northwestern frontier of the province, with power to raise troops, issue commissions and erect blockhouses. Franklin remained in the wilderness for over a month, superintending the building of forts and watching the Native Americans .

First diplomatic mission to England

In February 1757 the Assembly,  finding the proprietary obstinately persisted in manacling their deputies with instructions inconsistent not only with the privileges of the people, but with the service of the crown, resolv’d to petition the king against them,  and appointed Franklin as their agent to present the petition. He arrived in London on 27 July 1757, and shortly afterwards, when, at a conference with Earl Granville, president of the council, the latter declared that  the King is the legislator of the colonies.  Franklin in reply declared that the laws of the colonies were to be made by their assemblies, to be passed upon by the king, and when once approved were no longer subject to repeal or amendment by the crown. As the assemblies could not make permanent laws without the king’s consent,  neither could he make a law for them without theirs,  he said.

These opposite views distinctly raised the issue between the home government and the colonies. As to the proprietors, Franklin succeeded in 1760 in securing an understanding that the Assembly should pass an act exempting from taxation the un-surveyed waste lands of the Penn estate, the surveyed waste lands being assessed at the usual rate for other property of that description. Thus the proprietors finally acknowledged the right of the assembly to tax their estates.

The success of Franklin’s first foreign mission was substantial. During this sojourn of five years in England he had made many valuable friends outside of court and political circles, including David Hume and Adam Smith. In 1759, for his literary and more particularly his scientific attainments, he received the  Freedom of the City  of Edinburgh and the degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of St Andrews. (He had already received a Master of Arts at Harvard and at Yale in 1753, and at the College of William and Mary in 1756. And in 1762 he received the degree of Doctor of Civil Law at Oxford University.)

Franklin sailed for America in August 1762, hoping to be able to settle down quietly and devote the remainder of his life to experiments in physics. This quiet was interrupted, however, by the  Paxton Massacre  (14-Dec-1763) — the slaughter of 20 Indian children, women and old men at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by some young rowdies from the town of Paxton, who then marched to Philadelphia to kill a few Christian Indians there. Franklin appealed to by the governor and raised a troop sufficient to frighten away the  Paxton boys.  For the moment there seemed a possibility of an understanding between Franklin and the Pennsylvania proprietors.

Second diplomatic mission to England

But the question of taxing the estates of the proprietors came up in a new form, and a petition from the Assembly was drawn by Franklin, requesting the king  to resume the government  of Pennsylvania. In the autumn election of 1764, the influence of the proprietors was exerted against Franklin, and by an adverse majority of 25 votes (out of 4,000) he failed to be re-elected to the Assembly. So the new Assembly sent Franklin again to England as its special agent to take charge of another petition for a change of government — which came to nothing.

But matters of much greater consequence soon demanded Franklin’s attention.

Early in 1764 Lord Grenville had informed the London agents of the American colonies that he proposed to lay a portion of the burden left by the war with France upon the shoulders of the colonists by means of a stamp duty, unless some other tax equally productive and less inconvenient were proposed. The natural objection of the colonies, as voiced for example by the Pennsylvania Assembly, was that it was a cruel thing to tax colonies already taxed beyond their strength, surrounded by enemies and exposed to constant expenditures for defense, and that it was an indignity that they should be taxed by a Parliament in which they were not represented. At the same time the Assembly recognized it as  their duty to grant aid to the crown, according to their abilities, whenever required of them in the usual manner.

To prevent the introduction of the Stamp Act, which he characterized as  the mother of mischief,  Franklin used every effort, but the bill was easily passed. It was thought that the colonists would soon be reconciled to it. Because he, too, thought so, and because he recommended John Hughes, a merchant of Philadelphia, for the office of distributor of stamps, Franklin himself was denounced — he was even accused of having planned the Stamp Act — and his family in Philadelphia was in danger of mob violence.

Franklin was questioned by Parliament as to the effects of the Stamp Act in February 1766. Edmund Burke said that the scene reminded him of a master examined by a parcel of schoolboys, and George Whitefield said:  Dr Franklin has gained immortal honor by his behavior at the bar of the House. His answer was always found equal to the questioner. He stood unappalled, gave pleasure to his friends and did honor to his country.  Franklin compared the position of the colonies to that of Scotland in the days before the union, and in the same year (1766) audaciously urged a similar union with the colonies before it was too late. The knowledge of colonial affairs gained from Franklin’s testimony, probably more than all other causes combined, determined the immediate repeal of the Stamp Act. For Franklin this was a great triumph, and the news of it filled the colonists with delight and restored him to their confidence and affection.

However, another bill — the Declaratory Act — was almost immediately passed by the King’s party, asserting absolute supremacy of parliament over the colonies. In the succeeding Parliament, the Townshend Acts of 1767 imposed duties on paper, paints, and glass imported by the colonists; in addition, a tax was imposed on tea. The imposition of these taxes was bitterly resented in the colonies, where it quickly crystallized public opinion round the principle of  No taxation without representation.  Despite the opposition in the colonies to the Declaratory Act, the Townshend Acts and the tea tax, Franklin continued to assure the British ministry and the British public of the loyalty of the colonists. He tried to find some middle ground of reconciliation, and kept up his quiet work of informing England as to the opinions and conditions of the colonies, and of moderating the attitude of the colonies toward the home government. He was accused in America of being too much an Englishman, and in England of being too much an American.

He was agent now, not only of Pennsylvania, but also of New Jersey, Georgia, and Massachusetts as well. The Earl of Hillsborough, who became Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1768, refused to recognize Franklin as agent of Massachusetts, because the governor of Massachusetts had not approved the appointment, which was by resolution of the Assembly. Franklin contended that the governor, as a mere agent of the king, could have nothing to do with the assembly’s appointment of its agent to the King; that  the King, and not the King, Lords, and Commons collectively, is their sovereign; and that the King, with  their  respective Parliaments, is their only legislator.  Franklin’s influence helped to oust Hillsborough. Lord Dartmouth, whose name Franklin suggested, was made secretary in 1772 — and he promptly recognized Franklin as the agent of Massachusetts.

In 1773 there appeared in the  Public Advertiser  one of Franklin’s cleverest hoaxes,  An Edict of the King of Prussia,  proclaiming that the island of Britain was a colony of Prussia, having been settled by Angles and Saxons, having been protected by Prussia, having been defended by Prussia against France in the war just past, and never having been definitely freed from Prussia’s rule; and that, therefore, Great Britain should now submit to certain taxes laid by Prussia — the taxes being identical with those laid upon the American colonies by Great Britain.

In the same year occurred the famous episode of the Hutchinson Letters. These were written by Thomas Hutchinson , Governor of Massachusetts, Andrew Oliver (1706-1774), his lieutenant-governor, and others to William Whately, a member of Parliament and private secretary to Prime Minister George Grenville, suggesting an increase of the power of the governor at the expense of the Assembly,  an abridgement of what are called English liberties,  and other measures more extreme than those undertaken by the government. The correspondence was shown to Franklin by a mysterious  member of parliament  to back up the contention that the quartering of troops in Boston was suggested, not by the British ministry, but by Americans and Bostonians. Upon his promise not to publish the letters Franklin received permission to send them to Massachusetts, where they were much passed about and were printed, and they were soon republished in English newspapers.

Upon receiving the letters, the Massachusetts Assembly resolved to petition the crown for the removal of both Hutchinson and Oliver. The petition was refused and was condemned as scandalous, and Franklin, who took upon himself the responsibility for the publication of the letters, in the hearing before the privy council at the Cockpit on 29 January 1774, was insulted and was called a thief by Alexander Wedderburn (the solicitor-general, who appeared for Hutchinson and Oliver), and was removed from his position as head of the post office in the American colonies.

Convinced that his usefulness in England was at an end, Franklin entrusted his agencies to the care of  Arthur Lee . On the 21 March 1775 he set sail for Philadelphia.

During the last years of his stay in England there had been repeated attempts to win him to the British service, and in these same years he had done great work for the colonies by gaining friends for them among the opposition, and by impressing France with his ability and the excellence of his case.

Member of the Continental Congress

Upon reaching America, he heard of the fighting at Lexington and Concord, and with the news of an actual outbreak of hostilities his feeling toward England seems to have changed completely. He was no longer a peacemaker, but an ardent warmaker. On 6 May, the day after his arrival in Philadelphia, he was elected by the Pennsylvania Assembly a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. In October he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly — but since members of that body were still required to take an oath of allegiance to the crown, he refused to serve. In Congress he served on as many as ten committees, and upon the organization of a continental postal system, he was made Postmaster General, a position he held for one year. (In 1776 he was succeeded by his son-in-law, Richard Bache, who had been his deputy.)

Along with Benjamin Harrison,  John Dickinson , Thomas Johnson, and  John Jay  he was appointed in November 1775 to a committee to carry on a secret correspondence with the friends of America  in Great Britain, Ireland and other parts of the world.  He planned an appeal to King Louis XVI of France for aid, and wrote the instructions of  Silas Deane  who was to convey it. In April 1776 he went to Montreal with  Charles Carroll , Samuel Chase, and John Carroll, as a member of the commission which conferred with General  Benedict Arnold , and attempted — without success — to gain the cooperation of Canada.

Immediately after his return from Montreal he was a member of the  Committee of Five  appointed to draw up the Declaration of Independence, but he took no actual part himself in drafting that instrument, aside from suggesting the change or insertion of a few words in Jefferson’s draft. From 16 July 28 September he acted as president of the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania.

Along with  John Adams  and Edward Rutledge, Franklin was selected by Congress to discuss the terms of peace proposed by Admiral  Richard Howe  (Sep-1776 at Staten Island) , who had arrived in New York harbor in July — and who had been an intimate friend of Franklin. But their discussion was fruitless, as the American commissioners refused to retreat  back of this step of independency.

Commissioner to France

On 26 September in the same year, Franklin was chosen as Commissioner to France to join Arthur Lee, who was in London, and Silas Deane (who had arrived in France in June 1776). He collected all the money he could command, between £3000 and £4000, lent it to Congress before he set sail, and arrived at Paris on the 22 December. He found quarters at Passy, then a suburb of Paris, in a house belonging to Le Ray de Chaumont, an active friend of the American cause who had influential relations with the Court, through whom he was enabled to be in the fullest communication with the French government without compromising it in the eyes of Great Britain.

At the time of Franklin’s arrival in Paris he was already famous for his experiments in electricity. He was a member of every important learned society in Europe; he was a member, and one of the managers, of the Royal Society; and was one of eight foreign members of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris. Three editions of his scientific works had already appeared in Paris, and a new edition had recently appeared in London. To all these advantages he added a political purpose — the dismemberment of the British empire — which was entirely congenial to every citizen of France.  Franklin’s reputation,  wrote John Adams with characteristic extravagance,

…was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick [the Great] or Voltaire; and his character more esteemed and beloved than all of them…. If a collection could be made of all the gazettes of Europe, for the latter half of the 18th century, a greater number of panegyrical paragraphs upon le grand Franklin  would appear, it is believed, than upon any other man that ever lived.

According to Friedrich Christoph Schlosser,

Franklin’s appearance in the French salons, even before he began to negotiate, was an event of great importance to the whole of Europe…. His dress, the simplicity of his external appearance, the friendly meekness of the old man, and the apparent humility of the Quaker, procured for Freedom a mass of votaries among the coon circles who used to be alarmed at its coarseness and unsophisticated truths. Such was the number of portraits, busts and medallions of him in circulation before he left Paris that he would have been recognized from them by any adult citizen in any part of the civilized world.

Franklin’s position in France was a difficult one from the start, because of the delicacy of the task of getting French aid at a time when France was unready to openly take sides against Great Britain. But on 6 February 1778, after the news of the defeat and surrender of Burgoyne had reached Europe, a Treaty of Alliance and a separate Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and the United States were signed at Paris by Franklin, Deane, and Lee.

Plenipotentiary to France

On 28 October the U.S. Commission was discharged and Franklin was appointed sole Plenipotentiary to the French Court. Lee, from the beginning of the mission to Paris, seems to have had a mania of jealousy toward Franklin, or of misunderstanding his acts, and he tried to undermine his influence with the Continental Congress. John Adams, when he succeeded Deane (recalled from Paris through Lee’s machinations) joined in the chorus of fault-finding against Franklin. He dilated upon his social habits, his personal slothfulness, and his complete lack of a business-like system. But Adams soon came to see that — although careless of details — Franklin was doing what no other man could have done, and he ceased his harsher criticism.

Even greater than his diplomatic difficulties were Franklin’s financial straits. Drafts were being drawn on him by all the American agents in Europe and by the Continental Congress at home. Acting as American naval agent for the many successful privateers who harried the English Channel, and for whom he skillfully got every bit of assistance possible from the French government, open and covert, he was continually called upon for funds in these ventures.

Of the vessels to be sent to Paris with American cargoes which were to be sold for the liquidation of French loans to the colonies made through  Pierre Beaumarchais , few arrived. Those that did come did not cover Beaumarchais’ advances, and hardly a vessel came from America without word of fresh drafts on Franklin. After bold and repeated overtures for an exchange of prisoners — an important matter, both because the American frigates had no place in which to stow away their prisoners, and because of the maltreatment of American captives in such prisons as Dartmoor — exchanges began at the end of March 1779, although there were annoying delays, and immediately after November 1781 there was a long break in the agreement; and the Americans discharged from English prisons were constantly in need of money.

In addition, Franklin was constantly called upon to meet the indebtedness of Lee and  Ralph Izard  and John Jay (who was in Madrid at the request of the American Congress). In spite of the poor credit of the struggling colonies, and of the fact that France was almost bankrupt — and in the later years was at war — and although Necker strenuously resisted the making of any loans to the colonies, France, largely because of Franklin’s appeals, expended, by loan or gift to the colonies, or in sustenance of French arms in America, a sum estimated at 60 million dollars.

Peace treaty with Great Britain

In 1781 Franklin, along with John Adams, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, and  Henry Laurens  (then a prisoner in England) was appointed to a commission to make peace with Great Britain. In the spring of 1782 Franklin had been informally negotiating with Lord Shelburne, Secretary of State for the Home Department — through the medium of Richard Oswald, a Scotch merchant — and had suggested that England should cede Canada to the United States in return for the recognition of loyalist claims by the states. When the formal negotiations began Franklin held closely to the instructions of Congress to its commissioners, that they should maintain confidential relations with the French ministers and that they were  to undertake nothing in the negotiations for peace or truce without their knowledge and concurrence,  and were ultimately to be governed by  their advice and opinion.  Jay and Adams disagreed with him on this point, believing that France intended to curtail the territorial aspirations of the Americans for her own benefit and for that of her ally, Spain.

When at last the British government authorized its agents to treat with the commissioners as representatives of an independent power (thus recognizing American independence before the treaty was made), Franklin acquiesced to the policy of Jay. The preliminary treaty was signed by the commissioners on the 30 November 1782; it recognized American independence and granted it significant western territory. The final Treaty of Paris was signed in Paris on 3 September 1783.

By now Franklin had been in Paris for eight years. He repeatedly petitioned Congress for his recall, but his letters were unanswered, or his appeals refused — until 7 March 1785. Three days later, Jefferson, who had joined Franklin in August the year before, was appointed to his place. Asked if he had replaced Franklin, Jefferson replied,  No one can replace him, sir; I am only his successor.

Final years

Franklin at last arrived in Philadelphia on 13 September, disembarking on the same wharf as when he had first entered the city.

He was immediately elected a member of the Municipal Council of Philadelphia, becoming its chairman; and he was chosen president of the Supreme Executive Council (the chief executive officer) of Pennsylvania. He was re-elected the following two years, serving from October 1785 to October 1788.

In May 1787 he became a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia (25-May —17-Sep). After a long, hot summer of disagreement and compromise in the Philadelphia State House, with more politicking after-hours, he used his influence to help secure the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.

As president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, Franklin signed a petition to Congress (12-Feb-1790) for the immediate abolition of slavery. Six weeks later in his most brilliant manner, he parodied the attack on the petition made by James Jackson (1757—1806) of Georgia, taking Jackson’s quotations of Scripture with pretended texts from the Koran cited by a member of the Divan of Algiers in opposition to a petition asking for the prohibition of holding Christians in slavery. These were his last public acts.

Franklin’s last days were marked by a fine serenity and calm. He died in his house in Philadelphia in 1790, age 84, the immediate cause being an abscess in the lungs. He was buried with his wife in the cemetery at Christ Church.

Personal life

Physically Franklin was large, about 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a well-rounded, powerful figure. He inherited an excellent constitution from his parents ( I never knew either my father or mother to have any sickness but that of which they dy’d, he at 89, and she at 85 years of age ) — but injured it somewhat by excesses. In early life he had severe attacks of pleurisy, from one of which, in 1727, he was not expected to recover; in later years he was the victim of stone and gout. When he was 16 he became a vegetarian for a time — to save money for books — and he always preached moderation in eating — though he was less consistent particular practice than as regards moderate drinking. He was fond of swimming and was a great believer in fresh air, taking a cold air bath regularly in the morning, when he sat naked in his bedroom beguiling himself with a book or with writing for half-an-hour or more. He insisted that fresh, cold air was not the cause of colds, and preached zealously the  gospel of ventilation.  He was a charming talker, who used humor and a quiet sarcasm, along with a telling use of anecdote for argument.

In 1730 he married Deborah Read, in whose father’s house he had lived when he had first come to Philadelphia, to whom he had been engaged before his first departure from Philadelphia for London, and who in his absence had married John Rogers, a notorious debtor who soon fled to Barbados to avoid possible incarceration. The marriage with Franklin is presumed to have been a common-law marriage, for there is no proof that Read’s former husband was dead, nor that, as was suspected, a former wife was still alive when Rogers married Read, thus making the marriage void. His  Debby,  or his  dear child,  as Franklin usually addressed Read in his letters, received into the family — soon after her marriage — Franklin’s illegitimate son, William Franklin (1729—1813), with whom she afterwards quarreled. (Many speculate that William’s mother was Barbara, a servant in the Franklin household.)

Deborah, who was  as much dispos’d to industry and frugality as  her husband, was illiterate and shared none of her husband’s tastes for literature and science. Her dread of an ocean voyage kept her in Philadelphia during Franklin’s two missions to England, and she died in 1774, while Franklin was in London. She bore him two children, one a son, Francis Folger,  whom I have seldom since seen equal’d in everything, and whom to this day [thirty-six years after the child’s death] I cannot think of without a sigh,  who died when four years old of small-pox (1736); the other was Sarah (1744—1808), who married Richard Bache (1737—1811), Franklin’s successor as postmaster-general.

Franklin’s gallant relations with women after his wife’s death were probably innocent enough. Best known of his French amie  were Mme Helvétius, widow of the philosopher, and the young Mme Brillon, who corrected her  Papa’s  French and tried to bring him safely into the Roman Catholic Church. With him in France were his grandsons, William Temple Franklin (William Franklin’s natural son), who acted as private secretary to his grandfather, and Benjamin Franklin Bache (1769-1798), Sarah’s son, whom he sent to Geneva to be educated, and who later became editor of the  Aurora,  one of the leading journals in the Republican attacks on Washington.

Franklin early rebelled against New England Puritanism and spent his Sundays in study and reading instead of attending church. His free-thinking ran its extreme course at the time of his publication in London of  A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain  (1725), which he recognized as one of the great errata of his life. He later called himself a deist or theist, not discriminating between the terms. To his favorite sister he wrote:  There are some things in your New England doctrine and worship which I do not agree with; but I do not therefore condemn them, or desire to shake your belief or practice of them.  Such was his general attitude.

He did not believe in the divinity of Jesus, but thought  his system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is like to see.  His intense practical-mindedness drew him away from religion, but drove him to a morality of his own — the  art of virtue,  he called it — based on thirteen virtues each accompanied by a short precept. (The virtues were Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity and Humility, the precept accompanying the last-named virtue being  Imitate Jesus and Socrates. )

He made a business-like little notebook, ruled off spaces for the thirteen virtues and the seven days of the week,  determined to give a week’s strict attention to each of the virtues successively … [going] thro’ a course compleate in thirteen weeks and four courses in a year,  marking for each day a record of his adherence to each of the precepts.  And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom,  he  thought it right and necessary to solicit His assistance for obtaining it,  and drew up the following prayer for daily use:

O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to Thy other children, as the only return in my power for Thy continual favours to me.

He was by no means prone to overmuch introspection, his great interest in the conduct of others being shown in the wise maxims of Poor Richard, which were possibly too utilitarian but were wonderfully successful in instructing American morals. His  Art of Virtue,  on which he worked for years, was never completed or published in any form.

Benjamin Franklin, Printer

Benjamin Franklin, Printer,  was Franklin’s own favorite description of himself. He was an excellent compositor and pressman; his workmanship, clear impressions, black ink and comparative freedom from errata did much to get him the public printing in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as the printing of the paper money and other public matters in Delaware. The first book with his imprint is  The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament and apply’d to the Christian State and Worship. By I. Watts …, Philadelphia: Printed by B. F. and H. M. for Thomas Godfrey, and Sold at his Shop, 1729.  The first novel printed in America was Franklin’s reprint in 1744 of Henry Fielding’s  Pamela ; the first American translation from the classics which was printed in America was a version by James Logan (1674—1751) of Cato’s  Moral Distichs  (1735). In 1744 he published another translation of Logan’s  On Old Age,  by Cicero, which Franklin thought typographically the finest book he had ever printed.

In 1733 he had established a press in Charleston, South Carolina, and soon after did the same in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; in New Haven, Connecticut; in New York; in Antigua; in Kingston, Jamaica, and in other places.

After 1748, Franklin had little connection with the Philadelphia printing — when David Hall became his partner and took charge of it. But in 1753 he was eagerly engaged in having several of his improvements incorporated in a new press, and more than twenty years after was actively interested in John Walter’s scheme of  logography.  In France he had a private press in his house in Passy, on which he printed what he called  bagatelles.  Franklin’s work as a publisher is for the most part closely connected with his work in issuing the,  Gazette  and, making him a rich man,  Poor Richard’s Almanack.

The autobiography and other writings

Bejamin Franklin’s  Autiobiography  ranks among the few great autobiographies ever written. In its simplicity, facility, and clearness, his style owed something to Daniel De Foe, something to Cotton Mather, something to Plutarch, more to Bunyan, as well as to his own early attempts to reproduce the manner of the third volume of the Spectator — and not the least to his own careful study of word usage.

From Xenophon’s  Memorabilia,  which he learned when a boy, Franklin learned the Socratic method of argument. He resembled Jonathan Swift in the occasional broadness of his humor, in his brilliantly successful use of sarcasm and irony, and in his mastery of the hoax. Balzac said of him that he  invented the lightning-rod, the hoax ( le canard ) and the republic.

Among his more famous hoaxes were the  Edict of the King of Prussia  (1773 — described above); the fictitious supplement to the Boston  Chronicle,  printed on his private press at Passy, France (1782), and containing a letter with an invoice of  eight packs of 954 cured, dried, hooped and painted scalps of rebels, men, women and children, taken by Indians in the British employ ; and another fictitious  Letter from the Count de Schaumberg to the Baron Hohendorf commanding the Hessian Troops in America  (1777) — the Count’s only anxiety is that not enough men will be killed to bring him in moneys he needs, and he urges his officer in command in America  to prolong the war … for I have made arrangements for a grand Italian opera, and I do not wish to be obliged to give it up.

Closely related to Franklin’s political pamphlets are his writings on economics, which, though undertaken with a political or practical purpose, rank him as the first American economist. He wrote  A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency  (1729), which argued that a plentiful currency will make rates of interest low and will promote immigration and home manufactures — which did much to secure the further issue of paper money in Pennsylvania.

After the British Act of 1750 forbidding the erection or the operating of iron or steel mills in the colonies, Franklin wrote  Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind and the Peopling of Countrie  (1751). Its thesis was that manufactures come to be common only with a high degree of social development and with great density of population, and that Great Britain need not, therefore, fear the industrial competition of the colonies. But it is better known for the estimate (adopted by Adam Smith) that the population of the colonies would double every quarter-century; and for the likeness to Malthus’s  preventive check  of its statement:  The greater the common fashionable expense of any rank of people the more cautious they are of marriage.  His  Positions to be examined concerning National Wealth  (1769) shows that he was greatly influenced by the French physiocrats after his visit to France in 1767. And  Wail of a Protected Manufacture,  voices a protest against protection as raising the cost of living; and he held that free trade was based on a natural right.

He knew Lord Kames, David Hume, Adam Smith, and corresponded with the comte de Mirabeau ( the friend of Man ). Some of Franklin’s more important economic theses are: that money as coin may have more than its bullion value; that natural interest is determined by the rent of land valued at the sum of money loaned; that high wages are not inconsistent with a large foreign trade; that the value of an article is determined by the amount of labor necessary to produce the food consumed in making the article; that manufactures are advantageous but agriculture only is truly productive; and, that when practicable, state revenue should be raised by direct tax.

The scientist and inventor

As a scientist and inventor, Franklin has been decried by experts as an amateur and a dabbler; but it should be remembered that it was always his hope to retire from public life and devote himself to science. Franklin wrote a paper on the causes of earthquakes for his  Gazette  (15-Dec-1737); and he eagerly collected material to uphold his theory that waterspouts and whirlwinds resulted from the same causes. In 1743, from the circumstance that an eclipse not visible in Philadelphia had been observed in Boston — because of a storm, where the storm, although north-easterly, did not occur until an hour after the eclipse — he surmised that storms move  against  the wind along the Atlantic coast.

In the year before (1742) he had planned the  Pennsylvania fire-place,  — better known as the  Franklin stove  — which saved fuel, heated the entire room, and had the same principle as the hot-air furnace. The stove was never patented by Franklin, but it was described in his pamphlet dated 1744. He was much engaged at the same time in remedying smoking chimneys, and as late as 1785 he wrote to Jan Ingenhousz — physician to the emperor of Austria — on chimneys and draughts. He also remedied smoking street lamps by a simple contrivance.

In 1746, Franklin took up the study of electricity when he first saw a Leyden jar, which he then improved by using granulated lead in the place of water for the interior armatures. He recognized that condensation is due to the dielectric and not to the metal coatings. A note in his diary (7-Nov-1749) shows that he then conjectured that thunder and lightning were electrical manifestations. In the same year, he planned the lightning-rod — long known as  Franklin’s rod  — which he described and recommended to the public in 1753, when the Copley medal of the Royal Society was awarded to him for his discoveries.

In 1752, Franklin performed the famous experiment with a kite that proved lightning was an electrical phenomenon. He overthrew entirely the  friction  theory of electricity and conceived the idea of plus and minus charges (1753), though he mistakenly thought that the was sea the source of electricity.

Franklin wrote to David Rittenhouse in June 1784 that the sum of his own conjectures was that Newton’s corpuscular theory light was wrong, and that light was due to the vibration of an elastic ether.

In navigation he suggested many new contrivances, such as water-tight compartments, floating anchors to lay a ship to in a storm, and dishes that would not upset during a gale. He studied with some care the temperature of the Gulf Stream; beginning in 1757 made repeated experiments with oil on stormy waters.

As a mathematician he devised various elaborate magic squares and novel magic circles, of which he speaks apologetically, because they are of no practical use. Always much interested in agriculture, he made a special effort to promote the use of plaster of Paris as a fertilizer. He took a prominent part in aeronautic experiments during his stay in France. He made an excellent clock, which because of a slight improvement introduced by James Ferguson in 1757, was long known as Ferguson’s clock. In medicine, Franklin was considered important enough to be elected to the Royal Medical Society of Paris in 1777, and became an honorary member of the Medical Society of London in 1787. In 1784, he was on the committee which investigated Mesmer, and the report is a document of lasting scientific value. Franklin’s advocacy of vegetarianism, of a spare and simple diet, and of temperance in the use of liquors, and of proper ventilation has already been mentioned. His most direct contribution to medicine was the invention, for his own use, of bifocal eyeglasses.

A summary of so versatile a genius is impossible. With his services to America in England and France, he ranks as one of the heroes of the American Revolution and as the greatest of American diplomats. Almost the only American scientist of his day, he displayed remarkably deep as well as remarkably varied abilities in science and deserved the honors enthusiastically given him by the savants of Europe.

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Benjamin Franklin’s greatest inventions – and famous kite experiment

Face of the $100 bill, US Founding Father Benjamin Franklin was the architect of the alliance with France that helped secure the birth of the American nation. But before that he was also many other things, including an incredibly talented inventor

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Ask a group of people today what the 18th-century polymath Benjamin Franklin should be remembered for the most, and chances are that a variety of answers will come up. Was he primarily a man of words, who made himself a successful printer, publisher, journalist and author of unique wit and philosophical outlook?

Or perhaps he should be most celebrated as the revered statesmen: the Founding Father and first ambassador to France, a role that led to the Franco-American alliance , which proved integral in the American Revolution .

Such is the man’s reputation that some people still – mistakenly – name Franklin as a US president . But there will always be those who first and foremost regard this titan in United States history as one of the leading scientists and inventors of his day.

Franklin’s contributions were not only numerous and life-changing, but offered as a gift. He never patented anything, stating in his autobiography, “As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.”

Benjamin Franklin’s electrical experiments

Having retired from his business interests as an extremely wealthy man in his early forties, Franklin started experimenting with electricity in 1746.

He would alter our understanding of how it works, challenging the theory that electricity should be treated as two fluids by proposing it behaved as a single fluid that could be positively or negatively charged.

It was Franklin who used the terms ‘positive’, ‘negative’ and ‘charge’ in relation to electricity in the first place.

He furthered the very language around the study, also establishing the electrical basis for terms like ‘battery’ and ‘conductor’.

What was Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment?

Of course, what really made Franklin a world-famous scientist was his legendary kite experiment, so famous that it even gets a namedrop in the musical Hamilton – that is, despite ongoing uncertainty whether it happened at all.

If the accounts are to be believed – including a letter by Franklin in the Pennsylvania Gazette – he set out in June 1752 to prove his theory that lightning was of an electrical nature.

His method was to fly a kite in a storm, with a metal key attached.

This picked up the charge in the atmosphere, which was conducted into a Leyden jar (discovered in the 1740s, it was a device for storing static electricity), thus confirming that Franklin was right.

While another scientist, French physicist Thomas-François Dalibard, had actually carried out a similar test a month earlier, it was based on Franklin’s published notes. So the American gets the credit.

What were Benjamin Franklin’s greatest inventions?

Lightning rod.

Franklin’s experiments with electricity had one clear practical purpose in mind: to prevent the fire and destruction that could be caused to wooden buildings when hit by lightning.

His solution was a metal pole that could be fixed on the top of the building with a wire running to the ground in order to conduct the electricity safely away.

The utility of the lightning rod was immediately apparent, and it remains a vital addition to structures today. Even King George III, who would curse Franklin’s name when the American Revolutionary War came, had them installed on Buckingham Palace.

That said, he did make the political move of picking rounded lightning rods, as suggested by British scientists, over Franklin’s pointed ones.

Swimming fins

Franklin’s inventing mind got whirring at a young age. Aged 11, and a keen swimmer, he designed handheld aides to make him go faster in the water.

Resembling an artist’s paint palette, they were oval-shaped pieces of wood with holes for the thumbs to increase the surface area of his stroke. He also tried fins for the feet, although less successfully.

Beyond his invention, Franklin went to great lengths to popularise the pastime of swimming, espousing its health benefits and genuinely considering becoming a swim teacher.

While living in London before the War of Independence, he went for daily dips in the Thames. He is now honoured in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Franklin stove

This new way of heating homes was so good that it got named after the man himself. Whereas traditional fireplaces used a lot of fuel and posed the risk of starting a blaze where one wasn’t wanted, the Franklin stove was more efficient, while producing less smoke and fewer errant sparks.

It comprised a cast-iron box standing away from the chimney, with a hollow space at the back to allow more heat to circulate quicker. From going on sale in 1742, and getting refinements by fellow American David Rittenhouse in the 1780s, it set a new benchmark for interior heating.

Urinary catheter

Franklin did not invent the original catheter (medically, a tube inserted into the urethra to allow urine to drain), but he developed a much less painful version. That in itself has caused many suffering people to praise his name over the years.

It began around 1752 when his older brother John got kidney stones and needed catheters inserted regularly. At the time, these were solid tubes that caused significant pain.

Franklin got to work making something more flexible, resulting in a tube made of hinged sections whipped together by a local silversmith. He hastily sent it to his brother with instructions on its much less painful use.

Being both nearsighted and farsighted in later life, Franklin came to the conclusion that constantly swapping out his different pairs of spectacles was a pain he could do without.

By cutting both types of lenses in half, he created a pair of glasses with the top half ideal for seeing long distances and a bottom half more suited to close-up reading.

There have been some questions raised in recent years over whether he was the true inventor of the bifocals or just an early adopter, but he certainly made them an eye-catching invention.

Along with the bifocals, the Long Arm helped Franklin satisfy his love of reading in old age as his health faltered in the 1780s.

The clue is in the name: this was a grabbing device – made of a piece of wood with claw-like fingers at the end that could be manipulated by pulling a cable – to make it easier to grab a book from the top shelf without clambering up and down step ladders.

Admittedly, inventing the soup bowl does not sound impressive. This, however, was an unspillable soup bowl. Franklin wanted to put a stop to accidents while slurping at sea, as the ship tossed and turned, so devised a simple yet elegant solution.

His design had the usual bowl in the centre, but this was surrounded with smaller containers around the rim. When something caused it to tip, the soup ran into one of these mini bowls instead of onto the table.

You know that otherworldly sound made by rubbing a dampened finger over the rim of a wine glass? That inspired Franklin’s musical instrument, the armonica.

Made around 1761, it consisted of 37 glass bowls lined up on a rotating spindle, which the player turned via a foot pedal while keeping their fingers lubricated for their performance.

Each bowl had been made to exact specifications by London-based glassblower Charles James to produce different notes without needing any liquid inside.

The instrument caused a stir in the musical scene of Europe, with names like Mozart and Beethoven composing pieces to make the most of its ethereal sound.

Franklin would later say, “Of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction.”

Jonny Wilkes is a former staff writer for BBC History Revealed, and he continues to write for both the magazine and HistoryExtra. He has BA in History from the University of York.

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Benjamin Franklin Biography

Early life and education.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706, to Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger. He was the fifteenth of seventeen children in a family of modest means. Franklin's formal education was brief, lasting only until the age of ten due to financial constraints. However, his intellectual potential was evident from an early age, and he compensated for his lack of formal education through voracious reading.

At twelve years old, Franklin began apprenticing under his older brother James, who owned a printing press and published the New England Courant . This experience introduced Franklin to the trades of printing and publishing and served as his entry point into intellectual discourse and satire. Despite a tumultuous relationship with James, Benjamin developed a sense of independence and ingenuity during this period.

Unable to publish his own thoughts under his real name due to his brother's oversight, Franklin adopted the pseudonym of Mrs. Silence Dogood. Under this guise, he penned 14 letters that were secretly slipped under the print shop door and subsequently published in the Courant without James's knowledge. These letters mocked aspects of colonial society and voiced criticisms of the world, indicating Franklin's propensity to challenge the status quo.

These early experiences laid the foundation for Franklin's lifelong pursuits of invention, civic engagement, political thought, and a commitment to self-improvement.

Inventions and Scientific Contributions

Benjamin Franklin's intellectual curiosity and methodological rigor led him to make notable contributions to science and invention. His innovative spirit was guided by a blend of practicality and scholarly inclination.

One of Franklin's most significant inventions was the lightning rod, developed in the mid-1750s amidst his experiments with electricity. 1 He proposed that by mounting a metal rod on the top of a building and connecting it to the ground, electrical charges from lightning could be harmlessly diverted away from the structure. This advancement validated his theories about electricity and significantly mitigated the risk of fires.

Another notable invention was the Franklin stove, which he developed in 1741 to enhance heating efficiency. 2 The stove's iron furnace model revolutionized home heating by reducing wood consumption and directing more heat into the room. Franklin never patented his invention, openly sharing the design to benefit others.

In 1784, Franklin invented bifocals to address the need for different glasses for reading and regular vision. 3 By creating eyeglasses with dual lenses of varying focus, he enhanced the quality of life for many visually impaired individuals.

Franklin's inventions reflected his inclination for practical utility combined with his scientific understanding. His contributions addressed everyday problems and had tangible, beneficial manifestations.

Political Career and Diplomacy

Franklin's political journey was marked by astute judgment and calculated diplomacy. As tensions escalated between the American colonies and Britain, Franklin's allegiance transitioned to advocating for colonial rights and independence.

As Postmaster General, Franklin integrated mail channels across the colonies, promoting swift communication and laying the groundwork for a network that would support revolutionary sentiment and strategy.

During his tenure in England, Franklin defended the colonies against taxation without representation, such as the Sugar and Stamp Acts. As part of the delegation drafting the Declaration of Independence, his editorial skills helped soften the prose, making the defiant document appear reasonable to its readers.

As a minister to France during the American War of Independence, Franklin's charm and guile underpinned critical French support for the revolutionary war. His negotiations led to treaties of commerce and alliance, culminating in decisive French interventions in battles like Yorktown, tipping the scales to American victory. Franklin's diplomatic efforts were instrumental in securing the recognition of American independence in the Treaty of Paris of 1783.

At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Franklin's presence helped smooth contradicting views and facilitate compromises. His guidance led to the manifestation of the bicameral Congress under the new Constitution.

Franklin's legacy in diplomacy and political maneuvering underscored his synonymous identity with American ideals of liberty and self-governance. His ability to bridge polar outlooks and foster unity was crucial in shaping the nation's foundational documents and principles.

• Krider EP. Benjamin Franklin and lightning rods. Physics Today. 2006;59(1):42-48.
• Carlisle RP. Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries: All the Milestones in Ingenuity From the Discovery of Fire to the Invention of the Microwave Oven. John Wiley & Sons; 2004.
• Hirschmann JV. The early history of cataract extraction. Transactions of the American Ophthalmological Society. 1997;95:275-325.

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‘We were going down fast’: how Benjamin Franklin saved America

Apple’s new drama series Franklin, starring Michael Douglas as the founding father, recalls a vital time in US history as he travelled abroad for help

“A long life has taught me that diplomacy must never be a siege but a seduction,” says Michael Douglas’s Benjamin Franklin , raising a wine glass in a world of candlelit tables, baroque music and powdered wigs. “Think of America as a courted virgin. One that does not solicit favours but grants them. And nothing speaks to romance quite as loudly as a dowry worth half a hemisphere.”

This is the first episode of Franklin , now streaming on Apple TV+, which tells the story of author, printer, postmaster, scientist, statesman and all-round Renaissance man Benjamin Franklin’s late-life secret mission to France, aimed at persuading the country to help America win the Revolutionary war and gain independence from Britain.

The eight-part limited series is achingly sumptuous and splashily cast: Douglas, 79, is best known for roles including Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, Andrew Shepherd in The American President, Dan Gallagher in Fatal Attraction and Liberace in Behind the Candelabra. “Ben Franklin was as charismatic as he was complicated,” says Stacy Schiff, author of A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, on which the series is based. “I’ve no idea how Michael did it, but in scene after scene he drives both points quietly home.

“He seems to be able to speak a paragraph with the arch of an eyebrow. He spouts Franklin’s lines, channels his mannerisms, prints his pages, raises his grandson – all without recourse to a Ben Franklin makeover. I will admit that it’s startling, even a bit eerie, to hear him speaking lines of Franklin’s that I know to have slept in foreign archives for over 200 years and that have not been spoken aloud since.”

Douglas’s father was a Hollywood titan ; Franklin’s was a candle and soap maker from England who married twice and had 17 children. Born in Boston, Franklin left school aged 10 and began an apprenticeship in his brother’s print shop at 12. He ran away at 17, had a spell in London then set up a print shop in Philadelphia and began to publish the Pennsylvania Gazette.

Franklin was a man of many talents. He helped establish Philadelphia’s first public library, police force and volunteer firefighting company and an academy that became the University of Pennsylvania. He became postmaster of Philadelphia and served as a clerk of the Pennsylvania legislature.

Franklin began researching electricity in 1748 and, in an experiment, flew a kite in a thunderstorm to prove that lightning is an electrical discharge. He came up with inventions including bifocals, the medical catheter, the odometer and the Franklin stove, a wood-burning stove that made home heating safer. For nearly a decade Franklin represented Pennsylvania in London, where he testified before the British parliament about the colony’s hatred for the Stamp Act.

He returned to America as the American Revolution drew near and was a delegate at the Continental Congress. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and signed the final document. At the same time Franklin’s illegitimate son, William Franklin, emerged as a leader of the British loyalists (he was exiled to England in 1782 for his political views).

In 1776 Congress dispatched Franklin to France to secure recognition of the new United States. But it was a gamble. Why send a 70-year-old with no prior diplomatic experience who could be hanged as a traitor if caught by the British? In an email interview, Schiff, who lives in New York, explains: “Already Franklin had crossed the ocean seven times; he had more experience of the world beyond American shores than any other congressional delegate.

“He was dimly understood to speak French. He was a masterful negotiator and – as the only thing the colonies had by way of a senior statesman – the unanimous choice of Congress. The obvious candidate on one side of the the ocean turned out to be the ideal one on the other; Congress had no idea they were sending a sort of walking Statue of Liberty to France, where Franklin was already a celebrity, for his scientific work.”

After a 38-day voyage across the Atlantic, Franklin – who brought two grandsons, 16-year-old William Temple Franklin and seven-year-old Benjamin Franklin Bache – was warmly greeted as the most famous American in the world. Schiff adds: “He seemed to the French to have walked out of the pages of Rousseau; he was hailed as the man who had tamed the lightning. Mobbed on his arrival, he soon saw his portrait reproduced on walking sticks and wallpaper. The callers were continuous; he came to dread, as he put it, the sound of every carriage in his courtyard.”

With New York having just fallen to the British army, Franklin threw himself into the all-important effort to secure French support for the American cause. Charming and witty, and trading on his novelty value as an “American”, he cultivated relationships with King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette and the French minister of foreign affairs, Charles Gravier , Comte de Vergennes. The TV dramatisation finds Douglas’s Franklin outfoxing British spies, French informers and hostile colleagues.

Schiff reflects: “Franklin considered his eight and a half years in France the most critical – and the most taxing – assignment of his life. At the same time it’s the chapter of his life about which we know the least, partly because it takes place abroad, partly because it takes place in a foreign language, partly because the documentation for the Paris years is difficult to access.

“I wanted to know how Franklin had pulled off a feat of statecraft that made the Revolution possible – and what that errand told us about Ben Franklin. Sometimes you can see a biographical subject best when he is out of context, stumbling about in a language not his own. This chapter felt a little like Franklin laid bare. He was after all on what sounded like a fool’s errand: it was his job to convince an absolute monarch to help found a republic.”

Diplomats and historians still regard it as the greatest single tour of duty by an ambassador in American history. Franklin pushed a reliable button: French hatred for the British . He could also point to some battlefield successes to convince them that America had a decent chance of winning.

After two years, he secured two treaties that included political recognition for the United States. The French government provided military assistance, including troops, naval support and supplies. The support was vital to the pivotal triumph of the Continental Army at Yorktown in 1781. Without French aid, the American Revolution would probably have failed; with it, the British were defeated.

Douglas told the New York Times last week: “I did not realize to what degree, if it was not for France, we would not have had a free America. It would have been a colony, absolutely. We were going down fast.”

Outside the White House today is Lafayette Park , where a the bronze statue is thought to portray the Marquis de Lafayette petitioning the French national assembly for help for the Americans in the fight for independence. Whenever a French president visits the White House today, the US president invariably refers to “our oldest ally”.

Schiff reflects: “The war could not have been fought without the arms, money and munitions that Franklin winkled out of the French government, both before and after the 1778 alliance. At the time of Franklin’s arrival in France Washington’s army had something like five rounds of powder to a man.

“The world wondered, Franklin wrote, why the Americans never fired a cannon. The reason was that they could not afford to do so. Independence rested squarely on the assistance, and the alliance, that he engineered abroad.”

With John Jay and John Adams , Franklin negotiated the Treaty of Paris with Britain, confirming its acceptance of a “free, sovereign and independent” United States, which was signed in 1783.

But Schiff adds: “For the posting Franklin received no syllable of gratitude. Once the peace had been signed it was preferable to think that American independence had been won by America; the foreign assist was largely written out of the picture, Franklin’s French mission with it.”

Franklin, who died in 1790 aged 84, does at least enjoy recognition today in books, museums, a recent Ken Burns documentary and now the Apple TV+ series directed by Tim Van Patten (Masters of the Air, The Sopranos). There is also a statue of him in front of the Old Post Office on Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of what used to be the Trump International hotel.

Indeed, in an era when American democracy seems unduly fragile, politicians and commentators are fond of recalling the story that, when exiting the Constitutional Convention, Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. He replied : “A republic, if you can keep it.”

So what would Franklin make of Donald Trump and the divisions in America today? Schiff says: “Party politics would have horrified all of the founders. Franklin believed especially fervently in selfless public service. ‘The less the profit,’ as he put it, ‘the greater the honor.’ Enough said.”

Franklin is now showing on Apple TV+

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