IV.

Projects and Experiments

During his time in Philadelphia Franklin engaged in many public projects. In 1727, with a number of his acquaintances, he organized a group called the Junto that met weekly for debate, conversation, and companionship. The Junto attracted some of Philadelphia’s best minds, and it lent its support to many of Franklin’s proposals to improve the city. Members of the Junto pooled their books to create a shared collection, which formed the basis for the first subscription library in America. Founded in 1731, it was chartered in 1742 as the Library Company of Philadelphia. Library subscriptions provided funds to buy books that then could circulate among subscribers. Through the Junta, Franklin also promoted his ideas for creating a fire department and a police force—the first in the colonies.

Franklin first published Poor Richard’s Almanack, a collection of practical advice and humorous sayings, in 1732 under the pen name Richard Saunders. Both a product and a reflection of colonial America, the almanac proved to be a great success, and Franklin published it regularly for the next 25 years. Its homespun wisdom mirrored the simple virtues of a largely rural society: thrift, industry, and humility. As Poor Richard, Franklin advised and amused his readers with such maxims as: “The sleeping fox catches no poultry,” “The used key is always bright,” and “Experience keeps a dear [costly] school, yet fools will learn in no other.” The introduction to the last issue of the almanac, an essay called “The Way to Wealth,” became one of Franklin’s best-known writings.

In 1736 Franklin gained his first political appointment, as clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The next year he was appointed deputy postmaster of Philadelphia. About this time, he organized a volunteer firefighting company in Philadelphia to which members paid dues and agreed to help one another in the event of fire. He also introduced methods for the improvement of street paving and lighting. In 1743 he founded the American Philosophical Society, an organization for the promotion of useful knowledge in science and the humanities.

Franklin retired from the printing business in 1748 to devote his time to inventions. He always believed that knowledge should have practical applications. He had already invented an open stove that warmed houses efficiently. The so-called Franklin stove worked better, however, after it was improved by others. He also devised ways of reducing excessive smoke from heating stoves.

In 1747 Franklin began his experiments in electricity with a simple apparatus that he received from a friend in England. His experiments involved capturing electrical charge, and he came up with the notion of positive and negative electrical charges. Although he was not the first to suggest the connection between lightning and electricity, he proposed an effective method of demonstrating this link. His proposal to erect an iron rod on a high tower or steeple and draw electricity from a storm was published in London and carried out in England and France before he performed his celebrated but dangerous experiment with a kite in 1752. While clouds rolled by the airborne kite, electricity presumably traveled down the kite string to a metal key attached at the end, and a wire drew sparks from the key. Some doubt remains about whether Franklin actually performed the kite experiment, because he failed to mention it for some time. The European demonstrations, however, made Franklin famous. Franklin also published instructions on how to protect houses with lightning rods.

In recognition of his scientific accomplishments, Franklin became a fellow of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge and, in 1753, was awarded its Copley Medal for distinguished contributions to experimental science. Franklin also exerted a great influence on education in Pennsylvania. In 1749 he wrote the pamphlet Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania; its publication led to the establishment in 1751 of the Academy of Philadelphia, later to become the University of Pennsylvania. The curriculum he suggested departed considerably from the study of the Greek and Roman classics then in vogue. Instead it emphasized English and modern foreign languages as well as mathematics and science.