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Search Results for "benjamin franklin"
There are 247 Retriever pages mentioning "benjamin franklin":
- Ben Franklin -- Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin's father wanted Ben to be the son who became a preacher and so he sent him to grammar school when he was 8 years old. After less than a year, for financial reasons, Ben transferred to Mr. George Brownell's school for writing and arithmetic. He stayed at the new school until he was ten, doing well in writing and badly in arithmetic. He then left school to work with his father in their candle shop. Ben's further education came from his own reading and lifelong conversation and debate with his friends. - Continental Congress -- Benjamin Franklin
It was on May 10, 1775, the day that had witnessed the capture of the powerful fortress at the base of the Adirondacks by the intrepid Allen, that the Second Continental Congress met in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. It was composed of the best brains of the land. Most of the old members of the preceding Congress were present, but some of the strongest men in the body now took their seats for the first time. Among these were Thomas Jefferson, a youthful Virginian whose powers were beginning to unfold; Benjamin Franklin, the only American who enjoyed a world-wide fame; and John Hancock, who was chosen president in defiance of the king's proscription.1 - Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Scientist)
Benjamin Franklin may have been the most remarkable American ever to live: a printer, scientist, inventor, politician, diplomat, and--finally--an icon. His life was so sweeping that this comprehensive biography by H.W. Brands at times reads like a history of the United States during the 18th century. Franklin was at the center of America's transition from British colony to new nation, and was a kind of Founding Grandfather to the Founding Fathers; he was a full generation older than George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry, and they all viewed him with deep respect. "Of those patriots who made independence possible, none mattered more than Franklin, and only Washington mattered as much," writes Brands (author of a well-received Teddy Roosevelt biography, T.R.: The Last Romantic). Franklin was a complex character who sometimes came up a bit short in the personal virtue department, once commenting, "That hard-to-be-governed passion of youth had hurried me frequently into intrigues with low women that fell in my way." - Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Early)
Benjamin Franklin was a genius, recognized as such at home and abroad in his own time and still today. George Washington referred to him as "that great philosopher." Thomas Jefferson called him "the greatest man of the age and country in which he lived." John Adams said of him: "Franklin had a great genius, original, sagacious, and inventive, capable of discoveries in science no less than of improvements in the fine arts and the mechanical arts....His reputation was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire." Much of Franklin's reputation was a result of his phenomenal demonstration of capturing lightning from the sky and bringing it safely to the ground without harming people or property. Before this, according to Adams, grown men would hide under their beds in superstitious fear during storms of lightning and thunder. - Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Scientist) -- Benjamin Franklin House
Benjamin Franklin was an active inventor all his adult life. One of the most famous of his many inventions was the Franklin stove. Houses in his time were poorly heated by drafty open fireplaces. Franklin's stove stood in the fireplace, but its grate extended out into the room. This heater cast warmth in all directions. As Franklin said, the stove prevented a person "being scorched before, and, as it were, froze behind." - Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Scientist) -- Franklin Institute
The unique partnership between The Franklin Institute and The Girl Scouts of the USA provided girls and their families a chance to learn about science together. Over 100 sites participated in the program, with over seventy of the sites still active today. Girls at the Center provided activities for the girls to do with their families at home, as well as projects to be completed on site, all culminating in a year-end party! - Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Scientist) -- Ben Franklin
During his Benjamin Franklin lecture, John showed videos of how PongSats are lofted into the upper atmosphere. During one recent flight, the PongSats were stowed in fabric bags mounted within a platform loaded with instrument and cameras (see JP Aerospace for photographs). - Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Early) -- Fathers
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born at Boston, on the 17th of January, 1706. His father... Benjamin, had fled the persecution of puritans by Charles II of England. At an early age, young Franklin was recognized to have a higher than average inteligence, and thus was sent to grammar school for an education. He soon gained the reputation of "industrious habits, and respectable genius" as put by John Vinci in his adaptation of The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin. - Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Early) -- Life
Scholarly writings about Benjamin Franklin have traditionally focused on the ways in which both his Autobiography and his life deal with the process of self-creation. Scholars have noted that Franklin as a model of the self-made man has come to represent American nationality and its promise of social mobility. Recently... scholars have examined the ways in which "this now canonical reading," as Betsy Erkkila notes, "fails to take account of the fluid, discontinuous, and split nature of Franklin's written 'performances' of himself" (728). In other words, recent Franklin criticism has focused on the variety of self-representations present in Franklin's Autobiography. - Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Early) -- Letters
The Writings of Benjamin Franklin is a very valuable resource for Franklin's writings. It covers 1722 to 1775 and includes all of the Silence Dogood letters, the Busy Body letters, a number of issues of the Pennsylvania Gazette, the Albany Plan, numerous letters to friends & family, and lots of essays and articles from newspapers in U.S. and England.