Franklin was sent to London to select types and presses and to make useful business contacts. He left Boston to seek his fortune, first in New York (briefly and unsuccessfully) and then in Philadelphiaįranklin had immediate success in Philadelphia Before long he came to the attention of Governor Keith, who offered to subsidize him-although he was only eighteen-in the printing business. He was, accordingly, at age twelve indentured to “Brother James.” Within a few years he was able to break the indenture and secure his freedom.

Hands,” it was decided that Benjamin should become a printer. Since he was fond of reading and had in fact spent on books “all the little Money that came into. Published in England and in France from 1767 to 1773, they have attracted much attention and comment ever since.Īt ten years of age, Franklin was taken home from school to assist his father, a tallow chandler and soap boiler.

In midlife, he took up “making magic Squares, or Circles,” some of which were very complex and obviously required skill in computation.

On both sides of the family Franklin had forebears skilled in the use of their hands and with literary or intellectual gifts.įranklin relates in his autobiography that he “was put to the Grammar School at eight years of Age,” but remained “not quite one Year.” His father then sent him “to a School for Writing and Arithmetic.” Although Franklin by his own admission failed arithmetic, he later repaired this deficiency. His mother, Josiah’s second wife, was Abiah (“Jane”) Folger, daughter of Peter Folger of Nantucket, a weaver, schoolmaster, miller, and writter of verses. Early Life and Careerīenjamin Franklin’s father, Josiah, who was descended from a family of British artisans, immigrated to America, settling in Boston in October 1683. He was the principal founder of the American Philosophical Society, the New World’s first permanent scientific organization. His observations on population were of service to Malthus. By experiment he showed that the lightning discharge is an electrical phenomenon, and upon this demonstration (together with his experimental findings concerning the action of grounded and of pointed conductors) he based his invention of the lightning rod,įranklin made contributions to knowledge of the Gulf Stream, of atmospheric convection currents, and of the direction of motion of storms.

He introduced into the language of scientific discourse relating to electricity such technical words as “plus” and “minus,” “positive” and “negative,” “charges” and battery. He advanced the concept of a single “fluid” of electricity, was responsible for the principle of conservation of charge, and analyzed the distribution of charges in the Leyden jar, a capacitor. His principle achievement was the formulation of a widely used theory of general electrical “action” (explaining or predicting the outcome of manipulations in electrostatics: charge production charge transfer, charging by electrostatic induction). Philadephia, Pennsylvania, 17 April 1790)Įlectricity, general physics, oceanography, meteorology, promotion and support of science and international scientific cooperation.īenjamin Franklin was the first American to win an international reputation in pure science and the first man of science to gain fame for work done wholly in electricity. Boston, Massachusetts, 17 January 1706 d. Gulf Stream, Convection Currents, and Storms Dissemination of Experiments and Theories

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