He crafted a compromise that helped prevent the collapse of the Constitutional Convention, and he was the one who moved that the Constitution be adopted.įranklin, more than anybody, linked the emerging international movements for liberty. He helped negotiate the peace with Britain. He went to France and secured military help as well as a formal alliance, without which America probably wouldn’t have won the Revolutionary War. He was on the committee that named Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence. As American representative in London, he helped persuade Parliament to repeal despised Stamp Act taxes, giving America an additional decade to prepare for armed conflict with Britain. His lightning rod helped banish the terror of thunderstorms.įranklin had more to do with founding the American republic than anyone else. He was most famous, of course, for his experiments with electricity, especially lightning. He pioneered the study of water flowing around a hull-hydrodynamics.
On his eight trans-Atlantic crossings, Franklin made measurements that helped chart the Gulf Stream.
He started the American Philosophical Society, which was this country’s first scientific society and maintained the first science library, first museum, and first patent office more than 90 members of this society went on to win Nobel Prizes. As postmaster, he doubled and tripled the frequency of mail deliveries.įranklin, who reportedly amassed early America’s largest private library, helped expand the frontiers of science and invention. In Philadelphia, he helped launch the city’s first police force, the first volunteer fire company, the first fire insurance firm, the first hospital, the first public library, and the academy that became the first institution of higher learning (the University of Pennsylvania). When Franklin saw that something needed doing, he did it. He developed a network of printing partnerships throughout the American colonies. He started a successful printing business, newspaper, and magazine. He made himself an influential author and editor. He taught himself how to play the guitar, violin, and harp. He took the initiative of learning French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish. With less than three years of formal schooling, he taught himself almost everything he knew. Benjamin Franklin pioneered the spirit of self-help in America.
0 kommentar(er)
