The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin reviewed by Yuki Miura

Introduction and Brief Overview:

Benjamin Franklin is considered as “The First American” for his achievements as a printer, a politician, a postmaster, a scientist, an inventor, a civic activist, and diplomat. He was born in 1706 in Boston and died in 1790. He wrote the autobiography to his son, William, because he thought that William wanted to know about his life. A short summary of each chapter is the following:

In Part One, he talked about his early life and how he started his carrier as a printer. His friendship with a couple of friends and corrections of errata is also the major part of this chapter.

In Part Two, it started with two letters that encouraged him to continue writing the autobiography from his friends. He also mentioned about his challenge to become a perfect man. He established thirteen virtues to become the perfect man.

In Part Three, his life as a politician, a civic activist, and a scientist/inventor is portrayed. I personally think that this chapter is not so interesting. However, his achievements as a scientist and an inventor are very important to us.

In Part Four, which is the shortest chapter of all, his challenge as a commissioner is very briefly explained. Benjamin probably intended on writing more but his death must have prevented him to do so. Part Four is written in the winter of 1789 one year before his death.

Honestly, I did not know anything about Benjamin before I read this book. I came from Japan about three years ago, and I had never heard or cared about him (no offence to American people). I asked people about Benjamin, and people laughed at me because he is something what the all American should somehow learn in their elementary schools. I got an impression that he is not just a famous figure of the U.S, but he is very important person when they portray what is “the American.” I would like to discuss some of the interesting points of the book—thirteen virtues and the kite experiment.

Thirteen Virtues:

One of the major points of the autobiography is the corrections of his errors. When he was attending worship, he could not like the worship that was about the virtues. What the pastor said was not something that he expected from the Bible, so Benjamin disliked it. Therefore, he established his own method. His method is to create a weekly plan, and check if he could develop the virtues. According to him, if he developed one of the virtues a week, he could become a perfect man in thirteen weeks. The thirteen virtues that he thought it is necessary to become a perfect man was temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. Humility was not in his virtue at the first time, but his friend told him to fix his arrogance, so he added Humility to the list. Benjamin carefully analyzed his mistakes, so he almost became a perfect. However, he found out that it was very hard for him to master Order. He mentioned that he almost gave up his attempt and he found out that it was especially difficult to acquire by man because of business. He had never arrived at the perfection, but he enjoyed and became happier. To acquire Humility, he tried not to use aggressive words such as “certainly,” “undoubtedly,” and used “conceive,” “apprehend” instead. He completely overcame it, so now he acquired Humility, and he should be proud of it. However, in the rest of the book, he still tried to live humbly, so I personally felt that he could not actually overcome Humility. This story was very interesting to me because it did not mention his success story only, but also his failures.

The Kite Experiment:

Benjamin received instructions on conducting scientific experiments in 1746. He produced experimental instruments, such as beakers, and practiced his experiments at home. One of the most well known accomplishments and the reason for his fame is his idea and ultimately the paper he published on the lightning and electricity. His idea was that lightning and electricity was the same thing. He wrote letters that were eventually published as books, but when it was translated into French, a well known physicist, who had been exploring electricity, was offended by his work because of the work he had because of the work he had already done. Many of the well known scientists initially laughed at the idea. Benjamin did not respond to his attach, however, when he published a paper on this idea of his, to include what is currently known as the kite experiment, and translated into other languages, the attack against him stopped and he earned his reputation.

The kite experiment is significant to us because without his idea of the relationship between the lightning and electricity, there are no light bulbs, lightning rods, or batteries.

When water freezes in the cold atmospheric temperature, it forms small molecular level ice crystals. The ice crystals then forms graupels those are larger than the ice crystals. As the graupels ride an up-current of air, they contact each other so frictions occur. In the process of the frictions, static electricity is produced. The positive charge produced is stored in the ice crystals and the negative charge is stored in the graupels. The heavier graupels accumulate in the bottom half of the cloud because of the gravity so that the lighter ice crystals accumulate in the top half of the cloud. In another word, the negative charge and the positive charge is accumulated separately. Because of the accumulation of the negative charge at the bottom half of the cloud, the positive charge of the ground or the key is induced by the induction of electricity, and it produces the electric field. When the electric field becomes large, a discharge of electricity (lightning) occurs.

As I mentioned, Benjamin earned the reputation through the experiment and the invention of the lightning rod. The invention of the lightning rod prevented people from losing their houses by burning resulted from the thunder. In addition to it, his experiment is the basis of the Thomas Edison’s famous invention, a light bulb. Moreover, the induction and the conduction of the electricity have the important role in batteries, though the idea of the induction and the conduction were not the idea of his.

Personal Response:

Through the reading of the book, I felt that the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is different from the autobiographies of the other eminent people. One thing that I want to advice to the future readers is that the book is sometimes confusing because Benjamin did not follow the series of the event. He tended to jump around between the events. Other than that, this book is very interesting and enjoyable. It is helpful for readers like me who does not know anything about Benjamin because it basically explains everything, though he did not mention anything about the Declaration of Independence. If you want some ideas for your life, this is the book what you must read, because the book will provide you how you can improve your life. Benjamin Franklin is the person who tried everything what he wanted, he is, I assured, “The First American.”