Ben Franklin
“What good shall I do today?” Benjamin Franklin always asked himself.
His answers changed the world!
Ben thought working hard, learning, and doing good were the most important things in life. That’s why he became a famous writer and
inventor and helped the thirteen colonies become the United States.
At ten, Ben already had a job. In the day, he made candles for his father's shop in Boston. At night, he burned candles and stayed up reading.
Ben learned many things from books, even how to swim.
He was a very curious person who loved to test out ideas.
Young Ben went to work for his older brother James.
He learned to be a printer. Ben stopped eating meat.
He spent the money he saved on books. Ben secretly wrote for
James’s newspaper under a fake name. Readers loved his clever
writing. But James did not like being fooled.
The Franklin brothers argued. So Ben struck out on his own.
When Franklin was twenty-two, he opened his own print shop in Philadelphia. Ben used a squeaky wheelbarrow to make deliveries.
People could tell how hard he worked; they heard him coming!
Ben married Deborah Read. He wrote news stories and worked
in the heavy printing press. Deborah ran the busy shop. Ben Franklin became the most successful printer in the colonies.People from New York to Virginia read the weekly newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. Ben published a best-selling book called Poor Richard's Almanac and it made him rich. Ben didn't just print books and papers. He also printed money for Pennsylvania and other colonies! Ben believed in helping make life better for everybody. He looked around to see what people needed. Franklin helped form Philadelphia's first firefighting group, the first general hospital, the first lending library in the country. As he wrote, “Well done is better than well said.”
Ben Franklin really loved to invent things, too. Was your fireplace
working poorly? Ben’s invention the Franklin stove sent heat into
a room and sent smoke up the chimney. Were the street lights dim? Franklin's new square lights glowed. Ben retired from printing to study science full-time. He made a shocking discovery! Ben Franklin discovered the link between lightning and electricity. He flew a kite into the stormy sky. The kite was zapped by lightning! An electric charge struck the kite’s metal tip, traveled down a string, hit a key-- and gave Ben a shock.
Ben then invented the lightning rod. Lightning bolts struck the iron rod instead of the roof. That stopped buildings from burning. Franklin's discoveries made him famous around the world. He was also a member of the government in Pennsylvania. Ben was sent to London to ask for more rights for the colonies. He was not successful. Still he stayed there for many years. Then that evolutionary War started. The American colonists were fighting the British. Franklin sale home. He studied the ocean along the way. Once home Franklin helped write the Declaration of Independence. Ben Franklin sailed to France to ask for money for soldiers for the war against British. Ben got the French to help America win the war. He worked out a peace treaty with England. Ben was gone for 9 years. He met royalty and scientists and invented bifocal eyeglasses!
Ben Franklin returned to what was now the United States. He was nearly eighty, but he still served as a leader of Pennsylvania. He helped write the new country's Constitution. and he lived at home with his family. Ben Franklin died in his bed true to his own words: “Wish not so much to live long, as to live well.”
Excerpt from Ben Franklin Thinks Big:
google.com/books/edition/_/kVpKDwAAQBAJ?hl=en
amazon.com/Ben-Franklin-Thinks-Read-Level/dp/006243263X