Benjamin Franklin without him and all of his contributions to society then we wouldn’t have the modern convinces that the people of my generation take for granted. Franklin was a statesman and inventor. He was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. He died on April 17, 1790 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of eighty-four. He had sixteen brothers and sisters and was the youngest boy in the family.
Benjamin Franklin was the son of Abiah Folger (mother) and Josiah Franklin (father). His parents were soap and candlemakers. He was pulled out of school at the age of ten to help his father so he was pretty much self taught. This is surprising considering all of his inventions and his impact on science.
His early inventions include the franklin stove which was created in 1741, the Lightning rod in 1750, the glass harmonica in 1761, Bifocals in 1783 and many more.
The Franklin Stove was also known as the Pennsylvania Fireplace. In the 18th century, fireplaces were the main source of heating. They were also very dangerous. they had a lot of wood inside of them which made it give off a lot of smoke and sparkles and it could have caused fires. Franklin was interested to where the air that went up the chimney originated from. He made an open stove made of cast iron, he then looked for a technique to make it progressively productive by recycling the hot air within the house through an altered siphon and giving the chimney direct access to outside air. In addition to making a stove that required less measure of wood, he made a more secure stove that avoided flames.
Benjamin also created the first pair of bifocals. He had to use two different pairs of glasses, one to see up close and one to see far away. He got really annoyed by this so he decided to cut both pairs of his glasses in half and glue them together. Now that he has done this he only has to either look up or down to see up close or far. Bifocals have come a long way, changing millions of peoples way they see on a daily basis.
On to his huge impact on science, the Lightning Rod. For Americans, the threat of massive urban fires was very real thanks to the unpredictable and then mysterious meteorological phenomenon known as lightning. Lightning could, without warning, cause a whole town to eject into flames until he introduced his invention, the Lightning rod, a device that guided the electrically charged lightning to the ground and forestalled numerous flames as a result. He came up with the Lightning rod from doing the kite experiment.
“The year was 1752 and he was conducting his experiment with electricity. It is his most famous and most talked about one today. Franklin attempted to fly a kite in a thunderstorm with the help of his son, William. The story behind the experiment did not come public until way later and that is because he did not know if it was going to work or turn out as expected. He was also scared that if it hadn’t of worked he would become a laughingstock. So, he kept quiet about it and the only person who was there and who knew about it was William. When he announced it he published a story about it and wrote it in third person to make it seem as if someone else that was there was writing it. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riA9Pn4o1wQ)”
The actual experiment was to prove that lightning was a from of electricity and help unlock the key to one of society’s future. He avoided a direct hit from the lightning and he discovered that by flying a kite while a thunderstorm, there was sufficient electricity to travel down the kite string and charge a leyden jar. The charge that was collected was sufficient enough to give him a mild shock. From a stream of lightning to identifying positive and negative charges.
This experiment helped create something that will transform our lives. “Just a little over 200 years ago, we’ve gone from the spot where electricity was the great unknown to a time that we can’t imagine something as batteries in our cellphones. This was a very short time in the history of humanity and yet look at what it has brought us. (George Wunderlich, The History Channel)” Benjamin Franklin is a hero from creating what has today, impacted our lives tremendously and he is a leader in the discovery topic that is so much of science, electricity.
