Poor Richard

I confess, I'm not particularly a Benjamin Franklin fan. Oh, it's not that I don't like him (because I do), and it's not that I don't think he was a fascinating historical figure (because he was). It's just that, of the Founding Fathers, I happen to have a particular soft spot for John Adams. (The original, that is, not his son.)

But that's just a matter of personal preference -- I'm not knocking Franklin. This Founding Father, who was the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention, is rightly remembered not only as a Founding Father -- but as a writer, publisher, inventor, scientist, politician, postmaster, musician, and diplomat, among other duties. He's intriguing for both his myriad accomplishments and his witty personality, making him a figure of fascination both in his own time as well as ours, and in America as well as abroad. My favorite story about Franklin comes from his trip to France, when he traveled to negotiate support for the American Revolutionary War. When he arrived, he found his reputation as a writer and scientist had preceded him. The French admired him, both for his philosophy and his politics -- admired him so much, in fact, that many French people hung his portrait in their own homes. (He'd go on to become "perfectly sick" of having his portrait painted, which he did often at the request of friends.)

You might know Franklin as the inventor of bifocals, the (aptly named) Franklin stove ... and, of course, the lightning rod. (We'll come back to the lightning rod in a bit.) Some of his other experimentations into the fields of science and invention, however, are not always as well-remembered:

-- A frequent traveler, it was Franklin who first proposed that illnesses such as colds and flu may not be caused by exposure to cold and chill air but rather "may possibly be spread by contagion." He noticed his excursions through severe temperatures, suffering cold "sometimes to the extremity only short of freezing," failed to make him sick. He noted that people did, however, often catch cold when spending too much time in close quarters to someone who was already ill, and he became a proponent of good ventilation and fresh air year round.

-- Not only did Franklin recommend exercise as a way to stay in good health, but he was one of the first to put forth the theory that it was more than duration that was important. He suggested measuring exercise not by the length of time it was performed, but rather "by the degree of warmth it produces in the body" -- and by the increase in a person's heart rate.

-- Benjamin Franklin was one of the first people to begin to suspect that there were negative effects from the handling of lead. He began suggesting replacements be made with alternate metals to counteract the "possible" negative effects of lead.

-- He was the inventor of a musical instrument he called the "armonica," which consisted of thirty-seven glass bowls of different sizes attached to a spindle. You played the device the same way bored dinner guests might amuse themselves with their wine glasses -- by pressing on the glass pieces with wet fingers. As goofily fun as it might sound, the armonica proved to be a popular fad: Marie Antoinette took armonica lessons, and music was written for the instrument by both Mozart and Beethoven.

And then, of course, there's my other favorite Franklin story.

Everybody knows about Franklin's famous electrical experiment -- finding a link between lightning and electricity. While many other scientists (like Sir Issac Newton) had suspected a link between the two, Franklin was the first to devise a methodical test to prove that link. Hence, flying a kite with a wire and key attached, hoping to attract a spark.

What's not so well known? Franklin wasn't flying the kite.

It would have looked terrible, had Benjamin Franklin -- a quite respectable figure -- been seen dashing about a field hauling a kite wildly behind him. So he enlisted a little help: his son, William. Yes, it was Franklin's son, and not Franklin himself, who was out in the rain -- and the lightning -- testing the theory.

... well. Family is all about helping each other.

Today, January 17, marks Franklin's 306th birthday. He lived to be eighty-four, and his myriad accomplishments, trades, discoveries, and experiences make him as fascinating a figure as ever. But then again, I may be biased. Much as I love John Adams, I'll always appreciate Benjamin Franklin, first and foremost, as the creator ... of the very first public lending library in America.

(Oh, and don't feel too bad about William Franklin being stuck flying the kite. He was in his twenties at the time -- and he survived the experiment just fine.)


-- Post by Ms. B