Benjamin Franklin

It is hard to give one notable title to Benjamin Franklin because he accomplished so many things in his life. Not only was he one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, he was also a leading inventor, publisher, writer, scientist, diplomat, and philosopher.

Last year, more information was obtained about Franklin by University of California, San Diego science professor Alan Houston. Houston discovered 47 letters from, to and about Franklin while doing research at a library in London. Out of the 47 previously undiscovered letters, 18 were written by Franklin himself and detail his interactions with General Edward Braddock and his planned assault on Fort Duquesne.UPI: Benjamin Franklin letters found in London (April 24, 2009)

This multi-faceted man was born in Boston, MA on January 17, 1707. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a soap maker and his mother, Abiah Folger, was Josiah's second wife. Franklin has seventeen siblings in total and fell close to the middle of the bunch. His father's original intention for him was to join the clergy, but when money did not allow for the schooling, Josiah apprenticed Franklin to his older brother James, a printer, instead.http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/index.htm

Franklin was a naturally curious man and often found it a good use of his time to fix problems he encountered in his own life. Truly, it was his inner scientist that let his outer inventor shine. Franklin had bad vision and required reading glasses, but he did not like having to take them on and off all the time. Thus, he created bifocals (what we call them today) by cutting lens from two separate pairs of classes and combining the differing lens in the same lens frame. He could now see both near and far at his convenience.

Similarly, when he learned that his elder brother John suffered from kidney stones, he yearned for a way to ease his pain. Thus, he invented a flexible urinary catheter, apparently the first one made in America.

Almost everyone knows the story of Franklin’s famous kite flight. Franklin did not, however, invent electricity. Rather, he invented the lightening rod, a powerful tool which protects buildings and ships from lightening damage every day.

In the American colonies, most people warmed their homes by using their indoor fireplace, although this could be rather dangerous and used up a lot of wood. Eager for a better way, Franklin invented an iron furnace stove, rightly named the Franklin stove, that allowed people to warm their homes less dangerously and with less wood.

As postmaster, Franklin was required to devise routes for delivering the mail. As he rode around in his carriage to measure the routes, he realized he needed a way to measure the distance and as a result, invented a simple odometer.http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/inventor/inventor.html

Franklin wrote, edited and published Poor Richard's Almanack and the Pennsylvania Gazette. Both endeavors made him a wealthy man. He was elected the first president of the American Philosophical Society, the Postmaster General to the Continental Congress and the President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania.