Benjamin Franklin’s Blog

  Ben’s Blog #24 – Ben Franklin, Electricity, and the Church Dear Citizens, In my last entry I alluded, with deliberate vagueness, to my having had an adversary in my electrical experiments.  This adversary was a conservative element of the Church, the Anglican Church of England, whose presence in the colonies was important and influential.  Not, however, as influential as it was in England, itself. Their position was that I had no right to tamper with the workings with the Almighty.  Lightning was, they believed, a physical manifestation of God’s wrath and Man had no right to attempt to divert its course.  If God wanted lightning to strike a certain building, it was not for us to interfere.  The miracles of nature He provided, both the beautiful, like rainbows, and the damaging, like lightning, were not for diversion, alteration, or negation.  Nor even for understanding. I considered this.  These were …

  Ben Franklin and the Lightning Rod –The follow-up – Blog #23 Dear Citizens, In my last entry I described, briefly, the reasons for my having had the audacity (or the stupidity) to go out into the teeth of a spring thunderstorm and fly a kite as high into the skies as I could.  And with my beloved son, William, helping as well! That my theories were proven correct was satisfying.  But the reactions to this experiment are worthy, themselves, of some discussion and as I promised, I’ll amplify a bit on what happened after the skies cleared. The idea that homes, barns, and buildings of all kinds could have the danger of fire from electrical strikes considerably diminished was quite exciting and caused much discussion following my publication of the details of that night in June 1752.   I was very gratified to see that within a month, lightning rods …

    To my faithful readers, Following many years of electrical experiments and thought, I came to the conclusion that lightning, while certainly dramatic, was , simply stated, just a more dangerous form of static electricity.  If this were true, man should be able to divert its course (as can be done with static electricity) and move the dangerous charge away from houses, barns, public buildings and the like. If I were able to prove this thesis,  I would render an important service and help fulfill my wish to live usefully. The descriptions I had written earlier of my successes and failures regarding electricity, and these notes, originally sent to my friend Peter Collinson in London, had been translated into many languages.  Thus, in 1752, I had arrived at a point of some reputation as an electrical scientist. I thought, erroneously as it turned out, that electricity was a sort …

Ben Franklin and Electricity – Ben’s Blog #21 Good Citizens, For those faithful to these pages, and who have read my entry last week entitled “Ben Franklin, Scientist – the Gulf Stream,” I finished by speaking of how entranced I had become with electricity.  Today I’ll talk of my experiments in that fascinating realm. For most of my youth, electrical “experiments” were more of a parlor game than a real examination.  We knew that static electricity passed through many people, could cause them all to jump.  Quite entertaining that, although less so for the participants. In the 1740’s, my friend in London, Peter Collinson, of the Royal Society, sent me some electrical apparatus with which to examine this strange phenomenon of electricity in more depth.  Nothing has ever fascinated me more and I worked and mused upon all this for some years.  It was from those experiments that I developed …

Ben Franklin, Scientist: the Gulf  Steam – Blog #20 A Dear Citizens, It began with curiosity.  My very first memory is of pressing my nose against the cold window pane of my father’s study in Boston and seeing, across the street and down the hill, the masts–just the tips of them–of the great sailing ships moving out of Boston Harbor and into the great Atlantic –bound for ports I couldn’t even pronounce.   Majestic!  Inspiring!  I wanted to go too and learn what was beyond Milk Street where I was born and where I lived. Curiosity marked my youth.  I studied clouds (on my back, lying on the ground), and wanted to know why they moved in a certain direction and not in others.  I read everything I could. If there is one trait that wove like a thread through the entire fabricof my life it was curiosity. Later, while …

Benjamin Franklin and the Founding of the University of Pennsylvania – Blog #20 Dear Readers, My interest in creating a university, which you read about in my journal entry of last week, was high and I set all my energies to create a school that was not merely an imitation of Yale, Harvard, or William and Mary; universities and colleges whose goals were the education of future clergy, but a different kind of place altogether; a university where practical skills such as printing and swimming might be taught; a university where a more eclectic set of curricula was prized.  And this, I was able to do after some effort. I called my school the Publick Academy of Philadelphia and I was instantly made a trustee for life; an honor that I relate with some pride given the fact that I had only had two years of formal education, myself.  My …

Ben Franklin’s Junto and the Pennsylvania Hospital, Part 3   Blog #18C Dear Readers, My belief in the importance of having a modern hospital for the citizens of Philadelphia was not my original idea.  It was the concept of young Dr. Thomas Bond, recently returned from Paris and filled with new ideas of treating the sick which he had learned there.  I willingly and immediately give all credit for the idea of the Philadelphia Hospital to him. But I will state as impartially as I can that it was my belief in the power of working together for the common good that led me on my own journey around the city, knocking on doors and explaining the concept to my fellow Philadelphians. And that belief, you may recall–and certainly will recall if you have been following these musings from their beginnings –that belief came from a book I read when only …

  The Junto and the Philadelphia Hospital, Part 2    Blog #18B Dear Readers faithful to these pages, In my entry into these pages last week, I told you of the proposal before us; to secure the funds and build a hospital for the populace of our city, Philadelphia.  The challenges involved with such a project were great.  And I found a possible solution to the problem of funding in an unorthodox, original idea. I was, at the time, a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and thought to approach this august body for assistance.  I proposed to them that they contribute £2000 to help build the hospital on the condition that I raise an equal sum among the citizenry.  I believe that they agreed to this idea for no other reason but that they thought that I would never be able to raise such monies within the general populace. It was, …

The Junto and and the Philadelphia Hospital, Part 1 – Blog #18A Most dear Citizens, I so much enjoyed recalling how our colony’s first Public Library came into being, that I’ll continue this week with the story of our first hospital. The success of our library (see Benjamin Franklin’s Blog #17), garnered me the reputation of a man able to get things done although, obviously, I didn’t get those things done by my efforts, alone.  Nevertheless, this growing reputation occasioned my being approached by a friend of mine who was already a member of our Public Library Company.  This man was a doctor, Thomas Bond, originally from the colony of Maryland but recently returned from Paris, where he had been studying medicine.  Now, in his capacity as Philadelphia’s Port Inspector for Contagious Diseases, he was seeing a great number of very ill immigrants to our city who had, alas, nowhere …

    Benjamin Franklin’s Junto and the Creation of the First Public Library  – Blog #17 Dear Readers, I am certain that the dénouement of last week’s diary entry will come as no surprise to any of you.  Our delight in providing for our own edification and improvement by sharing books with each other, our fellow “Junto” members, gave me the quite natural idea of making such learning possible for the entire city.  I wanted to expand this idea for all of Philadelphia, and this is what gave me the idea that was to become the first subscription Library Company in the colonies. I wanted all to be able to read, not just the rich, the powerful, the well-connected.  I wanted ordinary people to be able to enjoy the same excitement about learning that I had; farmers and tavern-keepers, and blacksmiths, and, mirabile dictu, women! Hence, the motto we carved …