Sunshine Reading Club
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Who Was Benjamin Franklin?
Introduction
Every once in awhile, someone comes along who seems to succeed at everything. Benjamin
Franklin was just such a person.
As a child Ben spent only two years at school, but he became one of the wisest men of his
time. In his long life he had many careers.
He was a printer, scientist, inventor, and statesman.
Ben was one of the founding fathers of our country and the only person to sign all four of the
great documents that made our nation what it is today.
• The Declaration of Independence (1776)
• The Treaty of Alliance with France (1778)
• The Treaty of Paris with Britain (1783)
• The Constitution of the United States (1787).
No wonder Benjamin Franklin is celebrated as one of the greatest Americans who has ever
lived!
Ben’s story began in Boston, where he was born on a cold winter’s day in January 1706. He
was the fifteenth of the 17 children in his family.
There was no United States then. There were just 13 colonies, ruled by Britain, 3,500 miles
away across the Atlantic Ocean.
Boston, the city where Ben was born, was a busy port.
Ships visited Boston from all over the world. They brought passengers, furnishings, cloth,
molasses, and tools from Europe. They carried fruit, grains, skins,
and lumber back to Europe.
Ben was born in this four-room house in Boston. Most of his 16 brothers and sisters were still
living at home when he was a child.
Ben taught himself to read when he had just learned to talk. The only books in the house for
him to read were the religious books that his father, Josiah, kept.
Josiah could see that his son enjoyed reading and he knew that Ben had special gifts.
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There were both elementary and secondary schools in Boston at the time, so Josiah sent Ben
to school when he was eight years old.
However, after only two years, Ben had to leave school to help his father in the family’s soap
and candle making business. Ben was put to work in the shop.
This is what Ben’s classroom might have looked like.
Printer
Ben was not happy working in his father’s shop. He was bored stirring the tallow, which is an
animal fat, for the soap and cutting wicks for the candles.
Soap making was hot and dangerous. The rough bars were made from a mixture of tallow and
ash. The mixture was stirred until the tallow melted. Then it was poured into wooden molds and
cut into blocks when it was hard.
When one of his older brothers returned from India, Ben listened to his exciting tales of
adventure at sea. Josiah was afraid that his gifted son would run away to sea, so he came up
with an idea to keep Ben at home.
Because Ben enjoyed reading and spelling, Josiah encouraged him to go to work for another
brother, James, who was a printer.
Ben signed a contract with James to say he would work for him until he was 21 years old in
exchange for his meals and a bed and the opportunity to learn the printing business.
Ben became a printer’s apprentice.
To make candles, the warm tallow was poured into molds to set around the wicks. Houses used
candles for lighting.
In his brother’s print shop, Ben ran errands, swept the shop, and kept the fire burning. He
learned to sort and set type, and ink the printing
presses. Ben was so happy and so proud of his trade, he decided that he wanted to be a
printer.
While he was learning to be a printer, Ben read all the books he could find. He even figured out
a way to buy more books. He asked
James to give him half the money that was being spent on his food. From then on, while the
other apprentices enjoyed a full meal, Ben had only a slice of bread or a few raisins. With the
rest of the money, he bought lots of books.
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Each piece of type had a raised image of a single letter, number, or punctuation mark.
Each letter was back to front so that it came out the right way when printed. This is the letter k.
The type was arranged in a box to make the words. The type was inked and then pressed on
paper for printing.
This type reads “New York News.”
Printing in the 18th century
In Ben’s day, there were no typewriters or computers. Each letter of each word had to be set in
metal type.
The more Ben read, the more he wanted to
write himself. He got his chance when James’
newspaper printed articles about topics of the
day. Over several months, Ben secretly wrote
some “letters to the editor” to his brother’s
newspaper. He signed them “Silence Dogood”
and slipped them under the door of the print
shop.
When James found out that he had been
publishing letters written by his brother,
he was angry. The brothers quarrelled.
Eventually Ben decided he must move
to a different city and start a new life.
He ran away to Philadelphia.
Silence Dogood
This is the printing press Benjamin Franklin used
when he worked as a printer’s apprentice.
Philadelphia Days
Ben settled in Philadelphia where he worked
as a printer and then set up
his own print shop. He also traveled
to London where he bought printing machines.
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During Ben’s early years in Philadelphia, he
formed a club with some friends. They shared
books and debated the important topics of
the day. The club members were smart young
men who were successful in their businesses.
They wanted to improve
their city.
The friends used their skills, leadership,
and connections to get Philadelphia’s muddy
carriage tracks paved and lit. They set up the
first lending library in the colonies, and they
organized police and fire departments.
Together, the young businessmen turned
Philadelphia into the most advanced city in
all of the 13 colonies.
Soon after arriving
in Philadelphia, Ben
met his wife, Deborah
Read, the daughter of
his landlady.
Philadelphia library—the first lending library
In 1729, when he was 23, Ben started
a newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette.
He was the printer, the editor, and he did
much of the writing, too. The Pennsylvania
Gazette became popular throughout the
13 colonies.
People liked the Gazette because of Ben’s
idea to include cartoons and maps. He wrote
articles asking for public support for community
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projects. His readers raised money for
many good causes.
Ben’s newspaper also helped build support
for the first hospital in America and a free
school for boys that became the University of
Pennsylvania.
A worker delivers paper in a wheelbarrow to
The Pennsylvania Gazette.
Ben’s statue sits in the grounds of the University of
Pennsylvania.
University Publications
The University of Pennsylvania publishes
The Pennsylvania Gazette six times a year
and a weekly Almanac for staff.
Once a year Ben printed Poor Richard’s Almanack.
Like other almanacs of the day, Poor
Richard was full of valuable information, such
as a calendar, a tide chart, the hours of sunrise
and sunset,
the phases of the moon, and the dates of county
fairs. It also included poems, helpful advice,
recipes, and many of Ben’s own sayings, which
were usually reminders to work hard and live
simply.
When Ben was only 31, he became postmaster
of Philadelphia. Under his leadership, the
mail service ran so efficiently that it became
the model for the mail service that connected
all the colonies.
Ben organized the mail service to operate
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through the night. He increased the number
of mail carriers. He sent mail overseas on fast
ships. He helped establish home delivery, a
dead-letter office where mail that could not be
delivered was stored, and a regular mail service
to Canada.
Poor Richard’s Almanack was published every
year from 1733 to 1753. It was always a best seller
throughout the colonies with lots of useful advice
and information.
Scientist
Ben was able to hand over much of the daytoday running of his projects to other people
so that he could pay more attention to science
and inventing. He conducted scientific experiments
because he was curious about things he
noticed around him. One of these was electricity.
Electricity
Ben was sure that lightning was electrical, so
he experimented to see if the lightning would
pass through metal. To get the metal close to
the lightning, he attached it to a kite string.
As he predicted, when the lightning traveled
down the length of the kite string, it electrified
the key.
This painting shows what legend tells Ben Franklin
did in the storm. No one knows for sure what he did
but almost certainly he wouldn’t have done this as
Ben knew that lightning was dangerous.
Daylight Saving
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In a letter to a French newspaper in 1784,
Ben suggested changing clocks by one hour at
the beginning and end of summer. This was
the first suggestion of “daylight saving.” He
wrote that people could then get more done
in daylight, without having to burn precious
candles when it was dark. He thought it wasteful
to “live much by candlelight and sleep by
sunshine.” He also suggested that bells should
ring at sunrise to wake up everyone in Paris.
Ben may have been joking when he wrote
this letter. However, more than a hundred
years later, countries began to
put the clocks forward in spring so that people
had an extra hour of daylight in the evening.
Refrigeration
Ben studied many other things about
the world around him. For example, he found
that he felt cooler if he was wearing wet
clothes and wind was blowing on him. This
led him to experiment with early methods of
refrigeration.
Clocks are
turned forward
one hour in
the spring for
daylight saving.
Daylight saving is only useful in countries where there
is a big difference between the hours of daylight in
summer and winter—countries like the United States
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and Canada. Countries that have daylight saving are
in blue. Countries near the equator have day and
night of nearly the same length so don’t need to
change the clocks.
GulSf treamCu rrent
Ben was always interested in his surroundings.
When he was sailing across the Atlantic
Ocean, he noticed that ships traveled faster
when they were sailing from west to east. He
thought that there must be a force, like wind,
below the water that made the ship move
faster on the surface.
Ben was fascinated by a channel of different-colored water that he saw. By dangling
a thermometer in the water, he found that
the channel was warmer than the surrounding
ocean. He watched objects floating in the
channel and noted their course and speed.
By doing this, Ben described the Gulf Stream
current.
Ben Franklin made many sea voyages to Europe and
back. He noticed that his voyage was faster when he
traveled towards Europe than when he traveled home.
The Gulf Stream is a kind of underwater river in the
Atlantic Ocean. Here the Gulf Stream is the yellow
and orange areas and the land is black.
Inventor
Ben was always thinking of ways he
could help others to have a better life,
so he looked for practical uses for
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his discoveries.
When people have an idea or invent something,
they patent it so that other people can’t
copy it. Ben Franklin never patented any of
his inventions, but he
did support the right of inventors to be recognized
legally as the owner of
their inventions.
When told he could make a fortune by
patenting any of his inventions, Ben would
say, “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.” Ben would not take money for his
efforts.
Franklin Stove
The colonists complained that most of
the heat in a fireplace went straight up
the chimney. So Ben helped people make their
homes warmer by inventing what was called a
Franklin stove.
The stove was made of iron and it fitted into
an existing fireplace. The heat from the stove
went into the room rather than up the chimney.
A Franklin stove was a fire that was used to heat the
room and cook food. It had good air circulation to
stop smoke coming back into the room.
Air-Conditioning
Ben felt that fresh air inside a house was good
for people’s health. He invented a mechanical
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fan to circulate air.
Household Security
Even in colonial times it was nice to know
who was knocking at the front door! Ben’s
security system was known as a “Philadelphia
Busybody!” Three mirrors were positioned so
that anyone coming to the front door could
be seen from inside the house.
Swimfins
Ben made himself swimfins when he was a
young boy teaching himself to swim. They
were made from wood and helped him to
move faster through the water.
Furniture Designer
Among Ben’s inventions were pieces of useful
furniture, an extension arm for picking up
things that were out of reach, and a clock that
showed seconds, minutes,
and hours.
This chair had a
writing desk attached
to it.
This chair could be turned
into a step ladder. It was
useful for reaching the
high shelves in a library.
Bifocal Eyeglasses
Like many people, Ben needed one pair of
eyeglasses for seeing things far away, and another
pair for seeing things up close. Having
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to use two pairs of glasses was
a nuisance, so Ben invented bifocals.
This design had both kinds of lenses in
the same frame.
Lightning Rod
House fires caused by lightning often happened
in Ben’s time because most homes were
built of wood. They were easily destroyed
by fire caused by lightning so Ben invented
the lightning rod. This saved many colonial
homes from burning down. It is still used
today.
Ben holds a paper with his drawing for bifocals.
A metal lightning rod on a house attracts the lightning,
so that the house is not hit and damaged.
Water Armonica
One of Ben’s interests was music. He thought
it would be fun to invent a new instrument, so
he did!
Ben’s armonica (armonica is the word for
harmony in Italian) was built from 37
glass bowls threaded on a rod, resting in
a trough of water. A foot treadle turned the
bowls around. The sounds were made by rubbing
wet fingers on the different glasses. Ben
colored the glasses to show the different notes.
Some of the greatest composers of the time
wrote music for Ben’s water armonica.
The water armonica is still played today.
Ben Franklin plays his water armonica. He is turning
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the glass bowls with a foot treadle.
Number Games
One of Ben’s favorite pastimes was playing
with numbers. In this simple version of
his magic square, each row of numbers, horizontally
and vertically, adds up to 260. Half of
any row, starting at an outer edge, adds up to
130.
Politician
For 150 years after the first pilgrims
came to America, the settlers lived in
13 separate colonies, each with their own local
governments. They were ruled by Britain.
Other foreign countries, such as France and
Spain, already had control of parts of the New
World, and they wanted to own the 13 colonies,
too. The settlers were going to have to
fight for their independence.
Ben was well known because he had written
newspaper articles and he was
the Deputy Postmaster of the northern colonies.
Many of the colonists saw him
as a political leader.
When France started a war with Britain to
try to seize the colonies, Ben argued that the
colonies should stay loyal to Britain by fighting
with them against
the French.
Ben Franklin helped
to set up money and
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mail systems in the
colonies. He has been
honored on stamps
and currency. Here he
is on the $100 note.
With the war over and independence won,
Not everyone agreed with Ben’s plan to side
with the British. However, the British did win,
and Ben became an unofficial ambassador in
London.
Because the French had lost, France had
to compensate Britain by giving them land
or money. Their choice was either Frenchowned
Canada, or Guadaloupe, a group of
five islands in the Caribbean with a rich sugar
crop. Ben wrote an article persuading Britain
to choose Canada.
When France and Britain signed an agreement
in 1763 to end the war, Canada was
given to Britain, and Guadaloupe stayed with
France.
Despite this war, the people of France remained
friends with the colonies. In 1883,
France gave the Statue of Liberty to the people
of the United States. The monument celebrates
the close friendship of the two countries.
Ben published this cartoon in The Pennsylvania
Gazette to show that he believed the colonies should
unite to face their future together. It is thought to be
the first political cartoon ever printed in an American
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newspaper. The cartoon was used again when
the colonies fought the British for independence,
sometimes with the words Unite, or Die.
The Boston Tea Party was one of the public acts of
disobedience that led to the break from Britain.
The settlers dressed as Native Americans and threw
the tea sent from Britain into the harbor.
The Declaration of Independence
Ben spent 18 years in Britain watching over
the best interests of the American colonies.
He returned to Philadelphia in 1775 when
he was 69 years old and started working with
the colonies to unite them and prepare them
for a day when they would be independent of
Britain.
Britain still expected the colonies to pay
taxes on items they sent over to them, including
tea. This made the colonists angry because
they were paying taxes, but had no say
over how their taxes were spent. This led to
a famous incident known as the “Boston Tea
Party.” Colonists dressed as Native Americans
dumped a shipment of British tea into Boston
harbor. Britain was angry at this and closed
the port of Boston. Ben could see that the
friendship with Britain was about to end.
The Treaty of Alliance meant that France and the home, too.
colonies agreed to help each other against the British.
Ben was there at the signing (right).
Ben Franklin helped write the Declaration
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of Independence and he was one of the men
who signed it in 1776. In it, the 13 colonies
set out their reasons for wanting to be free
from Britain. A committee of five wrote the
first draft. These men were Thomas Jefferson,
John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston,
and Ben.
At first the war of Independence from
Britain did not go well for the colonies, so
Ben went to Paris and asked France to help.
The French were impressed by Ben’s charm
and negotiating skills. They sent soldiers and
money and helped the colonies win victory
over the British.
Ben was extremely popular in Paris, where
he was called “Le Grand Franklin” (the Great
Franklin.) When Ben came back to Philadelphia
for the last time,
he discovered that he was a famous person at
home, too.
Ben was called upon one last time to help
write an important document.
The founding fathers greatly respected
Ben’s intelligence, vision, and experience. He
made contributions to what became the Constitution of the United States of America and
was among those who signed it in 1787 when
he was 81 years old.
Ben with a walking stick is seated second from the left.
George Washington (standing) talks to the delegates
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about the United States Constitution.
Long Life
Ben Franklin’s long life came to an end in
1790. He was 84. He was still thinking of ways
he could help his fellow citizens.
In his will he left $5,000 each to the cities of
Boston and Philadelphia to be used for public
works.
The money was used to build a technology
college in Boston and an Institute of Science
in Philadelphia where the Benjamin Franklin
National Memorial honors one of our founding
fathers.
Ben had many claims to fame. Most of the
things he wrote about and invented would
have made him famous. Perhaps because he
left so much, Ben Franklin’s best invention
was himself!
He is loved as much today as he was when
our country was born. Philadelphia, the city
he called home, declared a year-long birthday
party for Ben in 2006, the 300th anniversary
of his birth.
A special coin was produced for the 300th anniversary
party of Ben Franklin’s birth.
The Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in
Boston, Massachusetts
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