Ben at Bowers

We recently took a trip to Bowers Museum to see the Benjamin Franklin exhibit. It was filled with fun hands-on and interactive displays. We would definitely recommend seeing it, but hurry because the exhibit closes on March 13th.

Carly took a ton of notes and came home and wrote this:

All about Benjamin Franklin

By Carly Stone

Benjamin Franklin was an extraordinary person and asset to early America, and the world, for that matter. He was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and an inventor, scientist, musician, writer, and printer. He was born on Milk Street in Boston, New England in 1706. He was the ninth child of eleven children!

Some of the things that Ben Franklin invented were the Glass Armonica, which is a glass instrument that plays certain pitches when rubbed and tapped gently with water. He also invented the first Pennsylvania fire place, and the microscope. He is known as well, for creating spectacles that have different shaped glass in them. You can look up in one lens and see things up close, and down and see things regular. One of his finest achievements was his work with electricity. He invented the electric rod that stuck in the roof of a house, and connected with a chain to another rod, that stuck in the ground. When storms came, and lightning struck, it would strike the rod, and protons and neutrons wouldn’t collide, making the house shatter, instead keeping the house intact.

Benjamin Franklin only attended school for two years, and when he did, failed math twice. He was an avid homeschooler and delighted in self-education, reading the classics, pondering the world, asking questions, experimenting and looking at the ‘big picture’. He played the violin, guitar and harp, and wrote songs and sang to friends. Plus he was an incredible writer at age sixteen. Ben Franklin was also very close with animals, especially squirrels (known in the eighteenth century as ‘Skuggs’), and he shipped one once to his friend Deborah who was living in another state!

He traveled from Philadelphia to Boston, and in 1723 was an apprentice to his older brother James, as a printer. He married Deborah, and they had three children, William (who was an illegitimate son, and no one knows who his real mother was), Francis and Sally. Francis, the first child of theirs, died of smallpox as a toddler. This caused tremendous grief to Deborah and Benjamin. They suffered greatly from the loss of Francis.

As far as Ben Franklin’s health goes, he did suffer from a type of arthritis from consumption of beer and lots of red meat! He was the oldest member of the constitution, yet did not believe all of what the constitution stated. He charted the Gulf Stream, and helped come up with ideas to found the first fire station team. Poor Richard’s Almanac was published in 1733 which he wrote. He published many books, and printed many books!

Everyone will remember Benjamin Franklin for his great accomplishments and work with building the United States. He was an excellent person with many great attributes and contributed all his discoveries to make the world a better place.