Benjamin Franklin

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Benjamin Franklin : biography

17 January 1706 – 17 April 1790

While Franklin was in England, his bride Deborah married and became a grass widow, because her husband escaped from debts and went to West Indies. In 1730 she became Benjamin’s civil wife, and after a message about her husband’s death, they married officially. Besides old love, Benjamin felt the sense of guilt, which became one of the reasons of their marriage. He knew the art of reasonable compromise perfectly well, and their marriage was successful. Deborah didn’t demand anything impossible from her husband and became a faithful assistant and a devoted mother to his extramarital son William. She gave birth to two children – a son Francis, who died at the age of four because of smallpox, and a daughter Sarah.

Franklin’s career as a political figure started form the publishing work. Practically all officials, from clerks to governors, became subscribers of his issues, and his printing shop made all forms, documents and even paper money. Incidentally, Benjamin got an order for money notes after he had published an article about necessity to increase the amount of paper money and benefit of it for economics. Franklin knew the art of public relations and advertisement perfectly well, drawing attention with his articles to the problems, which he was interested in. He wrote such articles under pen names, because he was afraid of accusations in self-interest. “The credit of trust”, which he got from his readers, helped him to realize ideas, and this realization promoted Franklin further on the social stairs. One of his first projects was a library – he ordered books from England on money, gathered by volunteers, and these books spread further on subscription.

Later Franklin wrote in his autobiography that a slight damage to vanity would be compensated in future. It is no coincidence, that he is called a person, who invented much talked-about American dream, and the author of a famous conception that possibilities of a Yankee are unlimited. His tactics didn’t have failures in work. He became more and more significant among Americans – founders of new projects were always asked if they had consulted with Franklin and what was his opinion. He was the first who donated money for building and keeping a famous Pennsylvanian hospital, in 1751 he made the Academy of Pennsylvania (which is a university now), militia, night patrols of volunteers, fire station and even the first in history fire insurance company. Form the “Club of leather aprons”, founded by Franklin in 1728 for debates, “Philosophical society of America” appeared fifteen years later. The level of Philadelphian intellectual activity could be compared only with London and Edinburgh in the whole British Empire – and it was mostly Franklin’s merit.

In 1737 Benjamin Franklin became a Pennsylvanian postmaster, and from 1753 till 1774 he fulfilled these duties for all Northern colonies of America. This work allowed him to combine social profit with his own benefit – when he put the post business right, he achieved more faster spread and delivery of his issues. It was his statement (and absolutely right one) that the most useful (for vanity too) and gratifying business was realizing projects, that improved not only society’s life, but also your own life. In 1748 he finished his own business and even bought a farm in New Jersey, he seriously planned to start farming. But he didn’t manage to realize these plans – he spent too much time for social activity.

His interest in sciences was influenced by pragmatic approach, and native wit and curiosity made Franklin a doctor – he got this title in the Oxford University in 1762. As he was a postmaster, he insisted that American sailors, who were in command of trade ships, plotted on their observations and sent them to crews of English post ships. That’s how the first map of the Gulf Stream appeared. In summer of 1752 Benjamin Franklin made his famous experiment – he flew a kite on the iron wire during the thunder and found out, that lightning was electric. To tell the truth, he hardly died because of this electric experiment. London Royal society awarded him with a golden medal of Kopley for his merits in studying electricity – it was the most prestigious scientific award. Benjamin Franklin also wrote several reputable scientific works on meteorology, shipbuilding, agriculture and even wind music. He was the first who suggested changing summer and winter time, guided by reasons of economy.