BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BIOGRAPHY

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Massachusetts to Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger. His father owned a candle-making business and his brother had a printing shop. He grew up in a large family and had sixteen siblings. Benjamin worked in his father’s candle and shop. But he wasn’t interested in this work. Due to his family’s financial conditions, Benjamin had to discontinue his education. He left school at the age of ten. He always loved reading and mastered many skills just by reading books. Even though he attended school for only two years, he learned foreign languages, grammar, science and maths. At the age of twelve, he started to work in his brother’s printing shop and learned the basics of business.

He was a great writer and wrote many articles. One of his works was published in the New England Courant. However, his father and brother didn’t support his writing. When Benjamin was only seventeen, he left the family business and traveled to Philadelphia. He got a job in a printing shop. He then went to London and got a typesetter’s job. In 1725, he wrote his first pamphlet, A Dissertation upon Liberty and

Necessity, Pleasure and Pain.

At the age of 21, he started a Junto Club where people with similar tastes or opinions would meet. The group started the first library in America, when there were very limited books available to read. They collected books on various genres and displayed them in the library.

Franklin bought a newspaper called the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1733. He also wrote cooking recipes, predictions and weather reports in his Poor Richard’s Almanack. He helped the society in many ways. In 1736, he founded the first volunteer firefighting company called the Union Fire Company. In 1743, Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society. Many organizations that were started by him

still exist today. He also worked as a postmaster and formed a practical postal system.

During 1748, Franklin was considered as one of the richest men in Pennsylvania. He was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He worked as an ambassador for England. He warned the British government about the risks of taxes. His major contribution was writing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Franklin was also against slavery. He was the first person to raise his voice about this issue.

Franklin’s most intriguing discovery was noticing electricity in lightning. He performed many tests and proved that lightning is in fact constituted of electricity.

He invented bifocal glasses for people with weak eyesight in 1784. Franklin’s most famous discovery was the Gulf Stream. When he traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in 1775, he accidentally unearthed the Gulf Stream.

Some of his major works include The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin written from 1771-90. In 1758, he published The Way to Wealth. These two books became his bestsellers. He even wrote a guidebook which helped handle finances. He also taught entrepreneurial skills to readers, which he had learned in his early years. In 1753, he received the Royal Society’s Copley Medal for his invention in the field of electricity. The same year, he was honored with degrees from Harvard as well as Yale University for his