![]() Writing in 1750 to a friend, “I have lately made an experiment in electricity that I desire never to repeat” and describing the experiment, saying “I inadvertently took the whole through my own arms and body, by receiving the fire from the united top wires … I felt what I know not how well do describe-a universal blow throughout my whole body from head to foot, which seemed within as well as without after which the first thing I took notice of was a violent, quick shaking of my body”, announcing “the quickness of the electrical fire seems to be greater than that of sound, light, or animal sensation.” ![]() Having published “Poor Richard’s Almanack” under the pseudonym Richard Saunders at age 27, the wit in Franklin’s collection of amusing insights appears again in a letter to his British friend Peter Collinson: “…it may help make a vain man humble … but other than that not being very useful”.įranklin spoke from experience, having his own share of electric shock. Watson answers in his sequel to earlier work, a follow-up christened “Sequel Experiments and Observations” in 1746. “We are not as yet so far advanced in these discoveries as to render them conducive to the service of mankind.” But Franklin sets his sights on a practical purpose. An early Einstein imbued with idiosyncrasies, he invited friends to a show of the Leyden jar’s power-to slaughter his turkey.īy the mid 1740’s a cry rang out on both shores of the pond, “what’s the point?” of electricity. His fascination with electricity bordered on obsession. Saying “never before was I engaged in a study that totally engrossed my attention, I have little leisure anything else”. He was hooked!“Surprised” and “pleased”, he wrote to a friend. Simple tricks: it was the unknown, the uncatchable, the untamable, the unconquerable that seized Franklin’s passion. Why did a book publisher, author, and businessman like Franklin become attracted to electricity in the first place?Ī Scottish travelling scientific showman snagged Franklin’s curiosity in the summer of 1743, with a show of force to jolt a dangling boy and zap two hundred hands at once. Why Electricity?Īt age 40, he stepped into the intellectual vacuum after a highly successful career as a printer. In fact, it was so easy to engage Franklin in scientific phenomenon like electricity, and in the process he made profound contributions to our story, the story of the digital revolution. The most well-known modern biographer of Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson declared that “during his life he was celebrated as the most famous scientist alive”, and continued that he has “earned a place in the pantheon”. Enlightening his readership with a unique concentration of rationality, it was said that the birth of Rationalism begins with Franklin.Īccording to Joseph Preistly, with such remarkable contributions, he was celebrated as the most important experimental natural philosopher of his era. A gift for clarity in writing served him well, in explaining the electron’s flow and beyond, empowering everything he touched and described. But what would become known as the American spirit began to impact the world through key players like Franklin. A tame collection of markets for England’s goods and services. The British empire wanted colonies full of consumers, not explorers. Intense drive, strong intellect, and intuitive genius coalesced into a man primed for discovery. To Kant, he was “the Prometheus of recent times”. Wright’s “Our Debt to Franklin”, written in celebration of Franklin’s bicentennial birthday, the essayist writes “His mind was exceedingly fertile, and he investigated a range of subjects that would stagger the modern student of physics.” Renowned Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume named Franklin “the first American Philosopher”, a distinction that in turn labeled Franklin as the first American scientist. He was a constant inventor, accredited for the invention of the lightning conductor, Franklin Stove, bifocal spectacles, oceanography, and many others. His contributions to politics, literature, science, and philosophy were remarkable. Without a doubt, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1789) was one of the greatest statesmen of his time-the only Founding Father to sign all documents of the American Revolution.
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