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Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S., an author, and a printer. He was also a great politician, inventor, and scientist. Benjamin Franklin’s scientific contributions have shaped physics and the field of electricity. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, the odometer, and the glass harmonica. Franklin created the first public lending library in the United States and first fire department in the city of Pennsylvania. Ben Franklin was a true genius of his time.
==
Benjamin Franklin
(January 17, 1706
[
O.S.
January 6, 1705] – April 17, 1790) was one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States
. A noted
polymath
, Franklin was a leading author, printer,
political theorist
,
politician
,
postmaster
, scientist, musician, inventor,
satirist
, civic activist, statesman, and
diplomat
. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the
American Enlightenment
and the
history of physics
for his discoveries and theories regarding
electricity
. He invented the
lightning rod
,
bifocals
, the
Franklin stove
, a carriage
odometer
, and the
glass 'armonica'
He facilitated many civic organizations, including a fire department and a university.
Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for
colonial unity
; as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies, then as the first
United States Ambassador to France
, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education,
community spirit
, self-governing institutions, and opposition to
authoritarianism
both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the
Enlightenment
. In the words of historian
Henry Steele Commager
, "In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of
Puritanism
without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat." To
Walter Isaacson
, this makes Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."
Franklin, always proud of his working class roots
, became a successful newspaper editor and printer in
Philadelphia
, the leading city in the colonies. He was also partners with
William Goddard
and
Joseph Galloway
the three of whom published the
Pennsylvania Chronicle
, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the
British monarchy
in the American colonies. He became wealthy publishing
Poor Richard's Almanack
and
The Pennsylvania Gazette
. Franklin gained international renown as a scientist for his famous experiments in electricity and for his many inventions, especially the lightning rod. He played a major role in establishing the
University of Pennsylvania
and was elected the first president of the
American Philosophical Society
. Franklin became a national hero in America when he spearheaded the effort to have
Parliament
repeal the unpopular
Stamp Act
. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a major figure in the development of positive
Franco-American relations
. For many years he was the British postmaster for the colonies, which enabled him to set up the first national communications network. He was active in community affairs, colonial and state politics, as well as national and international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as
governor of Pennsylvania
. Toward the end of his life, he freed his slaves and became one of the most prominent
abolitionists
.
His colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers, have seen Franklin honored on coinage and
money
;
warships
;
the names of many towns
, counties, educational institutions, namesakes, and companies; and more than two centuries after his death, countless cultural references.
Ancestry
Franklin's father,
Josiah Franklin
((
December 23, 1657 - January 16, 1745
) was a
tallow
chandler, a soap-maker and a candle-maker. Josiah was born at
Ecton
,
Northamptonshire, England
, on December 23, 1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith-farmer, and Jane White. His mother,
Abiah Folger
, was born in
Nantucket, Massachusetts
, on August 15, 1667, to Peter Folger, a miller and schoolteacher and his wife
Mary Morrill
, a former
indentured servant
.
Josiah Franklin had 17 children with his two wives. He married his first wife, Anne Child, in about 1677 in Ecton and emigrated with her to Boston in 1683; they had three children before emigrating, and four after.
After her death, Josiah was married
to Abiah Folger on July 9, 1689, in the
Old South Meeting House
by
Samuel Willard
. Benjamin, their eighth child, was Josiah Franklin's 15th child and tenth and last son.
Ben Franklin's mother, Abiah Folger, was born into a
Puritan
family among those that fled to Massachusetts to establish a purified
Congregationalist
Christianity in New England, when
King Charles I of England
began persecuting Puritans. They sailed for Boston in 1635. Her father was "the sort of rebel destined to transform colonial America"; as
clerk of the court
, he was jailed for disobeying the local magistrate in defense of middle-class shopkeepers and artisans in conflict with wealthy landowners. Ben Franklin followed in his grandfather's footsteps in his battles against the wealthy Penn family that owned the
Pennsylvania Colony
.
</SPAN>
Early life
Benjamin Franklin was born on
Milk Street
, in Boston,
Massachusetts
, on January 17, 1706 and
baptized
at Old South Meeting House. Josiah wanted Ben to attend school with the clergy,
but only had enough money to send him to school for two years
.
He attended
Boston Latin School
but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious reading. Although "his parents talked of the church as a career" for
Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten
.
He then worked for his father for a time and at 12 he became an
apprentice
to his brother James, a printer, who taught Ben the printing trade. When Ben was 15, James founded
The New-England Courant
, which was
the first truly independent newspaper in the colonies
. When denied the chance to write a letter to the paper for publication, Franklin adopted the pseudonym of "
Mrs. Silence Dogood
", a middle-aged widow. "Mrs. Dogood"'s letters were published, and became a subject of conversation around town. Neither James nor the
Courant'
s readers were aware of the ruse, and James was unhappy with Ben when he discovered the popular correspondent was his younger brother. Franklin left his apprenticeship without permission,
and in so doing became a fugitive.
At age 17, Franklin ran away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, seeking a new start in a new city.
When he first arrived he worked in several printer shops around town. However, he was not satisfied by the immediate prospects. After a few months, while working in a printing house, Franklin was convinced by Pennsylvania Governor
Sir William Keith
to go to London, ostensibly to acquire the equipment necessary for establishing another newspaper in Philadelphia. Finding Keith's promises of backing a newspaper to be empty, Franklin worked as a
typesetter
in a printer's shop in what is now the
Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great
in the
Smithfield
area of London. Following this, he returned to Philadelphia in 1726 with the help of Thomas Denham, a merchant who employed Franklin as clerk, shopkeeper, and bookkeeper in his business.
In 1727, Benjamin Franklin, then 21, created the
Junto
, a group of "like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community." The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it subsequently gave rise to many organizations in Philadelphia.
Reading was a great pastime of the Junto, but books were rare and expensive. The members created a library, initially assembled from their own books. This did not suffice, however. Franklin then conceived the idea of a
subscription library
, which would pool the funds of the members to buy books for all to read. This was the birth of the
Library Company of Philadelphia
: its charter was composed by Franklin in 1731. In 1732, Franklin hired the first American librarian,
Louis Timothee
. Originally, the books were kept in the homes of the first librarians, but in 1739 the collection was moved to the second floor of the State House of Pennsylvania, now known as
Independence Hall
. In 1791, a new building was built specifically for the library. The Library Company is now a great scholarly and
research library
with 500,000 rare books, pamphlets, and broadsides, more than 160,000 manuscripts, and 75,000 graphic items.
Upon Denham's death, Franklin returned to his former trade. In 1728, Franklin had set up a printing house in partnership with Hugh Meredith and the following year became the publisher of a newspaper called
The Pennsylvania Gazette
. The
Gazette
gave Franklin a forum for agitation about a variety of local reforms and initiatives through printed essays and observations. Over time, his commentary, and his adroit cultivation of a positive image as an industrious and intellectual young man, earned him a great deal of social respect. But even after Franklin had achieved fame as a scientist and statesman, he habitually signed his letters with the unpretentious 'B. Franklin, Printer.'
[12]
In 1731, Franklin was initiated into the local
Masonic
Lodge. He became Grand Master in 1734, indicating his rapid rise to prominence in Pennsylvania.
[13]
[14]
That same year, he edited and published the first Masonic book in the Americas, a reprint of
James Anderson's
Constitutions of the Free-Masons
. Franklin remained a Freemason for the rest of his life.
هو الابن السابع عشر لوالده الذي تزوجت مرتين وهو الاصغر. لم يتعلم في المدرسة الا سنوات محدودة وعمل مع اخية مبكرا لكنه ترك العلم وسافر وهو ما يزال في السابعة عشره.
يتيم اجتماعي
.
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