Lionel benjamin biography franklin

Constitution in , he was rarely seen in public from then until his death. Franklin died from pleuritic attack [ ] at his home in Philadelphia on April 17, His last words were reportedly, "a dying man can do nothing easy," to his daughter after she suggested that he change position in bed and lie on his side so he could breathe more easily.

Approximately 20, people attended Franklin's funeral after which he was interred in Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia. The Body of B. Franklin's actual grave, however, as he specified in his final will, simply reads "Benjamin and Deborah Franklin. Franklin was a prodigious inventor. Among his many creations were the lightning rod , Franklin stove , bifocal glasses and the flexible urinary catheter.

He never patented his inventions; in his autobiography he wrote, " Franklin started exploring the phenomenon of electricity in the s, after he met the itinerant lecturer Archibald Spencer, who used static electricity in his demonstrations.

Lionel benjamin biography franklin

The same proposal was made independently that same year by William Watson. He was the first to label them as positive and negative respectively, which replaced the then current distinction made between 'vitreous' and 'resinous' electricity, [ ] [ ] [ ] and he was the first to discover the principle of conservation of charge. In pursuit of more pragmatic uses for electricity, remarking in spring that he felt "chagrin'd a little" that his experiments had heretofore resulted in "Nothing in this Way of Use to Mankind," Franklin planned a practical demonstration.

He proposed a dinner party where a turkey was to be killed via electric shock and roasted on an electrical spit. Franklin briefly investigated electrotherapy , including the use of the electric bath. This work led to the field becoming widely known. The CGS unit of electric charge has been named after him: one franklin Fr is equal to one statcoulomb.

Franklin advised Harvard University in its acquisition of new electrical laboratory apparatus after the complete loss of its original collection, in a fire that destroyed the original Harvard Hall in The collection he assembled later became part of the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments , now on public display in its Science Center.

Franklin published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm. On June 15, , Franklin may possibly have conducted his well-known kite experiment in Philadelphia, successfully extracting sparks from a cloud. He described the experiment in his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette , on October 19, , [ ] [ ] without mentioning that he himself had performed it.

Franklin was careful to stand on an insulator, keeping dry under a roof to avoid the danger of electric shock. In his writings, Franklin indicates that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his use of the concept of electrical ground. He did not perform this experiment in the way that is often pictured in popular literature, flying the kite and waiting to be struck by lightning, as it would have been dangerous.

When rain has wet the kite twine so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it streams out plentifully from the key at the approach of your knuckle, and with this key a phial, or Leyden jar, may be charged: and from electric fire thus obtained spirits may be kindled, and all other electric experiments [may be] performed which are usually done by the help of a rubber glass globe or tube; and therefore the sameness of the electrical matter with that of lightening [ sic ] completely demonstrated.

Franklin's electrical experiments led to his invention of the lightning rod. He said that conductors with a sharp [ ] rather than a smooth point could discharge silently and at a far greater distance. He surmised that this could help protect buildings from lightning by attaching "upright Rods of Iron, made sharp as a Needle and gilt to prevent Rusting, and from the Foot of those Rods a Wire down the outside of the Building into the Ground; Would not these pointed Rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible Mischief!

Franklin had a major influence on the emerging science of demography or population studies. He calculated that America's population was doubling every 20 years and would surpass that of England in a century. Four years later, it was anonymously printed in Boston and was quickly reproduced in Britain, where it influenced the economist Adam Smith and later the demographer Thomas Malthus , who credited Franklin for discovering a rule of population growth.

Kammen and Drake say Franklin's Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind stands alongside Ezra Stiles ' "Discourse on Christian Union" as the leading works of 18th-century Anglo-American demography; Drake credits Franklin's "wide readership and prophetic insight. This is succinctly preserved in his letter to the London Chronicle published November 29, , titled "On the Price of Corn, and Management of the poor.

As deputy postmaster, Franklin became interested in North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns. While in England in , he heard a complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs. British packet ships carrying mail had taken several weeks longer to reach New York than it took an average merchant ship to reach Newport, Rhode Island. The merchantmen had a longer and more complex voyage because they left from London, while the packets left from Falmouth in Cornwall.

Franklin worked with Folger and other experienced ship captains, learning enough to chart the current and name it the Gulf Stream , by which it is still known today. Franklin published his Gulf Stream chart in in England, where it was ignored. Subsequent versions were printed in France in and the U. Though it was Dr. Franklin and Captain Tim Folger, who first turned the Gulf Stream to nautical account, the discovery that there was a Gulf Stream cannot be said to belong to either of them, for its existence was known to Peter Martyr d'Anghiera , and to Sir Humphrey Gilbert , in the 16th century.

An aging Franklin accumulated all his oceanographic findings in Maritime Observations , published by the Philosophical Society's transactions in Franklin was, along with his contemporary Leonhard Euler , the only major scientist who supported Christiaan Huygens 's wave theory of light , which was basically ignored by the rest of the scientific community.

In the 18th century, Isaac Newton 's corpuscular theory was held to be true; it took Thomas Young's well-known slit experiment in to persuade most scientists to believe Huygens's theory. On October 21, , according to the popular myth, a storm moving from the southwest denied Franklin the opportunity of witnessing a lunar eclipse. He was said to have noted that the prevailing winds were actually from the northeast, contrary to what he had expected.

In correspondence with his brother, he learned that the same storm had not reached Boston until after the eclipse, despite the fact that Boston is to the northeast of Philadelphia. He deduced that storms do not always travel in the direction of the prevailing wind, a concept that greatly influenced meteorology. He wrote about them in a lecture series.

Though Franklin is famously associated with kites from his lightning experiments, he has also been noted by many for using kites to pull humans and ships across waterways. Franklin noted a principle of refrigeration by observing that on a very hot day, he stayed cooler in a wet shirt in a breeze than he did in a dry one. To understand this phenomenon more clearly, he conducted experiments.

In on a warm day in Cambridge , England, he and fellow scientist John Hadley experimented by continually wetting the ball of a mercury thermometer with ether and using bellows to evaporate the ether. In his letter Cooling by Evaporation , Franklin noted that, "One may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer's day. In , Franklin wrote a letter to Mary Stevenson describing his experiments on the relationship between color and heat absorption.

One experiment he performed consisted of placing square pieces of cloth of various color out in the snow on a sunny day. He waited some time and then measured that the black pieces sank furthest into the snow of all the colors, indicating that they got the hottest and melted the most snow. According to Michael Faraday , Franklin's experiments on the non-conduction of ice are worth mentioning, although the law of the general effect of liquefaction on electrolytes is not attributed to Franklin.

Franklin wrote, " A certain quantity of heat will make some bodies good conductors, that will not otherwise conduct And water, though naturally a good conductor, will not conduct well when frozen into ice. While traveling on a ship, Franklin had observed that the wake of a ship was diminished when the cooks scuttled their greasy water. He studied the effects on a large pond in Clapham Common , London.

Then during three or four Days Consideration I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different Motives that at different Times occur to me for or against the Measure. When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out: If I find a Reason pro equal to some two Reasons con , I strike out the three.

If I judge some two Reasons con equal to some three Reasons pro , I strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther Consideration nothing new that is of Importance occurs on either side, I come to a Determination accordingly. Like the other advocates of republicanism , Franklin emphasized that the new republic could survive only if the people were virtuous.

All his life, he explored the role of civic and personal virtue, as expressed in Poor Richard's aphorisms. He felt that organized religion was necessary to keep men good to their fellow men, but rarely attended religious services himself. Franklin's parents were both pious Puritans. The book preached the importance of forming voluntary associations to benefit society.

Franklin learned about forming do-good associations from Mather, but his organizational skills made him the most influential force in making voluntarism an enduring part of the American ethos. Franklin formulated a presentation of his beliefs and published it in He classified himself as a deist in his autobiography, [ ] although he still considered himself a Christian.

At a critical impasse during the Constitutional Convention in June , he attempted to introduce the practice of daily common prayer with these words:. In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.

All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.

The motion gained almost no support and was never brought to a vote. Franklin was an enthusiastic admirer of the evangelical minister George Whitefield during the First Great Awakening. He did not himself subscribe to Whitefield's theology, but he admired Whitefield for exhorting people to worship God through good works. He published all of Whitefield's sermons and journals, thereby earning a lot of money and boosting the Great Awakening.

Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that He made the world, and governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter.

Franklin retained a lifelong commitment to the non-religious Puritan virtues and political values he had grown up with, and through his civic work and publishing, he succeeded in passing these values into the American culture permanently. He had a "passion for virtue. The classical authors read in the Enlightenment period taught an abstract ideal of republican government based on hierarchical social orders of king, aristocracy and commoners.

It was widely believed that English liberties relied on their balance of power, but also hierarchal deference to the privileged class. Franklin's commitment to teach these values was itself something he gained from his Puritan upbringing, with its stress on "inculcating virtue and character in themselves and their communities. Max Weber considered Franklin's ethical writings a culmination of the Protestant ethic , which ethic created the social conditions necessary for the birth of capitalism.

One of his characteristics was his respect, tolerance and promotion of all churches. Referring to his experience in Philadelphia, he wrote in his autobiography, "new Places of worship were continually wanted, and generally erected by voluntary Contribution, my Mite for such purpose, whatever might be the Sect, was never refused. Although his parents had intended for him a career in the church, [ 19 ] Franklin as a young man adopted the Enlightenment religious belief in deism, that God's truths can be found entirely through nature and reason, [ ] declaring, "I soon became a thorough Deist.

In a major scholarly study of his religion, Thomas Kidd argues that Franklin believed that true religiosity was a matter of personal morality and civic virtue. Kidd says Franklin maintained his lifelong resistance to orthodox Christianity while arriving finally at a "doctrineless, moralized Christianity. The Church of England claimed him as one of them.

The Presbyterians thought him half a Presbyterian, and the Friends believed him a wet Quaker. In , just about a month before he died, Franklin wrote a letter to Ezra Stiles , president of Yale University , who had asked him his views on religion:. As to Jesus of Nazareth , my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England , some Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble.

I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as it probably has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any particular marks of his displeasure. Franklin's proposal which was not adopted featured the motto: "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God" and a scene from the Book of Exodus he took from the frontispiece of the Geneva Bible , [ ] with Moses , the Israelites , the pillar of fire , and George III depicted as pharaoh.

The design that was produced was not acted upon by Congress, and the Great Seal's design was not finalized until a third committee was appointed in Franklin strongly supported the right to freedom of speech :. In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech, which is the right of every man Franklin sought to cultivate his character by a plan of 13 virtues, which he developed at age 20 in and continued to practice in some form for the rest of his life.

His autobiography lists his 13 virtues as: [ ]. Franklin did not try to work on them all at once. Instead, he worked on only one each week "leaving all others to their ordinary chance. Franklin's views and practices concerning slavery evolved over the course of his life. In his early years, Franklin owned seven slaves, including two men who worked in his household and his shop, but in his later years became an adherent of abolition.

He later became an outspoken critic of slavery. In , he advocated the opening of a school for the education of black slaves in Philadelphia. King escaped with a woman to live in the outskirts of London, [ ] and by he was working for a household in Suffolk. In the wake of Somerset v Stewart , he voiced frustration at British abolitionists:. O Pharisaical Britain!

Franklin refused to publicly debate the issue of slavery at the Constitutional Convention. Many of the leading American founders — such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and James Madison — owned slaves, but many others did not. Benjamin Franklin thought that slavery was "an atrocious debasement of human nature" and "a source of serious evils.

Their argument against slavery was backed by the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society. In his later years, as Congress was forced to deal with the issue of slavery, Franklin wrote several essays that stressed the importance of the abolition of slavery and of the integration of African Americans into American society. These writings included:. Franklin became a vegetarian when he was a teenager apprenticing at a print shop, after coming upon a book by the early vegetarian advocate Thomas Tryon.

His reasons for vegetarianism were based on health, ethics, and economy:. When about 16 years of age, I happen'd to meet with a book written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet. I determined to go into it This was an additional fund for buying books: but I had another advantage in it I made the greater progress from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension which usually attend temperance in eating and drinking.

Franklin also declared the consumption of fish to be "unprovoked murder. Nonetheless, he recognized the faulty ethics in this argument [ ] and would continue to be a vegetarian on and off. Franklin sent a sample of soybeans to prominent American botanist John Bartram and had previously written to British diplomat and Chinese trade expert James Flint inquiring as to how tofu was made, [ ] with their correspondence believed to be the first documented use of the word "tofu" in the English language.

Franklin's "Second Reply to Vindex Patriae, " a letter advocating self-sufficiency and less dependence on England, lists various examples of the bounty of American agricultural products, and does not mention meat. The concept of preventing smallpox by variolation was introduced to colonial America by an African slave named Onesimus via his owner Cotton Mather in the early eighteenth century, but the procedure was not immediately accepted.

James Franklin's newspaper carried articles in [ ] that vigorously denounced the concept. However, by Benjamin Franklin was known as a supporter of the procedure. Therefore, when four-year-old "Franky" died of smallpox, opponents of the procedure circulated rumors that the child had been inoculated, and that this was the cause of his subsequent death.

When Franklin became aware of this gossip, he placed a notice in the Pennsylvania Gazette , stating: "I do hereby sincerely declare, that he was not inoculated, but receiv'd the Distemper in the common Way of Infection I intended to have my Child inoculated. Franklin wrote in his Autobiography : "In I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way.

I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.

Franklin is known to have played the violin, the harp, and the guitar. He also composed music, which included a string quartet in early classical style. He worked with the London glassblower Charles James to create it, and instruments based on his mechanical version soon found their way to other parts of Europe. Franklin was an avid chess player.

He was playing chess by around , making him the first chess player known by name in the American colonies. Franklin was able to play chess more frequently against stronger opposition during his many years as a civil servant and diplomat in England, where the game was far better established than in America. He was able to improve his playing standard by facing more experienced players during this period.

He regularly attended Old Slaughter's Coffee House in London for chess and socializing, making many important personal contacts. No records of his games have survived, so it is not possible to ascertain his playing strength in modern terms. Franklin was inducted into the U. Chess Hall of Fame in The main character leaves a smallish amount of money in his will, five lots of livres , to collect interest over one, two, three, four or five full centuries, with the resulting astronomical sums to be spent on impossibly elaborate utopian projects.

From to , the money was used mostly for mortgage loans. When the trust came due, Philadelphia decided to spend it on scholarships for local high school students. In , a group of prominent ministers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania , proposed the foundation of a new college named in Franklin's honor. Constitution in , Franklin is considered one of the leading Founding Fathers of the United States.

His pervasive influence in the early history of the nation has led to his being jocularly called "the only president of the United States who was never president of the United States. Franklin's likeness is ubiquitous. From to , Franklin's portrait was on the half-dollar. On April 12, , as part of a bicentennial celebration, Congress dedicated a foot 6 m tall marble statue in Philadelphia's Franklin Institute as the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.

Vice President Nelson Rockefeller presided over the dedication ceremony. In London, his house at 36 Craven Street, which is the only surviving former residence of Franklin, was first marked with a blue plaque and has since been opened to the public as the Benjamin Franklin House. A total of 15 bodies have been recovered. They note that while Franklin likely knew what Hewson was doing, he probably did not participate in any dissections because he was much more of a physicist than a medical man.

He has been honored on U. The image of Franklin, the first postmaster general of the United States, occurs on the face of U. From through , the U. Post Office issued a series of postage stamps commonly referred to as the Washington—Franklin Issues , in which Washington and Franklin were depicted many times over a year period, the longest run of any one series in U.

However, he only appears on a few commemorative stamps. Some of the finest portrayals of Franklin on record can be found on the engravings inscribed on the face of U. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item.

American polymath and statesman — For other uses, see Benjamin Franklin disambiguation. Portrait by Joseph Duplessis , Deborah Read. William Francis Sarah. Josiah Franklin Abiah Folger. An illustration of Franklin's birthplace on Milk Street in Boston. Moves to Philadelphia and London. Further information: Early American publishers and printers.

Common-law marriage to Deborah Read. Deborah Read Franklin , Franklin's common-law wife, c. Main article: William Franklin. Anti-monarchism Anti-corruption Civic virtue Civil society Consent of the governed Democracy Democratization Liberty as non-domination Mixed government Political representation Popular sovereignty Public participation Republic Res publica Rule of law Self-governance Separation of powers Social contract Social equality.

Theoretical works. Republic c. National variants. Related topics. Early steps in Pennsylvania. Return to London and Travels in Europe. Defending the American cause. Agent for British and Hellfire Club membership. Declaration of Independence. Ambassador to France — President of Pennsylvania and Delegate to the Constitutional convention.

Inventions and scientific inquiries. Kite experiment and lightning rod. Views on religion, morality, and slavery. Further information: List of places named for Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Franklin in popular culture. Pennsylvania Historical Marker. Franklin was embraced in France as much, if not more, for his wit and intellectual standing in the scientific community as for his status as a political appointee from a fledgling country.

His reputation facilitated respect and entrees into closed communities, including the court of King Louis XVI. And it was his adept diplomacy that led to the Treaty of Paris in , which ended the Revolutionary War. After almost a decade in France, Franklin returned to the United States in Franklin was elected in to represent Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention , which drafted and ratified the new U.

The oldest delegate at the age of 81, Franklin initially supported proportional representation in Congress, but he fashioned the Great Compromise that resulted in proportional representation in the House of Representatives and equal representation by state in the Senate. In , he helped found the Society for Political Inquiries, dedicated to improving knowledge of government.

Franklin was never elected president of the United States. However, he played an important role as one of eight Founding Fathers, helping draft the Declaration of Independence and the U. He also served several roles in the government: He was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly and appointed as the first postmaster general for the colonies as well as diplomat to France.

He was a true polymath and entrepreneur, which is no doubt why he is often called the "First American. Franklin died on April 17, , in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the home of his daughter, Sarah Bache. He was 84, suffered from gout and had complained of ailments for some time, completing the final codicil to his will a little more than a year and a half prior to his death.

He bequeathed most of his estate to Sarah and very little to his son William, whose opposition to the patriot cause still stung him. He also donated money that funded scholarships, schools and museums in Boston and Philadelphia. But the scope of things he applied himself to was so broad it seems a shame. Founding universities and libraries, the post office, shaping the foreign policy of the fledgling United States, helping to draft the Declaration of Independence, publishing newspapers, warming us with the Franklin stove, pioneering advances in science, letting us see with bifocals and lighting our way with electricity—all from a man who never finished school but shaped his life through abundant reading and experience, a strong moral compass and an unflagging commitment to civic duty.

Franklin illuminated corners of American life that still have the lingering glow of his attention. The Biography. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site.

Thomas Jefferson. The 13 Most Cunning Military Leaders. Cesare Beccaria. He founded several newspapers, including The Pennsylvania Gazette, which became the most widely-read paper in the colonies under his ownership. He was a founding father of the United States, playing a central role in pivotal events like the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the U.

His scientific discoveries, particularly in electricity, alongside inventions like the lightning rod and bifocal glasses, showcased his polymath abilities and entrepreneurial spirit. His life demonstrated that wealth can be an avenue for greater contributions to society, leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire generations. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a polymath who excelled as an inventor, scientist, printer, politician, freemason, and diplomat.

He played pivotal roles in drafting the Declaration of Independence and the U. Constitution, as well as negotiating the Treaty of Paris in , which officially ended the Revolutionary War. Franklin made significant contributions to the study of electricity, conducting the famous kite-and-key experiment to demonstrate that lightning is electricity.

He coined several terms still in use today, such as "battery", "charge", and "conductor. Published by Franklin for 25 years starting in , Poor Richard's Almanack was a yearly publication that included weather forecasts, proverbs, and entertaining essays. It was well-known for its witty sayings, such as "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise," making it a pivotal piece of American literature and humor.

Franklin held several important positions in government, including serving as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, deputy postmaster general of North America, and as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was instrumental in advocating for unity among the colonies and played a key role in shaping early American legislation and foreign policy.

Initially, Franklin owned enslaved people, but his views evolved as he recognized the inherent immorality of slavery. By the s, he freed his enslaved individuals and later became a leading advocate for abolition, serving as president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and petitioning Congress for an end to the institution.

Franklin is remembered as a true American icon, with contributions spanning science, literature, politics, and social reform. His innovative spirit, commitment to education, founding of libraries, and establishment of the postal system have left an enduring mark on American society and continue to be celebrated today. He is often referred to as the "First American" for his diverse achievements and influence.

We assure our audience that we will remove any contents that are not accurate or according to formal reports and queries if they are justified. We commit to cover sensible issues responsibly through the principles of neutrality. As minister to France starting in , Franklin helped negotiate and draft the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.

In , Franklin left France and returned once again to Philadelphia. In , he was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention. At the end of the convention, in September , he urged his fellow delegates to support the heavily debated new document. The U. Franklin died a year later, at age 84, on April 17, , in Philadelphia. In his will, he left money to Boston and Philadelphia, which was later used to establish a trade school and a science museum and fund scholarships and other community projects.

More than years after his death, Franklin remains one of the most celebrated figures in U. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States. Your Profile. Email Updates. Benjamin Franklin. Read more. Surprisingly little. Advice from the Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin. The Eventful Life of Benjamin Franklin.