While Benjamin Franklin is best known for his famous kite-flying experiment, he was creative in many other ways. By the time he was in his early forties, Ben had become successful enough as a printer (and as the owner of printing franchises) that he retired from the profession and began spending time working on his inventions. In addition to the Franklin Stove that heated homes more efficiently, he also invented bifocals, swim fins, and musical instruments. He also spearheaded community-improvement projects throughout Philadelphia and he founded a library to increase public access to books because printed books were so expensive that only the wealthy could actually afford to own them. He founded a hospital and he organized the first fire department in Philadelphia. To spread the cost of fires, he also introduced the concept of risk-sharing by organizing the Philadelphia Contribution for Insurance Against Loss by Fire.
Ben Franklin spent almost twenty years, from 1757 to 1775 in England, working as a representative of the American...
During that time, he became convinced that the Colonies should become independent of the British Royal Crown and he worked toward that goal upon his return from England in 1757. He was elected to the Second Continental Congress and was one of five authors of the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. He became a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and was one of the signers of that historic document shortly before his death in 1790 at the age of eighty-four.
Sources Consulted
Edwards, G.C., Wallenberg, M.P., Lineberry, R.B. (2008). Government in America:
People, Politics, and Policy. New York: Longman.
Goldfield, D., Abbot, C., Argersinger, J., and Argersinger, P. (2005). Twentieth-Century
America: A Social and Political History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-
Prentice Hall.
U.S. History.Org. (2010). A Quick Biography of Benjamin Franklin. Retrieved September 17, 2010 from: http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/index.htm.
