Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in in Boston, Massachusetts. He was considered as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and the “First American". A self-educated Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor and civic rights activist. He gave America a history of physics with his great discoveries and theories regarding electricity and (storm) lightning. Among his well-known inventions are the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and contributed majorly in the setup of University of Pennsylvania.

Childhood

Benjamin Franklin was born to Josiah Franklin and his second wife Abiah Folger. He was baptized at Old South Meeting House. At his early childhood days he took up the work and started helping his father and brother.

Education

Benjamin Franklin’s mother wanted him to attend school with the clergy, but could afford to send him to school only for 2 days because of poor financial situation. Later, he attended Boston Latin School but did not graduate. Though he was keener into voracious readings and tried educating himself. Franklin’s schooling ended when he was ten, his parents wanted him to take the church as a career. But after schooling, he worked with his father, and at 12 he became an apprentice to his brother James, a printer, who taught Ben the printing trade. When Benjamin Franklin was 15, he and his brother founded ‘The New-England Courant’ which was the first independent newspaper at that time in the colonies.

Career

At 17, Benjamin Franklin went to Philadelphia, where he worked in several printing shops. Later he went to London and worked as a typesetter in a printer's shop, in what is now the Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great in the Smithfield area of London. In 1731, Franklin created the first Library Company of Philadelphia, which now has 500,000 rare books, pamphlets, and broadsides, more than 160,000 manuscripts, and 75,000 graphic items. After his success as author, Franklin was actively involved in various experiments and innovations that includes fields like - studying Atlantic Ocean currents, electricity, wave theory of light, meteorology, concept of cooling and many more.

At the End
Franklin struggled with obesity throughout his middle-aged and later years, which resulted in multiple health problems. He remained in poor health during the signing of the US Constitution in 1787 and kept himself away from public appearances. On 17th April, 1790, Benjamin Franklin died from pleuritic attack, at his home in Philadelphia. Approximately 20,000 people attended his funeral.