{"id":111905,"date":"2020-08-25T20:23:20","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T03:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/benjamin-franklin"},"modified":"2020-09-07T19:57:46","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T02:57:46","slug":"benjamin-franklin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/benjamin-franklin","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Franklin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/benjamin-franklin2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Benjamin <i>Franklin<\/i><\/i><\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Society\" title=\"Fellow of the Royal Society\">FRS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Society_of_Arts\" title=\"Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts\">FRSA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Society_of_Edinburgh\" class=\"\" title=\"Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh\">FRSE<\/a> (January 17, 1706 [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates\" title=\"Old Style and New Style dates\">O.S.<\/a> January 6, 1706] \u2013 April 17, 1790) was an American <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Polymath\" title=\"Polymath\">polymath<\/a> and one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States\" title=\"Founding Fathers of the United States\">Founding Fathers of the United States<\/a>. <i>Franklin<\/i> was a leading writer, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Printer_(publishing)\" title=\"Printer (publishing)\">printer<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_political_philosophers\" title=\"List of political philosophers\">political philosopher<\/a>, politician, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Freemason\" class=\"\" title=\"Freemason\">Freemason<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Postmaster\" title=\"Postmaster\">postmaster<\/a>, scientist, inventor, humorist, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Civics\" title=\"Civics\">civic activist<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Public_figure\" title=\"Public figure\">statesman<\/a>, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/American_Enlightenment\" title=\"American Enlightenment\">American Enlightenment<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/History_of_physics\" title=\"History of physics\">history of physics<\/a> for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lightning_rod\" title=\"Lightning rod\">lightning rod<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bifocals\" title=\"Bifocals\">bifocals<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Franklin_stove\" title=\"Franklin stove\"><i>Franklin<\/i> stove<\/a>, among other inventions.<sup id=\"\u201d\" cite_ref-1\u201d=\"\" class=\"\u201d\" reference\u201d=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Benjamin_Franklin#cite_note-1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup> He founded many civic organizations, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Library_Company_of_Philadelphia\" title=\"Library Company of Philadelphia\">Library Company<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Philadelphia\" title=\"Philadelphia\">Philadelphia<\/a>\u2019s first <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Union_Fire_Company\" title=\"Union Fire Company\">fire department<\/a>,<sup id=\"\u201d\" cite_ref-2\u201d=\"\" class=\"\u201d\" reference\u201d=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Benjamin_Franklin#cite_note-2\">[2]<\/a><\/sup> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/University_of_Pennsylvania\" title=\"University of Pennsylvania\">University of Pennsylvania<\/a>.<sup id=\"\u201d\" cite_ref-3\u201d=\"\" class=\"\u201d\" reference\u201d=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Benjamin_Franklin#cite_note-3\">[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p><i>Franklin<\/i> earned the title of \u201c<i>The First American<\/i>\u201d for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation.<sup id=\"\u201d\" cite_ref-4\u201d=\"\" class=\"\u201d\" reference\u201d=\"\">[4]<\/sup> <i>Franklin<\/i> was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, \u201cIn a <i>Franklin<\/i> could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat.\u201d<sup id=\"\u201d\" cite_ref-5\u201d=\"\" class=\"\u201d\" reference\u201d=\"\">[5]<\/sup> To Walter Isaacson, this makes <i>Franklin<\/i> \u201cthe most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1706] \u2013 April 17, 1790) was an American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112693,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111905\/revisions\/112693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}