Benjamin Franklin
Ben Franklin was born in Boston, Mass. on January 17, 1706. He was the son of a candle-maker who wanted him to become a minister. But he did not have enough money to send him to school for a long time. He taught himself to read, and he learned very quickly. He did some very cool stuff during his life. When he was 12, he became an apprentice at his brother’s printing shop. He wanted to see some of his own works in the paper, so he disguised himself as “Mrs. Silence Dogood” because he did not want his brother to know it was him writing the “articles.” While working for his brother, he became a vegetarian in order to save money. He used the money he had saved to buy books. With these books, he taught himself arithmetic, navigation, grammar, logic, algebra and geometry. He also taught himself to read French, Latin, Spanish, Italian, and German. He loved to read very much. When Ben was 17, he ran away to Philadelphia. He wrote Poor Richard’s Almanac over the course of 25 years. He soon landed a job as a printer. He did so well that Sir William Keith, the governor of the colony at the time, offered to set him up in a business of his own. He was sent to London to buy equipment. He returned to Philadelphia after about 2 years and then started his own business. He began to publish The Pennsylvania Gazette. When he was 42, Franklin had enough money to retire. He always tried to practice what he preached. In 1727, he organized the Junto Club in Philadelphia. It later took the name of the American Philosophical Society. In 1731, he started the first circulating library in America. He also established the first fire department in Philadelphia and started the first fire insurance company. He organized the Academy of Pennsylvania, which is now the University of Pennsylvania. He reformed the police system and started the first hospital in America, the Pennsylvania Hospital.
Ben Franklin was also a great inventor. In 1752, he flew a homemade kite...
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