Benjamin Franklin was born in 1704 in Boston and died in 1790. He is remembered as a scientist, inventor, author, and diplomat. Depending on what kind of information you find interesting or worth knowing about someone, it is difficult for me to tell you what the "best" thing about Ben Franklin was. Here I can share with you some widely-valued facts about Franklin, as well as some of my own favorite anecdotes.
Franklin was fond of writing and had an active mind- which he would build a career on later in life. When he was just sixteen, he was struggling to find anyone who would publish his writings. He came up with the pseudonym Mrs. Silence Dogood and wrote a fictitious memoir about her, and "sent" the memoir by way of letters to his brother's newspaper, where they were published. Later in life he wrote and published Poor Richard's Almanac- an annual text which advised on weather and crop planting, as well as including witty sayings and advice on life.
Franklin was passionate about inventing and developed the first bifocal glasses for distance sight as well as reading. He is also remembered for his interest in electricity and his experiments thereupon. Maybe you are familiar with the story that Franklin tied a key to a kite during a thunderstorm to conduct the electricity of lightning.
In his work as a politician and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin signed numerous official documents, including the United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
My favorite tidbit concerning Benjamin Franklin is that he believed in the benefits of "wind bathing-" alternately called an "air bath." This involved standing nude in the open air, or in front of a window, and allowing the winds to "cleanse" the body. Franklin apparently made it a habit to regularly sit in the nude in front of an open window to air himself!
No comments:
Post a Comment