Biography ben franklin

Franklin remained a Freemason for the rest of his life. At age 17 inFranklin proposed to year-old Deborah Read while a boarder in the Read home. At that time, Deborah's mother was wary of allowing her young daughter to marry Franklin, who was on his way to London at Governor Keith's request, and also because of his financial instability. Her own husband had recently died, and she declined Franklin's request to marry her daughter.

Biography ben franklin: Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston

Franklin travelled to London, and after he failed to communicate as expected with Deborah and her family, they interpreted his long silence as a breaking of his promises. At the urging of her mother, Deborah married a potter named John Rogers on August 5, John soon fled to Barbados with her dowry in order to avoid debts and prosecution.

Since Rogers' fate was unknown, bigamy laws prevented Deborah from remarrying. Franklin returned in and resumed his courtship of Deborah. They took in his recently acknowledged illegitimate young son and raised him in their household. They had two children together. Their son, Francis Folger Franklinwas born in October and died of smallpox in Deborah's fear of the sea meant that she never accompanied Franklin on any of his extended trips to Europe; another possible reason why they spent much time apart is that he may have blamed her for possibly preventing their son Francis from being inoculated against the disease that subsequently killed him.

Inyear-old Franklin publicly acknowledged his illegitimate son William and raised him in his household. William was born on February 22,but his mother's identity is unknown. William himself fathered an illegitimate son, William Temple Franklinborn on the same day and month: February 22, Inhe was appointed as the last royal governor of New Jersey.

A Loyalist to the king, William Franklin saw his relations with father Benjamin eventually break down over their differences about the American Revolutionary Waras Benjamin Franklin could never accept William's position. Deposed in by the revolutionary government of New Jersey, William was placed under house arrest at his home in Perth Amboy for six months.

After the Declaration of Independencehe was formally taken into custody by order of the Provincial Congress of New Jerseyan entity which he refused to recognize, regarding it as an "illegal assembly. When finally released in a prisoner exchange inhe moved to New York City, which was occupied by the British at the time. They initiated guerrilla forays into New Jersey, southern Connecticut, and New York counties north of the city.

He settled in London, never to return to North America. In the preliminary peace talks in with Britain, " Benjamin Franklin insisted that loyalists who had borne arms against the United States would be excluded from this plea that they be given a general pardon. He was undoubtedly thinking of William Franklin. InFranklin began to publish the noted Poor Richard's Almanack with content both original and borrowed under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, on which much of his popular reputation is based.

He frequently wrote under pseudonyms. The first issue published was for the upcoming year, Wisdom in "biography ben franklin" society meant the ability to provide an apt adage for any occasion, and his readers became well prepared. He sold about ten thousand copies per year—it became an institution. He used the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales as the cover illustration.

Franklin wrote a letter, " Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress ," dated June 25,in which he gives advice to a young man about channeling sexual urges. Due to its licentious nature, it was not published in collections of his papers during the 19th century. Federal court rulings from the mid-to-late 20th century cited the document as a reason for overturning obscenity laws and against censorship.

InFranklin created the Union Fire Companyone of the first volunteer firefighting companies in America. In the same year, he printed a new currency for New Jersey based on innovative anti- counterfeiting techniques he had devised. Throughout his career, he was an advocate for paper moneypublishing A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency inand his printer printed money.

He was influential in the more restrained and thus successful monetary experiments in the Middle Colonies, which stopped deflation without causing excessive inflation. Inhe made a case for paper money to the British House of Commons. As he matured, Franklin began to concern himself more with public affairs. Inhe first devised a scheme for the Academy, Charity School, and College of Philadelphia ; however, the person he had in mind to run the academy, Rev.

Richard Petersrefused and Franklin put his ideas away until when he printed his own pamphlet, Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania. Inhe founded the American Philosophical Society to help scientific men discuss their discoveries and theories. He began the electrical research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life, in between bouts of politics and moneymaking.

During King George's WarFranklin raised a militia called the Association for General Defense because the legislators of the city had decided to take no action to defend Philadelphia "either by erecting fortifications or building Ships of War. The largest of these was the "Association Battery" or "Grand Battery" of 50 guns. InFranklin already a very wealthy man retired from printing and went into other businesses.

This lucrative business arrangement provided leisure time for study, and in a few years he had made many new discoveries. Franklin became involved in Philadelphia politics and rapidly progressed. In Octoberhe was selected as a councilman; in Junehe became a justice of the peace for Philadelphia; and inhe was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly.

On August 10,he was appointed deputy postmaster-general of British North America. His service in domestic politics included reforming the postal system, with mail sent out every week. InFranklin and Thomas Bond obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a hospital. Pennsylvania Hospital was the first hospital in the colonies.

Franklin solicited, printed inand promoted an American textbook of moral philosophy by Samuel Johnson, titled Elementa Philosophica[ 82 ] to be taught in the new colleges. At its biography ben franklin commencement, on May 17,seven men graduated; six with a Bachelor of Arts and one with a Master of Arts. It was later merged with the University of the State of Pennsylvania to become the University of Pennsylvania.

The college was to become influential in guiding the founding documents of the United States: in the Continental Congressfor example, over one-third of the college-affiliated men who contributed to the Declaration of Independence between September 4,and July 4,were affiliated with the college. Inhe headed the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress.

This meeting of several colonies had been requested by the Board of Trade in England to improve relations with the Indians and defense against the French. Franklin proposed a broad Plan of Union for the colonies. While the plan was not adopted, elements of it found their way into the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.

InHarvard University [ 87 ] and Yale [ 88 ] awarded him honorary master of arts degrees. He used Tun Tavern as a gathering place to recruit a regiment of soldiers to go into battle against the Native American uprisings that beset the American colonies. Well known as a printer and publisher, Franklin was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia inholding the office untilwhen he and publisher William Hunter were named deputy postmasters—general of British North America, the first to hold the office.

Joint appointments were standard at the time, for political reasons. He was responsible for the British colonies from Pennsylvania north and east, as far as the island of Newfoundland. A post office for local and outgoing mail had been established in Halifax, Nova Scotiaby local stationer Benjamin Leigh, on April 23,but service was irregular. Franklin opened the first biography ben franklin office to offer regular, monthly mail in Halifax on December 9, Meantime, Hunter became postal administrator in Williamsburg, Virginiaand oversaw areas south of Annapolis, Maryland.

Franklin reorganized the service's accounting system and improved speed of delivery between Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Byefficiencies led to the first profits for the colonial post office. For the greater part of his appointment, he lived in England from toand again from to —about three-quarters of his term. He had been a postmaster for decades and was a natural choice for the position.

The report of the committee, providing for the appointment of a postmaster general for the 13 American colonies, was considered by the Continental Congress on July 25 and On July 26,Franklin was appointed postmaster general, the first appointed under the Continental Congress. His apprentice, William Goddardfelt that his ideas were mostly responsible for shaping the postal system and that the appointment should have gone to him, but he graciously conceded it to Franklin, 36 years his senior.

Inhe was sent to England by the Pennsylvania Assembly as a colonial agent to protest against the political influence of the Penn familythe proprietors of the colony. He remained there for five years, striving to end the proprietors' prerogative to overturn legislation from the elected Assembly and their exemption from paying taxes on their land.

His lack of influential allies in Whitehall led to the failure of this mission. At this time, many members of the Pennsylvania Assembly were feuding with William Penn's heirs, who controlled the colony as proprietors. After his return to the colony, Franklin led the "anti-proprietary party" in the struggle against the Penn family and was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House in May His call for a change from proprietary to royal government was a rare political miscalculation, however: Pennsylvanians worried that such a move would endanger their political and religious freedoms.

Because of these fears and because of political attacks on his character, Franklin lost his seat in the October Assembly elections. The anti-proprietary party dispatched him to England again to continue the struggle against the Penn family proprietorship. During this trip, events drastically changed the nature of his mission. In London, Franklin opposed the Stamp Act.

Unable to prevent its passage, he made another political miscalculation and recommended a friend to the post of stamp distributor for Pennsylvania.

Biography ben franklin: Benjamin Franklin was a printer, publisher,

Pennsylvanians were outraged, believing that he had supported the measure all along, and threatened to destroy his home in Philadelphia. Franklin soon learned of the extent of colonial resistance to the Stamp Act, and he testified during the House of Commons proceedings that led to its repeal. He wrote popular essays on behalf of the colonies.

GeorgiaNew Jerseyand Massachusetts also appointed him as their agent to the Crown. During his lengthy missions to London between andFranklin lodged in a biography ben franklin on Craven Street, just off the Strand in central London. The house is now a museum known as the Benjamin Franklin House. Whilst in London, Franklin became involved in radical politics.

He belonged to a gentlemen's club which he called "the honest Whigs "which held stated meetings, and included members such as Richard Pricethe minister of Newington Green Unitarian Church who ignited the Revolution controversyand Andrew Kippis. After his return to the United States inhe became the Society's Corresponding Member, continuing a close connection.

The Royal Society of Arts instituted a Benjamin Franklin Medal in to commemorate the th anniversary of his birth and the th anniversary of his membership of the RSA. The study of natural philosophy referred today as science in general drew him into overlapping circles of acquaintance. Franklin was, for example, a corresponding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham.

Because of these honors, he was often addressed as " Dr. This reformed alphabet discarded six letters he regarded as redundant c, j, q, w, x, and yand substituted six new letters for sounds he felt lacked letters of their own. This alphabet never caught on, and he eventually lost interest. From the mids to the mids, Franklin returned to England and spent much of his time in London.

Inhe visited Edinburgh with his son and later reported that he considered his six weeks in Scotland "six weeks of the densest happiness I have met with in any part of my life. In Ireland, he stayed with Lord Hillsborough. Franklin noted of him that "all the plausible behaviour I have described is meant only, by patting and stroking the horse, to make him more patient, while the reins are drawn tighter, and the spurs set deeper into his sides.

He was the first American to receive this honor. The economy of the Kingdom of Ireland was affected by the same trade regulations and laws that governed the Thirteen Colonies. He feared that the American colonies could eventually come to the same level of poverty if the regulations and laws continued to apply to them. Franklin spent two months in German lands inbut his connections to the country stretched across a lifetime.

He declared a debt of gratitude to German scientist Otto von Guericke for his early studies of electricity. Franklin also co-authored the first treaty of friendship between Prussia and America in News of his electrical discoveries was widespread in France. His reputation meant that he was introduced to many influential scientists and politicians, and also to King Louis XV.

One line of argument in Parliament was that Americans should pay a share of the costs of the French and Indian War and therefore taxes should be levied on them. Franklin became the American spokesman in highly publicized testimony in Parliament in He stated that Americans already contributed heavily to the defense of the Empire. He said local governments had raised, outfitted and paid 25, soldiers to fight France—as many as Britain itself sent—and spent many millions from American treasuries doing so in the French and Indian War alone.

InFranklin obtained private letters of Thomas Hutchinson and Andrew Olivergovernor and lieutenant governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bayproving that they had encouraged the Crown to crack down on Bostonians. Franklin sent them to America, where they escalated tensions. The letters were finally leaked to the public in the Boston Gazette in mid-June[ ] causing a political firestorm in Massachusetts and raising significant questions in England.

Hopes for a peaceful solution ended as he was systematically ridiculed and humiliated by Solicitor-General Alexander Wedderburnbefore the Privy Council on January 29, He returned to Philadelphia in Marchand abandoned his accommodationist stance. Franklin is known to have occasionally attended the Hellfire Club 's meetings during as a non-member during his time in England.

However, some authors and historians would argue he was in fact a British spy. As there are no records left having been burned in [ ]many of these members are just assumed or linked by letters sent to each other. Insoon after Franklin returned to Pennsylvania from England for the first time, the western frontier was engulfed in a bitter war known as Pontiac's Rebellion.

The Paxton Boysa "biography ben franklin" of settlers convinced that the Pennsylvania government was not doing enough to protect them from American Indian raids, murdered a group of peaceful Susquehannock Indians and marched on Philadelphia. He met with the Paxton leaders and persuaded them to disperse. Franklin wrote a scathing attack against the racial prejudice of the Paxton Boys.

He provided an early response to British surveillance through his own network of counter-surveillance and manipulation. By the time Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on May 5,after his second mission to Great Britain, the American Revolution had begun at the Battles of Lexington and Concord the previous month, on April 19, The New England militia had forced the main British army to remain inside Boston.

Although he was temporarily disabled by gout and unable to attend biography ben franklin meetings of the committee, [ citation needed ] he made several "small but important" changes to the draft sent to him by Thomas Jefferson. At the signing, he is quoted as having replied to a comment by John Hancock that they must all hang together, saying, "Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.

Franklin remained in France until He conducted the affairs of his country toward the French nation with great success, which included securing a critical military alliance in and signing the Treaty of Paris. Franklin and Mirabeau thought of it as a "noble order," inconsistent with the egalitarian ideals of the new republic. Inwhen Franz Mesmer began to publicize his theory of " animal magnetism " which was considered offensive by many, Louis XVI appointed a commission to investigate it.

Franklin's advocacy for religious tolerance in France contributed to arguments made by French philosophers and politicians that resulted in Louis XVI's signing of the Edict of Versailles in November This edict effectively nullified the Edict of Fontainebleauwhich had denied non-Catholics civil status and the right to openly practice their faith.

Franklin also served as American minister to Sweden, although he never visited that country. On August 27,in Paris, he witnessed the world's first hydrogen balloon flight. Ignoring the rules of the game, he promptly captured it. When he returned home inFranklin occupied a position second only to that of George Washington as the champion of American independence.

After his return, Franklin became an abolitionist and freed his two slaves. He eventually became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. Special balloting conducted October 18,unanimously elected him the sixth president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvaniareplacing John Dickinson. The office was practically that of the governor.

He held that office for slightly over three years, longer than any other, and served the constitutional limit of three full terms. Shortly after his initial election, he was re-elected to a full term on October 29,and again in the fall of and on October 31, In that capacity, he served as host to the Constitutional Convention of in Philadelphia.

He also served as a delegate to the Convention. It was primarily an honorary position and he seldom engaged in debate. According to James McHenrya Mrs. Powel asked Franklin what kind of government they had wrought. He replied: "A republic, madam, if you can keep it. Franklin suffered from obesity throughout his middle age and elder years, which resulted in multiple health problems, particularly goutwhich worsened as he aged.

In poor health during the signing of the U. Constitution inhe was rarely seen in public from then until his death. Franklin died from pleuritic attack [ ] at his home in Philadelphia on April 17, His last words were reportedly, "a dying man can do nothing easy," to his daughter after she suggested that he change position in bed and lie on his side so he could breathe more easily.

Approximately 20, people attended Franklin's funeral after which he was interred in Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia. The Body of B. Franklin's actual grave, however, as he specified in his final will, simply reads "Benjamin and Deborah Franklin. Franklin was a prodigious inventor. Among his many creations were the lightning rodFranklin stovebifocal glasses and the flexible urinary catheter.

He never patented his inventions; in his autobiography he wrote, " Franklin started exploring the phenomenon of electricity in the s, after he met the itinerant lecturer Archibald Spencer, who used static electricity in his demonstrations. The same proposal was made independently that same year by William Watson. He was the first to label them as positive and negative respectively, which replaced the then current distinction made between 'vitreous' and 'resinous' electricity, [ ] [ ] [ ] and he was the first to discover the principle of conservation of charge.

In pursuit of more pragmatic uses for electricity, remarking in spring that he felt "chagrin'd a little" that his experiments had heretofore resulted in "Nothing in this Way of Use to Mankind," Franklin planned a practical demonstration. He proposed a dinner party where a turkey was to be killed via electric shock and roasted on an electrical spit.

Franklin briefly investigated electrotherapyincluding the use of the electric bath. This work led to the field becoming widely known. The CGS unit of electric charge has been named after him: one franklin Fr is equal to one statcoulomb. Franklin advised Harvard University in its acquisition of new electrical laboratory apparatus after the complete loss of its original collection, in a fire that destroyed the original Harvard Hall in The collection he assembled later became part of the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instrumentsnow on public display in its Science Center.

Franklin published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm. On June 15,Franklin may possibly have conducted his well-known kite experiment in Philadelphia, successfully extracting sparks from a cloud. He described the experiment in his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazetteon October 19,[ ] [ ] without mentioning that he himself had performed it.

Franklin was careful to stand on an insulator, keeping dry under a roof to avoid the danger of electric shock. In his writings, Franklin indicates that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his use of the concept of electrical ground. He did not perform this experiment in the way that is often pictured in popular literature, flying the kite and waiting to be struck by lightning, as it would have been dangerous.

When rain has wet the kite twine so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it streams out plentifully from the key at the approach of your knuckle, and with this key a phial, or Leyden jar, may be charged: and from electric fire thus obtained spirits may be kindled, and all other electric experiments [may be] performed which are usually done by the help of a rubber glass globe or tube; and therefore the sameness of the electrical matter with that of lightening [ sic ] completely demonstrated.

Franklin's electrical experiments led to his invention of the lightning rod. He said that conductors with a sharp [ ] rather than a smooth point could discharge silently and at a far greater distance. He surmised that this could help protect buildings from lightning by attaching "upright Rods of Iron, made sharp as a Needle and gilt to prevent Rusting, and from the Foot of those Rods a Wire down the outside of the Building into the Ground; Would not these pointed Rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible Mischief!

Franklin had a major influence on the emerging science of demography or population studies. He calculated that America's population was doubling every 20 years and would surpass that of England in a century. Four years later, it was anonymously printed in Boston and was quickly reproduced in Britain, where it influenced the economist Adam Smith and later the demographer Thomas Malthuswho credited Franklin for discovering a rule of population growth.

Biography ben franklin: Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath:

Kammen and Drake say Franklin's Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind stands alongside Ezra Stiles ' "Discourse on Christian Union" as the leading works of 18th-century Anglo-American demography; Drake credits Franklin's "wide readership and prophetic insight. This is succinctly preserved in his letter to the London Chronicle published November 29,titled "On the Price of Corn, and Management of the poor.

As deputy postmaster, Franklin became interested in North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns. While in England inhe heard a complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs. British packet ships carrying mail had taken several weeks longer to reach New York than it took an average merchant ship to reach Newport, Rhode Island. The merchantmen had a longer and more complex voyage because they left from London, while the packets left from Falmouth in Cornwall.

Franklin worked with Folger and other experienced ship captains, learning enough to chart the current and name it the Gulf Streamby which it is still known today. Franklin published his Gulf Stream chart in in England, where it was ignored. Subsequent versions were printed in France in and the U. Though it was Dr. Franklin and Captain Tim Folger, who first turned the Gulf Stream to nautical account, the discovery that there was a Gulf Stream cannot be said to belong to either of them, for its biography ben franklin was known to Peter Martyr d'Anghieraand to Sir Humphrey Gilbertin the 16th century.

An aging Franklin accumulated all his oceanographic findings in Maritime Observationspublished by the Philosophical Society's transactions in Franklin was, along with his contemporary Leonhard Eulerthe only major scientist who supported Christiaan Huygens 's wave theory of lightwhich was basically ignored by the rest of the scientific community.

In the 18th century, Isaac Newton 's corpuscular theory was held to be true; it took Thomas Young's well-known slit experiment in to persuade most scientists to believe Huygens's theory. On October 21,according to the popular myth, a storm moving from the southwest denied Franklin the opportunity of witnessing a lunar eclipse. He was said to have noted that the prevailing winds were actually from the northeast, contrary to what he had expected.

In correspondence with his brother, he learned that the same storm had not reached Boston until after the eclipse, despite the fact that Boston is to the northeast of Philadelphia. He deduced that storms do not always travel in the direction of the prevailing wind, a concept that greatly influenced meteorology. He wrote about them in a lecture series.

Though Franklin is famously associated with kites from his lightning experiments, he has also been noted by many for using kites to pull humans and ships across waterways. Franklin noted a principle of refrigeration by observing that on a very hot day, he stayed cooler in a wet shirt in a breeze than he did in a dry one. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. Make no expense but to do good to biographies ben franklin or yourself; i. Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. Franklin sought to cultivate these virtues throughout the remainder of life. His approach to self-improvement lasted throughout his life.

Back in America, Franklin had many successful endeavours in business, journalism, science and statesmanship. Franklin never patented his inventions, preferring to offer them freely for the benefit of society. As he wrote:. Franklin was chosen as an ambassador to England in the dispute over taxes. InFranklin testified in the British Parliament against the Stamp Act ofwhich required that all legal documents, newspapers, books, playing cards and other printed materials in the American colonies carry a tax stamp.

Although the Stamp Act was repealed inadditional regulatory biographies ben franklin followed, leading to ever-increasing anti-British sentiment and eventual armed uprising in the American colonies. Inhe was part of the five-member committee that helped draft the Declaration of Independencein which the 13 American colonies declared their freedom from British rule.

As minister to France starting inFranklin helped negotiate and draft the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. InFranklin left France and returned once again to Philadelphia. Inhe was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention. At the end of the convention, in Septemberhe urged his fellow delegates to support the heavily debated new document.

The U. Franklin died a year later, at age 84, on April 17,in Philadelphia. In his will, he left money to Boston and Philadelphia, which was later used to establish a trade school and a science museum and fund scholarships and other community projects. More than years after his death, Franklin remains one of the most celebrated figures in U. You can opt out at any time.

You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States. Your Profile. Email Updates. Benjamin Franklin. Read more. Encouraged by Pennsylvania Governor William Keith to set up his own print shop, Franklin left for London in to purchase supplies from stationers, booksellers and printers. A self-taught swimmer who crafted his own wooden flippers, Franklin performed long-distance swims on the Thames River.

Inhe was inducted as an honorary member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. In Franklin published his first pamphlet, "A Dissertation upon Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain," which argued that humans lack free will and, thus, are not morally responsible for their actions. Franklin later repudiated this thought and burned all but one copy of the pamphlet still in his possession.

After Franklin returned to Philadelphia inhe discovered that Deborah had married in the interim, only to be abandoned by her husband just months after the wedding. The future Founding Father rekindled his romance with Deborah Read and he took her as his common-law wife in Around that time, Franklin fathered a son, William, out of wedlock who was taken in by the couple.

The two times Franklin moved to London, in and again init was without Deborah, who refused to leave Philadelphia. His second stay was the last time the couple saw each other. Franklin would not return home before Deborah passed away in from a stroke at the age of When the New Jersey militia stripped William Franklin of his post as royal governor and imprisoned him inhis father chose not to intercede on his behalf.

After his return to Philadelphia inFranklin held varied jobs including bookkeeper, shopkeeper and currency cutter. In he returned to a familiar trade - printing paper currency - in New Jersey before partnering with a friend to open his own print shop in Philadelphia that published government pamphlets and books. In Franklin was named the official printer of Pennsylvania.

In Franklin published another pamphlet, "A Modest Enquiry into The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency," which advocated for an increase in the money supply to stimulate the economy. With the cash Franklin earned from his money-related treatise, he was able to purchase The Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper from a former boss. Under his ownership, the struggling newspaper was transformed into the most widely-read paper in the colonies and became one of the first to turn a profit.

He had less luck in when he launched the first German-language newspaper in the colonies, the short-lived Philadelphische Zeitung. Franklin amassed real estate and businesses and organized the volunteer Union Fire Company to counteract dangerous fire hazards in Philadelphia. He joined the Freemasons in and was eventually elected grand master of the Masons of Pennsylvania.

In the s, Franklin expanded into science and entrepreneurship. His pamphlet "A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge" underscored his interests and served as the founding document of the American Philosophical Societythe first scientific society in the colonies. Bythe year-old Franklin had become one of the richest men in Pennsylvania, and he became a soldier in the Pennsylvania militia.

He turned his printing business over to a partner to give himself more time to conduct scientific experiments.