THE CHRONOLOGY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FOUNDER OF THE BY I. MINIS HAYS One of the Secretaries of the Society 1706-1790 PHILADELPHIA THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 1904 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1706-1790 Eripuit cœlo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis."-Turgot. 1706. Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 6. old style, or January 17, new style. 1716. Assisted his father in his business of tallow chandler and soap boiler. 1718. Was apprenticed as a printer to his brother James. 1721. Began to write anonymous articles for the "New England Courant." 1723. October. Left home on account of differences with his brother James, and finally landed at Market street wharf in Philadelphia with only a Dutch dollar in his pocket, and got employment in the printing office of Samuel Keimer. 1724. Governor Sir William Keith proposed his setting up a printing office in Philadelphia, promised him his financial aid, and induced him to go to England to get an outfit. On his arrival in London, on December 24, he found to his dismay that the Governor's promises were worthless and that he was again stranded in a strange city without means. He immediately got work in Palmer's printing office in London. 1726. July 23. He returned to America in company with a Mr. Dunham, whose acquaintance he had made on his voyage out, and who tempted him back by the promise of a position as a clerk in a mercantile venture which he was about to make in Philadelphia, where he arrived on October 11, but in a brief time the death of Dunham put an end to his career as a merchant. He then again engaged with Keimer. 1727. Formed among his ingenious acquaintances a club for mutual improvement, which he called "the Junto. 1728. Formed a partnership in the printing business with Hugh Meredith. 1729. Wrote and printed an anonymous pamphlet entitled "A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency." September. Bought out the "Pennsylvania Gazette,' which Keimer had started nine months before to defeat a similar project of Franklin's which had accidentally come to his knowledge. Under Franklin's management the Gazette soon became the most prosperous and influential newspaper in the Colonies. 1730. Appointed Public Printer by the Pennsylvania Assembly. September. Married Deborah Read. 1731. Established the first circulating library in AmericaThe Library Company of Philadelphia-which is still existing and has 210,000 volumes in its collection. Participated in the formation of St. John's Lodge in Philadelphia, the first Masonic Lodge established in America. 1732. Wrote and began the publication of "Poor Richard's Almanac," of which three editions were exhausted within. one month. It at once gained an immense popularity. The average sale for 25 years was 10,000 copies a year, and it has been translated into nearly every written. language. 1733. Established a branch printing office in Charleston, S. C. 1734. Elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Free Masons. 1736. Chosen Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly. December 7. Organized the first fire company in Philadelphia-the Union Fire Company. 1737. Appointed Postmaster at Philadelphia, also a Justice of the Peace. 1741. Established, in partnership with James Parker, a printing office in New York. 1742. Invented the Franklin Open Stove. 1743. Issued his "Proposals for Promoting Useful Knowledge among the British Plantations in America," which resulted in the formation in the same year of the first scientific society to be organized in America-the American Philosophical Society, of which he became the Secretary. 1744. Published an "Account of the newly-invented Pennsylvania Fire-places. ''* 1745. Began his experiments in electricity, and the discov eries that he subsequently made therein "have secured him undisputed rank amongst the most eminent of natural philosophers." 1747. Propounded his theory of electricity, which is known as the Franklinian theory and is still accepted by many physicists. France and Spain being at war with Great Britain, Philadelphia was in danger of attack by their privateers. The Assembly having failed to pass a Militia law, Franklin excited the patriotism of Pennsylvania by voice and *There is every reason to believe that Dr. Franklin communicated his early scientific observations and discoveries to the American Philosophical Society, but as the records of this Society before 1768 have been lost, and as the Society did not begin to publish its Transactions until 1769, it is impossible to fix the exact dates of these communications. |