Benjamin Franklin                                  

Main Characters:

Benjamin Franklin, his wife Deborah, his son William, Dr. Spencer, Justice Hill

Overall Theme:

Benjamin Franklin’s curiosity causes him to explore the marvels of electricity.  He discovers that lightning is a form of electricity and invents the lightning rod, a device to protect property when lightning strikes.

Summary:

Benjamin Franklin knows that a traveling show “magician” is using an electromagenetic generating machine to perform the “tricks.”  Intrigued by the  possibilities of electricity, Franklin buys the machine.

On a wall at his home, hang Franklin’s “many hats.”  He is– or has been - a diplomat, inventor, printer, postmaster and fire chief.  Now he contemplates the power of electricity.  He doesn’t know what to do with it, but he knows it is important.  “The power of the future,” he says, “the friend of mankind.”

But right now mankind in Philadelphia is threatened by a series of thunderstorms.  With regularity,  lightning strikes, setting fires all over the town.  Franklin’s fire department, although equipped with the latest 18^th Century fire-fighting equipment, is  helpless against its power.

Meanwhile, Franklin continues to play with electricity.  He begins to understand how electricity flows from one place to another.

Another lightning bolt sets fire to yet another house.  Justice Hill declares that lightning is a “judgment from God against our wicked ways.”  Franklin, a man of deep faith and a man of science, doesn’t think so.  He observes that lightning tends to strike only the tallest buildings in an  area.  A short time later, on a night when lightning is setting fires everywhere, Franklin has a revelation.   What if lightning were electricity?  Then it might be controlled.

Franklin conducts his famous experiment.  Flying a kite in a thunderstorm, he confines the power of a lightning bolt in a leydon jar, a type of early storage battery.  Now he knows how to control electricity.

With lightning rods on top of their buildings and iron cables going down to the earth, the people of Philadelphia are protected.

Background:

Few men in history have had as great an influence on so many areas of life as Benjamin Franklin.  He lived in a time of great scientific, philosophical and cultural change – and he influenced all these areas.

In his long life he was an important Philosophical influence on two revolutions –  the American and French.  He was intensely involved in the public life of the time, founding libraries, establishing a postal system, serving in public office.  He made substantial contributions to both the Declaration of Independence and the US constitution.

As a scientist, he is remembered for the lightning rod, the Franklin Stove, bifocal glasses and musical Instruments.  He also was a writer and publisher of newspapers and pamphlets.  His Poor Richard’s Almanack, first published in 1732, is the longest running publication in history.