Benjamin Franklin
1706–1790 6 entries
Biography
Benjamin Franklin was an American printer, writer, scientist, inventor and statesman, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Born in Boston, the fifteenth of seventeen children, he left school at ten and taught himself by reading. He made his fortune as a printer in Philadelphia, where he published Poor Richard’s Almanack, full of sayings that are still quoted. He founded a lending library, a fire company and the academy that became the University of Pennsylvania.
His experiments with electricity, among them the famous kite flown in a thunderstorm, made him known across Europe, and he invented the lightning rod, bifocal glasses and an efficient stove. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and, as envoy to France, won the alliance that helped the colonies win their war. In old age he took part in writing the Constitution of the United States, and he died in Philadelphia in 1790.
- Aphorisms 6