Franklin Read Free Page B

Alexander Annand’s classical academy – an elite Philadelphia school – but, like Benjamin, his education was primarily homegrown. The boy immersed himself in books from his father’s store, which provided a curriculum in Roman and Catholic Church history, as well as Greek and Latin grammar and literature.
    William amused himself by flying kites in the spring, swimming and fishing in summer, and sledding and skating in winter. He joined an amateur theater group that staged plays in a warehouse and bet on horses – activities equally frowned upon in the Quaker city. Often, William gravitated to the docks, where he watched as ships unloaded exotic goods imported from as far away as India. He began to grow restless, thinking of escape and adventure.
    Even after their daughter, Sarah , was born in 1743, Deborah still resented William. As he grew older, William noticed this fact. Benjamin tried to soothe these feelings, but he was not always successful. The household had grown, too, to include servants to help with the cooking, housework, and caring for Deborah’s mother, who lived with them. There were apprentices to take on other chores and run errands. Deborah devoted most of her time to Sarah. Benjamin was preoccupied with his work. He gave William early drafts of his Almanack to proofread, and William also proved useful as a bookkeeper and supervised his father’s apprentices.
    Benjamin began to consider his future. By 1745, he was successful, with an income of more than £2,000. (An ordinary working man made £15 a year.) He owned and rented out several houses in Philadelphia. But Franklin saw no point in “the pursuit of wealth to no purpose” and he told a story about visiting a wealthy Philadelphia friend, who gave him a tour of his expensive new house. The rooms were huge, and each time Franklin asked why he had given himself so much space, the man replied, “Because I can afford it.” Finally, Franklin said, “Why don’t you buy a hat six times too big for your head? You can afford that too.”
    That kind of life was not for him. At the age of forty-two, he retired from printing. He hired a new printer, Scotsman David Hall, and offered him a chance to run the business if Hall would agree to pay Franklin half the profits from the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard’s Almanack and other work done by the print shop for the next twenty years. At the end of that time, Hall would become sole owner of the business. Hall leaped at the chance.
    People in Philadelphia speculated about Franklin’s next undertaking. Some friends thought he should keep his profitable business that could make him one of the wealthiest men in America. They were amazed the retired Franklin was working harder than ever. But he had a new passion - solving the mysteries of electricity.

 
    Two years earlier, while visiting relatives in Boston, Franklin attended a lecture by Archibald Spencer, a Scottish scientist who performed electrical experiments. Later that year, Spencer sold most of his apparatus to Franklin. Franklin bought more equipment through Peter Collinson , a Quaker friend in London who was a member of the prestigious Royal Society . Soon he was writing to Collinson, “I never was before engaged in any study that so totally engrossed my attention and my time as this has lately done.”
    Scientists knew little about electricity. They produced it by rubbing glass tubes with silk or wool with resin. In 1746, educators at the University of Leyden in the Netherlands discovered how to store electricity in a special bottle – the Leyden jar - lined with strips of tin. Most scientists thought there were two kinds of electricity: vitreous (from silk) and resinous (from resin). Franklin, experimenting in his laboratory, concluded electricity was a single “fluid” that sometimes attracted and sometimes repelled. Why?
    To answer that question, Franklin gathered