Ben Franklin: Early Life
In his many careers as a printer, moralist, essayist, civic leader, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, and philosopher, for later generations of Americans he became both a spokesman and a model for the national character. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts on Jan. 17, 1706, into a religious Puritan household. His father, Josiah, was a candlemaker and a skillful mechanic. His mother, Abiah Ben’s parents raised thirteen children--the survivors of Josiah’s seventeen children by two wives (#1).
Printer & Writer
Franklin left school at ten years old when he was pressed into his father's trade. At twelve Ben was apprenticed to his half brother James, a printer of The New England Courant. He
…show more content…
They aspired to build their own businesses, insure the growth of Philadelphia, and improve the quality of its life. Franklin led the Junto in founding a library (1731), fire company (1736), learned society (1743), college (later the University of Pennsylvania, 1749), and an insurance company and a hospital (1751). The group also carried out plans for paving, cleaning, and lighting the streets and for making them safe by organizing an efficient night watch. They even formed a voluntary militia (#1).
Franklin had steadily extended his own knowledge by study of foreign languages, philosophy, and science. He repeated experiments of other scientists and added his own ideas that led to inventions of the Franklin stove, bifocal eyeglasses, and a glass harmonica. The phenomenon of electricity interested him deeply, in 1748 he turned his printing business over to his foreman, intending to devote his life to science (#5). Experiments he proposed, showed that lightning was in fact a form of electricity. Later that year his famous kite experiment, in which he flew a kite with the wire attached to a key during a thunderstorm, further established that laboratory-produced static electricity was akin to a previously mysterious and terrifying natural phenomenon (#1). He was elected to the Royal Society in 1756 and to the French Academy of Sciences in 1772(#3). His later achievements included formulating a theory of heat
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He was the tenth son of soap maker, Josiah Franklin. Though Ben only had one year of schooling he was educated and loved to read and write. He worked as an apprentice to his brother, James, who was a printer, when he was fifteen years old. At the age of seventeen, Ben ran away and started a new life in Philadelphia as a result of arguments with James. Franklin found work as an apprentice printer and did so well the provincial governor of
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston Massachusetts.His father was a soap and candle maker and he had a total of 15 children and two wives, Ben was the youngest son. Ben Franklin is most influential for being his contributions of science (electricity), his creations of the almanac/newspapers, and him also being one of the founding fathers of the Declaration of Independence.
Benjamin Franklin is revered by Americans as one of its most revered and adored founding fathers. For foreigners, Benjamin Franklin became the very icon of America, not only because he was accomplished, but because he was a new man, a man that could only have been made in America. Franklin came to be seen as the embodiment of American values.
“Drip, drip, drip. That was how it started.” (190) We all meet people within our lives that, in some way, we wish we hadn’t. This is what Lucy Derby in the fictional short story “The Overhead Man”, written by Dan Greenburg, learns. Lucy had a leak in her parlor and it was constant, never-ending. She finds someone to fix her leak; Maggs and Son, whom she later figures out, is just Maggs and no son. Maggs ups the price each time that the leak reappears after he “fixes” it. At first, Lucy finds Maggs to be acceptable in helping with her roof, but things aren’t always what they seem. The author creates a creepy mood by the way he uses imagery, foreshadowing, and the figurative language.
Benjamin Franklin was born January 17, 1706 in Boston Massachusetts, he is best known as one of the founding fathers that drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. At the age of twelve, he began working as an apprentice in a printing shop his brother, James, owned. When he turned 17, Benjamin left to Philadelphia, which he escaped his apprenticeship, which was against the law. A few months after he left for London, England, where he learned more about printing. Then at the age of 20, he moved back to Philadelphia to continue his career in printing. He became the publisher of the Philadelphia Gazette.
So young Benjamin used a false name and slid them under the factory’s door at night to get them published. After relations with his brother got sour he left Boston and moved to New York then to Philadelphia. He worked in Philadelphia for sometime then left to London in hopes to secure his own printing shop. After plans fell through and being very short on cash, he decided to stay in London until he was able to pay his way home. When he returned he got married to Deborah Reads, girl he met and fell in love with many years earlier. He worked in many other printing shops publishing his works until his career really took a turn for the better when he joined the Free Masons. He was elected the leader very shortly after. During this time he wrote the agreement for the Library Company of Philadelphia and this became the first public library in America.
The economic forces of colonial expansion created a global economy where international trade united previously unfamiliar populations with each other. Before the birth of imperialism, many African and Asian economies were in a primitive and inefficient state lacking the modern technologies and innovations that were common in Europe. With the annexation of territories in Africa and Asia, many European powers were able to export their economic technologies and innovations to those under developing nations. Eventually, the adoption of a similar system of economic operations by both settler and non-settler states allowed international trade to be conducted. What is of utmost importance is that colonialism taught these nations the benefits and procedures of exchanging goods and capitals over borders. Through the practice of global trade, previously unknown populations were able to communicate and conduct business on an international level, thus uniting different economies and their corresponding populations. Aside from
In The Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin recounts the many paramount experiences throughout his life that shaped him into great American figure he was known to be. On the opening page, Franklin reveals the book’s epistolary format by writing, “Dear Son,” going on to admit that he’s made some mistakes in the past and to recollect that past is a way to relive it. By divulging his desire to “change some sinister Accidents & Events” (Franklin 3) the author indicates how important it is for his son to observe as he amends his mistakes. Pride, virtue and vanity play a pivotal role in Benjamin Franklin’s life and the way he portrays himself to others. Instances occur where the author is shown gloating about his great accomplishments and he puts
Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston. His father, Josiah Franklin, who was a tallow chandler, had seventeen children; Benjamin was the fifteenth child and the tenth son. His mother, Abiah Folger, was his father’s second wife. After he went to grammar school from age eight to ten, Benjamin started working at his father’s business. He didn’t like the work very much, however, and so he began to work for a cutler. When he was just thirteen, he became an apprentice to his brother James, who had just returned from England with a new printing press. Benjamin learned the printing trade, but in his spare time he tried to improve his education. In 1721 his brother
Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is introduced as an incredulously ambitious woman who will do whatever it takes to seize the crown for Macbeth. However, towards the end of the play she begins to feel guilty as well as paranoid as a result from her ambitious actions. For example, at the beginning of the play she lets ambition lead her actions and delves into supernatural powers to make herself cruel as well as without remorse when preparing for the murder of King Duncan: “Come you spirits … /Of direst cruelty/Make thick my blood/stop up the access and passage to remorse,”(I, v, 41-46). Lady Macbeth is aware of her morality in the beginning and understands that in order to complete this sinful deed, she must rid herself from feeling guilt. Her actions of calling upon evil spirits shows her brutality and determination of achieving more power even if it does corrupt her morality and mental state in the future. The ambition and desire for power she carries in the
Franklin may have started at the bottom but he soon worked his way to the top. He had many jobs in his lifetime. Helping his father in his candle shop was one of Franklin’s first jobs. However, he became bored with his work at his father’s candle shop and soon moved to Philadelphia. Upon arriving to Philadelphia Franklin began working as a printer assistant. It did not last long though and soon he was looking for another job. This is when Benjamin Franklin began to work for the Pennsylvania Gazette, an extensive newspaper. He soon sold the paper though to venture into other endeavors. Benjamin Franklin was an inventor, printers assistant, politician, scientist as well as other things.
It was the year 1706 in Boston, MA when Benjamin Franklin entered the world. Birthed after fourteen other siblings, Franklin's family structure is only one deciding factor in the way that this legendary tale pans out. A hero of American Revolution, this novel depicts 18th century realism accurately while logging Franklin's personal conception on human nature and social community. Many look at Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography as your typical rags to riches tale yet, the truth and falsehood throughout the pages is unknown, raising many questions and concerns. As this book was written in segments over a stretched period of time, we must analyze this account of his life, the struggles and successes which took place, and the outcome of such
and lower half a large portion of, the upper for separate, and the lower for perusing. Bifocals
Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography is an inspiring tale of his personal, as well as public achievement throughout his life. Franklin’s life embodies the exemplary model of a life composed of discipline, self-reliance and self improvement. From his humble beginnings as an apprentice candle and soap maker in his father’s business to a successful business man, author, philosopher, civil activist, politician scientist, inventor, and diplomat, above all Benjamin Franklin was, and still is, an American Icon and truly a pioneer of the American Dream.
In 1752 Franklin devised another experiment to test if lighting has an electrical charge. He flied a kite carrying a pointed wire in a thunderstorm and attempted to test his theory that atmospheric lightning is an electrical phenomenon similar to the spark produced by an electrical frictional machine (Bruno 406). To