The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Review by Ana Plasencia

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a first person account by one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin. From this book I learned that Benjamin Franklin was a strong person that never gave up on his dreams. Once he set his mind on a task he did not stop until the task was done. Another aspect of his character that I would like to point out was the fact that he always had the good will to help others mostly with his inventions. Franklin held many jobs at this time period: he was a printer, politician, scientist, inventor, civil activist, statesman, diplomat, and as mentioned before a founding father. The writing of the declaration of Independence is not written in the account due to the fact that Franklin died before he could add more to the book. The events are not told as they happen; Franklin would return after the occurrences and tell them.
The book starts off with establishing Franklin’s life as a printer. He always had the desire to travel but his father would not hear of it and Franklin was appointed apprentice to his brother at a printing press. The printing press fascinated Franklin and he began to get ideas of writing his own work, although he was highly discouraged by his brother. To improve his writing skills Franklin began to read as many book as he could and consequently his language improves. Franklin then writes an anonymous paper and slides it under the door at the printing shop. The next morning the paper is praised and published in the paper. Franklin continues this anonymous writing of the Indentured Papers and when he reveals to his brother his authorship, his brother is enraged and the two go their separate ways. Franklin continues the printing apprenticeship in Philadelphia which eventually leads to his own printing business and also picks up other interests.
The inventions created by Benjamin Franklin were for the better of others. Although these inventions made him famous he did not seek the recognition or profit. Some examples of his inventions were the glass armonica, the lightning rod, Franklin stove, urethral catheter, and bifocals. His most famous invention was the lightning rod and it had to do with his interest in electrical experiments.
Franklin’s interests in electrical experiments grew through his involvement in the American Philosophical Society, which he founded himself with the purpose of having young inventors come together and discuss interests, ideas, and theories. Franklin’s house could be described as a small laboratory, he had experiments and inventions set up everywhere and came across electricity when he received a static shock. Another contributing factor to his invention of the lightning rod, which came about because of electricity, was the fact that Franklin served as a fireman for the city. He noticed that the lightning would strike at the highest buildings, causing them to go up in flames, because electricity seeks to reach the ground the fastest way it can. Franklin came up with an experiment and used his printing press to his advantage and published a paper stating that lighting was electricity.
He set up an experiment involving a kite, string, a key and a Leyden’s jar. One cloudy morning, Franklin set out to “catch” his lighting. He flew the kite into the air and tied the metal key to the other end of it. He then placed a wire at the other end of the key and put the wire into the Leyden’s jar to catch the electricity. Franklin found shelter in a nearby barn to keep one end dry and also to protect him from the electrical shock since the dry side would not conduct it. Time passed and there was a lightning strike to the kite which hit the key and went into the Leyden’s Jar. Franklin was amazed to have found the solution to so many buildings burning down. He felt that there was a way to ‘control’ the lighting because lightning was electricity. Soon after the lightning rod came about using the same concept as the kite experiment; the rod was placed on top of the building and ran down the side meaning the lighting would strike the rod and conduct the electrical shock to the ground instead of causing a fire.
The next well known experiment is the Franklin stove. Back in those days, fireplaces were used to cook, but they were very inefficient and were also a very big hazard to families. The smoke would fill the house and the sparks that flew out would cause fires in the houses leading the families to lose all that they owned. Franklin added a hood to the front of the stove which kept the sparks from flying out and also proved to be more efficient; the Franklin stove needed less resources, had better cooking results and also improved the airflow in the homes. Again, like mentioned above, Franklin was offered a patent for the Franklin stove but he turned it down because he did not seek fame, he just sought to help others. Another invention by Franklin was bifocals. Franklin had very bad eye sight and grew tired of putting on and removing his eyeglasses every time he needed to read and when he was done reading. He had two pairs of spectacles, one for near sightedness and the other for far sightedness, which he cut in half. Then taking a frame, he put the far sighted lens on top and near sighted on the bottom to create one frame. This renovation improved the life of many including him.
The urethral catheter was a breakthrough that provided more comfort to patients with kidney stones. Patients with kidney stones needed a catheter because their kidneys could not filter out the waste on their own. The catheter was placed through the urethra straight to the bladder and was very painful. Franklin’s brother suffered from kidney stones, so Franklin came up with the idea of the flexible catheter that proved to be less painful. To sum up, Franklin’s many jobs all had the purpose to serve others and he never gave up on any of those jobs. His many inventions changed the life of people at the time and led to more modernized forms today.