Benjamin Franklin

He claimed to have suggested the phrase, "self evident" in place of Jefferson's original, "sacred and undeniable." Michael Montagne

He was the colonies' ambassador to France and convinced the French government to fight alongside the Americans against the British. He published pro-American books and a newspaper. He served on the Continental Congress. He was instrumental in the planning of our system of government. He was one of the Founding Fathers and one of the American representatives signing the Treaty of Versailles. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers and a genius. He was the colonies' ambassador to France and convinced the French government to fight alongside the Americans against the British. He published pro-American books and a newspaper. He served on the Continental Congress. He was instrumental in the planning of our system of government. He was one of the Founding Fathers and one of the American representatives signing the Treaty of Versailles. Benjamin Franklin was a successful, impressive, and inspiring politician, statesman, author, publisher, scientist, and philosopher. He was one of the Founding Fathers and actually came up with the system of government outlined in the Constitution. It would take practically forever to list all of his accomplishments and impacts, but some are as follows: - inventing bi-focal glasses - inventing the glass armonica (a musical instrument) - serving in the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention - inventing the Franklin Stove - inventing the lightning rod and not getting a patent, so as to make them affordable - proving lightning electricity which can be harnessed with his kite and key experiment (a risk to his life) - starting a lending library - publishing Poor Richard's Almanac and the Pennsylvania Gazette - serving as the first American ambassador to France and persuading the French to join with the Americans against the British in the Revolutionary War

Ben Franklin showed skills like eating, kissing, flirting, and looking at his own apperance in his mirror. He spent hours accessorizing and posing for his wife. That is what I read on Wikipedia.

It was all the delegates that would come and the Speaker of the House, Vice President and the first president.

Yes he was funny because when i was in Elementary School my teacher said that he pulled a prank on his older brother.

Tiffany, The term "Founding Fathers" generally refers to the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and a few other men who contributed to establishing this country. What they did was provide political leadership to the American people when British rule began to grow tyranical. They gave voice to the people's discontent and gave them the courage and organization necessary to stand up and fight for their liberties. When independence became necessary to that goal the founders enunciated a philosophy of government that placed individual freedom as the most important purpose of government. Then they showed by their example that they were committed to that ideal. After independence was won they, with the consent and instructions of the people, developed the Constitution of the United States. a framework for practical government with the consent of the governed that protected their rights. This was something that had never happened before. A government run by the people of a country with the purpose of protecting individual freedom was unheard of in history. The founderrs were simply giving form to the desires of the people at large, but nonetheless, it took genius and a strength of character almost unmatched in human history to do the deed. Michael Montagne P.S. If this isn't quite what you wanted to know, please feel free to ask more sprecific questions. I would have to disagree to the above notion that pretty much states that democracy was developed by the founding fathers. What they did was to copy (and amend in parts like slavery) the ideas first proposed almost 2500 years ago. A long time ago isn't? here is what the great Pericles said about the Athenian Democracy "Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favors the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if to social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. . . . Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, regarding him who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless, we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate, and instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all. . . . In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas; while I doubt if the world can produce a man, who where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility as the Athenian."

He studied arithmetic books and books about navigation, philosophy, and religion

It seems unlikely that Benjamin Franklin was homosexual, but you cant always judge a book by its cover so its would it be easy to just say he was and get on with your life but given his voluminous and often bawdy and suggestive correspondence with a score of women during his long life, as well as his early fathering of an illegitimate child (William Franklin). While it does appear that Franklin's decades-long marriage to Deborah Read may have been more a devoted friendship and practical partnership than a union of much passion, this fact alone provides little by which to draw or support broader conclusions about Franklin's sexuality, while much evidence argues for his heterosexual inclinations.

On the other hand, Franklin was something of a mystery even to his contemporaries. This of course seems to have been, at least in part, by design. He explicitly advocated keeping, to a certain extent, one's own counsel . As stated in Poor Richard's Almanac: "Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou owest, all thou hast, nor all thou canst."

Certainly, however, it pays the great man no disrespect to speculate about his emotional life, and given his penchant for mirth and universality, not to mention enlightenment values and a scientist's devotion to objectivity and fearless investigation, he would probably be amused, not insulted. As evidence in support of this conclusion, note Franklin's radical (for the time) beliefs on what we might now call "equality." The only founding father to openly call for an end to slavery, Franklin's last published essay was a scathing satire attacking not just slavery but the bigotry that grew from it. Franklin had come to this position late in life, and was therefore all the more remarkable for it. A man of 80+ he was nonetheless years ahead of his time and peers. In letters he characterized his former acceptance of slavery and of the idea of innate racial inferiorities as a personal prejudice, and one he could no longer rationally support, would not defend, no longer held and must not accept in his country.

His eyes were opened, he reported, during a visit to a school for black children who, he saw, were every inch the equal of white children, intellectually and emotionally. This is relevant as it describes Franklin's ability to seek, weigh and accept rational evidence, a habit that when practiced in a contemporary context argues for the rights of homosexuals today just as it did for african-americans in Franklin's time. Anyone with Franklin's values would have been in support of so-called "gay rights" not beginning in the 1970's or 1980's, but in 1950's when the issue first began to have voice.

Disclaimer: These comments are based on the work of numerous comprehensive biographies of Franklin, as well as many more topic-focussed histories of the founding fathers, among other sources. But certainly I could be in error, so if some evidence illuminating heretofore unknown, or at least not widely apprehended, aspects of Franklin's life are available, PLEASE write up the source or sources so we can all read up!

As an addition to the great work above:

In October of 1785 Franlin was elected as president of Pennsylvania, and in December of that year Joseph Ross of Westmoreland County was tried and sentenced to death for "Buggery." Franlin did not issue a pardon for the crime, although it is noted that he was asked to do so. The term "Buggery" later became "Sodomy" and today could be termed as "Gay" or "Homosexual." While this does not prove anything about Mr. Franklin himself; it does show that he was not sympathetic to this form of conduct.

Benjamin Franklin lived in Philadelphia and owned a print shop. He also started the first subscription library in Philadelphia. He was a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress where the Declaration was written signed and later helped with the Constitution.

Poor Richard's Almanac was an almanac, but also full of wie and witty sayings he wrote and collected.

He also wrote an autobiography covering his entire life.

You can find his books in Franklin Massachusetts at the Franklin public library

i know this because i live their

Nothing. We still would have had electricity. Contrary to belief, Ben Franklin did not discover electricity. He discovered some of its properties. If Ben Franklin had not lived, someone else would have discovered the properties of electricity.

Of course, one of the more important events, or whichever, would be the fact that America would not be as it is, since Mr. Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of this great nation.

- As a child, he was yanked from school by his father to work for his temperamental brother because the family needed money.

- Many Continental Congress meetings were heated and full of problems.

- The colonies had no real money.

- Well, he was basically discredited, mocked, stripped of his position as postmaster general, and blamed by the British for the Boston Tea Party.

- Loyalists obviously did not like his opinions.

- He had to try to persuade the French to help a fledgling army and get into war against the most powerful nation in the world.

- He had serious gall stone problems.

- He spent most of his life away from his family - much of it in France.

- His own son became a Loyalist.

Benjamin Franklin did not invent the lightning bulb? He did however discover electricity May 10th 1752. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879.

Benjamin Franklin invented many things. Some of his inventions include the bifocals, lightening rod, and swimming fins. He also invented the odometer and the Franklin stove.

benjiman Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706

When a storm cloud passed over Franklin's kite the negative charges in the cloud leaked onto his kite, his kite string, his key, and a Leyden jar attached to the key by a thin metal wire. Franklin however, was unaffected by the negative charges because he was holding a dry silk string which insulated him from the charges on the key. When Franklin reached out his knuckle to touch the key he received a shock, because the negative charges in the key were so strongly attracted to the positive charges in his body that a spark jumped from the key to his hand. Franklin's experiment successfully showed that lightning was actually static electricity.

Tim berners-lee In 1989 he invented the World Wide Web

Made by Erma in Germany; sold from 1973-79. According to 2006 Standard Catalog of Firearms the "new in box condition" is worth $375.

Benjamin Franklin tied a key to his kite to prove his theory that electricity could be more like a fluid and pass through one object in to another. It is believed that he tied an iron key to the end of the kite.

Benjamin Franklin is known for many different things. Some of these discoveries and inventions include the lightning rod, the glass armonica, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses, and a flexible catheter.

created fire fighting company, repaved the streets, and invented the lightning rod to protect buildings from lightning.

When Ben Franklin's son was imprisoned for being a loyalist in America, Ben Franklin did nothing to help him even when his son asked to have a better cell. When William was released some years later, William tried to make amens with his father, but Ben still turned him down. Franklin died as a bad father.

Benjamin Franklin did not invent the odometer, which dates from ancient times.

One of the earliest (chariot) odometers may have been designed by Archimedes (287-212 BC) and was described around 27 BC. Some form likely existed before then as indicated by the recording of ground distances during the reign of Alexander the Great (336-323 BC).

Chinese scientists independently created a form of odometer around the same time, notably the "drum carriage" later improved by Zhang Heng (87-136 AD)

Blaise Pascal designed a geared version for carriages in 1645, and a version was adapted to measure postal routes by Benjamin Franklin in 1775.

The modern automobile odometer was designed as a combination speedometer and odometer by brothers Arthur P. Warner and Charles H. Warner in 1903.