Benjamnin Franklin A Man in History

          Hi I am going to write a biography paper about Benjamin Franklin. Franklin’s name would almost certainly be on any list of the half – dozen greatest Americans. His face appeared on postage stamps, and on the coins and paper money of the United States. Also the university of Pennsylvania named its athletic field in his honor.
          Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, in 1706. He was the 15th child and youngest son in a family of 17 children. His parents were, Josiah and Abiah Franklin. Also his father maid soap and candles in his shop called " At The Sign of The Blue Ball"on milk street. Later he attended school in Boston for two years and he proved himself excellent in reading, fair in writing, and poor in arithmetic. But then Josiah Franklin decided that he could not afford father education for him. They kept Benjamin home after the age of 10 to help cut wicks and melt tallow in the candle and soap shop. His school ended but his education did not. At the age of twelve his father wanted him to become an apprentice to his older brother James, a printer. When he was 17 he ran away to Philadelphia, which was then the largest city in the American colonies. He became part owner of a print shop in 1728, when he was 22. Later in 1730, Franklin married Deborah Read, he had three children, two boys and one girl and one of the boys became governor of New Jersey.
          He did a lot of great inventions but one of his best known was in the area of electrostatics, or static electricity – electricity that is usually not moving, but is still or stationary. Until the end of the 18th century, people only knew about static electricity. They did not know about moving or flowing electricity – that is, the electric current so familiar today. He was actually one of the first persons in the world to experiment with electricity. He conducted his most famous electrical experiment at Philadelphia in 1752. He flew a home maid kite during a thunderstorm, and proved that lightning is electricity. When he was finally successful in this what happened was that a bolt of lightning struck a pointed wire fastened to the kite and traveled down the kite string to a key fastened at the end, where it caused a spark. Then he tamed lightning by inventing the lightning rod. He urged his fellow citizens to use this device as a sure “ means or securing the habitations and other buildings from mischief from thunder and lightning. When lightning struck Franklins home, the soundness of his invention apparent. The lightning rod saved the building from damage and his lightning rod demonstrated his saying that “ An ounce prevention is worth a pound of cure”.  He also did other inventions apart from this. He was the first scientist to study the movement of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean. Also people appreciate his invention of bifocal eye glasses most of all because this allowed both reading and distant lenses to be set in a single frame.
          Benjamin Franklin died on the night of April 17, 1790, at the age of 84. About 20,000 people honored him at his funeral. He was buried in the cemetery of Christ church in Philadelphia beside his wife, who had died in 1774. He also left $5,000 each to Boston and Philadelphia, part to be used for public works after 100years, and rest after 200 years. Part of that money has been used to establish the scientific, museum in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin was a very honored man and he will remain in the minds of good citizens.