A Beautiful Mind

HIS LIFE AND WORK

Where he lived: --Boston --Philadelphia --London --Paris

Born in Boston on Jan. 17, 1706

Devises swimming fins to make himself go faster in the waters of Boston Harbor

Is apprenticed to his brother James as a printer

Writes "Silence Dogood" essays

Runs away to Philadelphia and takes job as a printer

Opens his own printshop

Writes "Busy-Body" essays. Buys the Pennsylvania Gazette

Publishes the first edition of Poor Richard's Almanack

Forms the Union Fire Company, a volunteer brigade

Becomes Philadelphia postmaster

Organizes the American Philosophical Society

Writes proposal that creates the Philadelphia Academy, later known as the University of Pennsylvania

Electricity writings published. Elected to Pennsylvania Assembly

French and Indian War begins. Devises and proposes a plan for a federal union

Assembly passes his bill providing for night watchmen and street lighting. Designs a new type of street lamp

Wages press crusade in London on behalf of the colonies. Prints maps showing the Gulf Stream, based on his own temperature readings and observations

Elected to Second Continental Congress. Proposes the first Articles of Confederation

Negotiates treaties of alliance and commerce with France

Negotiates, with John Adams and John Jay, peace treaty with Britain

Publishes a paper that, halfjoking, advocates shifting the clocks in summer to create daylight saving time

At Constitutional Convention, formally proposes "great compromise" that creates a House with proportional representation and a Senate with equal votes per state

Dies on April 17, 1790, at age 84

ELECTRICAL EXPLORATION

LIGHTNING RODS Well before the famous kite experiment, Franklin had speculated that lightning was electricity. His revolutionary idea was to conduct that electricity safely into the ground to save buildings from fires. The simple metal rod connected to a wire made Franklin famous throughout Europe and the colonies

OPPOSITES ATTRACT Starting with a simple glass tube that collected static charge when rubbed, above, and later using a hand-cranked machine built for the same purpose, left, Franklin meticulously experimented on the behavior of electricity. Perhaps his most important discovery was that electrical phenomena involve equal amounts of opposite charges. He used the terms positive and negative to describe them

THE BATTERY Franklin also discovered the difference between conductors and insulators of electricity. He used a device called a Leyden jar to hold and discharge electricity-even using some to kill a turkey for a feast. Wiring together charged plates, and later jars, he created and named an electrical battery

PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENTS

BIFOCALS Tired of changing eyeglasses to see near and far, Franklin simply combined two pairs into one. He praised his device as allowing him to see both his dinner and who was speaking to him across the table

THE LIBRARY COMPANY Books were scarce in 1730s Philadelphia, so Franklin founded America's first subscription library, where members paid dues for the privilege of borrowing books. The organization survives to this day

ODOMETER As postmaster of the colonies, Franklin used this device to count the revolutions of wagon wheels to calculate the most efficient mail routes

THE PENNSYLVANIAN FIREPLACE Franklin had nothing to do with the potbellied stove known by his name today. Rather, his invention was a complicated-and ultimately unsuccessful-device intended to force heat into a room while carrying smoke away. But installing the stove meant rebuilding an entire fireplace, and the device apparently couldn't generate enough air flow to force the smoke out. Nevertheless, Franklin's invention was an important stepping-stone in the development of more efficient home heating

AMUSEMENTS

ARMONICA Inspired by a man who played melodies by rubbing his wet fingers around the rims of wine glasses, Franklin built a machine to mimic the process. The player spun glass bowls- different sizes for each note-on a spindle and pressed wetted fingers to the glass to play tunes

MAGIC SQUARES Franklin enjoyed creating "arithmetical curiosities" in which lines have the same sum vertically, horizontally and when "bent" (in this case, 260)

Sources: Franklin Institute Science Museum; American Philosophical Society; Bucks County (Pa.) Historical Society; Experiments and Observations on Electricity, by Benjamin Franklin; The Ingenious Dr. Franklin, edited by Nathan G. Goodman; Benjamin Franklin's Science, by I. Bernard Cohen; "The Myth of the Franklin Stove," by Samuel Edgerton, Early American Life magazine, June 1976; Benjamin Franklin, a Biographical Companion, by Jennifer L. Durham; The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Yale University Press; Benjamin Franklin, by Walter Isaacson