FRANKLIN 



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FRANKS 



ity were one and the same thing. Later he 

 invented the lightning rod, the Franklin stove 

 and various scientific appliances. Universities 

 at home and abroad were pleased to confer 



THE PHILADELPHIA STATUE 



degrees upon him. When he died, April 17, 

 1790, he was easily the second citizen of the 

 New World George Washington, alone, tower- 

 ing above him. E.D.F. 



Consult his own Autobiography; Brooks' The 

 True Story of Benjamin Franklin; Ford's The 

 Many-Sided Franklin. 



FRANKLIN, SIR JOHN (1786-1847), an Arctic 

 explorer, whose journal and scientific records 

 added much to the history of explorations in 

 Arctic lands and among the Eskimos. He died 

 in service in the northland, and the story of 

 his scientific labors was known only when 

 Lieutenant Schwatka discovered the remains 

 of his party in Prince William's Land, thirty 

 years after they were lost. Franklin was born 

 in Lincolnshire, England, and entered the Eng- 

 lish navy in his youth. After taking part in 

 several expeditions in which he showed his 

 scientific knowledge, he was made lieutenant 

 in 1808, and in 1814 he accompanied the Brit- 

 ish expedition against New Orleans and was 

 in the battle which was fought after peace 

 was declared. Becoming interested in the ex- 

 ploration of the Arctic coast of North Amer- 

 ica, he was placed in command of two ships 

 in 1845 to survey the waters and coasts west 



from Baffin Bay. None of his party ever re- 

 turned, though nearly forty relief expeditions 

 went in search of him. 



FRANKLIN, PA., the county seat of Venango 

 County, in the northwestern part of the state, 

 nine miles southwest of Oil City, with which 

 it is connected by an electric interurban line. 

 It is on the Allegheny River, and on the Lake 

 Erie, Franklin & Clarion and the New York 

 Central railroads. The city, which has an area 

 of six square miles, has attractive parks and 

 a public library. It is in the richest oil region 

 of the state, and has thriving oil refineries, 

 machine shops and manufactories of oil-well 

 supplies, tools, steel castings and carbon paper. 

 Settled about 1753, Franklin was incorporated 

 in 1795, and in 1913 adopted the commission 

 form of government. In 1910 the population 

 was 9,767; it was 11,307 in 1916, by Federal 

 estimate. 



FRANKS, a group of peoples dwelling in the 

 fourth century in what was later France, and 

 north of the Main in what is now Germany, 

 ranging as far as the shores of the North Sea. 

 They were valiant warriors, and were of great 

 stature. Franks killed in battle were buried 

 fully armed; their arms and armor have been 

 found in the ancient cemeteries which abound 

 throughout Northern France. 



The Franks were distinguished as the 

 Salians and the Ripuarians; the former lived 

 on the Lower Rhine, the latter on both banks 

 of the Middle Rhine. The Frankish realm 

 attained its greatest dominion under Charle- 

 magne, in 758. The treasures of Rome, polit- 



THE FRANKISH DOMINIONS 

 In A. D. 575. 



ical, social and ecclesiastical, were given to the 

 world through the exertions of the Franks. 

 Roman law, literature and the Christian reli- 

 gion were forced on the barbarians by them. 



