Franklin, Benjamin

Cultural  

1. A patriot, diplomat, author, printer, scientist, and inventor in the eighteenth century; one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was an important early researcher in electricity and proposed the modern model of electrical current (see also current). He also demonstrated that lightning was electricity by flying a kite in a thunderstorm and allowing it to be struck by lightning. Franklin used this discovery to invent the lightning rod. He produced other inventions as well, such as bifocal eyeglasses and the efficient Franklin stove. Particularly notable among his writings are The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Poor Richard's Almanack. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and negotiated with France and Britain on behalf of the newly formed government of the United States. Toward the end of his life, he took part in the Constitutional Convention.

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At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Franklin warned his fellow patriots that their venture, if unsuccessful, could lead to their execution for treason: “We must all hang together, or we shall surely all hang separately.”

Example Sentences

Jane Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s sister, is a hero of the book, who was possibly in Benjamin Franklin's league, but never got a chance really to read and write that well.

From Salon

There’s a keen interest in history as well: “Keepin’ it Franklin, Benjamin Banneker was never born a slave/ And if George Washington never told no lie, maybe we’d all be saved,” he sings on “One Day We Will All B Free,” a nice bit of wordplay that pulls together two founding fathers and the 18th-century Black polymath Banneker in the same breath.

From Slate

One reprint, in 1721, was published by James Franklin, Benjamin's brother, and went through at least six editions.

From Salon

Citing Sarah Bernhardt, Franz Kafka, Albert Einstein, Rosalind Franklin, Benjamin Disraeli and Karl Marx, Stephens asked: “How is it that a people who never amounted even to one-third of one per cent of the world’s population contributed so seminally to so many of its most pathbreaking ideas and innovations?”

From The Guardian

He is described in the London Directory for 1770 in these words, "Franklin, Benjamin, Esq., agent for Philadelphia, Craven Street, Strand."

From Project Gutenberg