FRANKLIN. 



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collection was advanced into a public li- 

 brary, and the < ther colonies, sensible of 

 its advantage, began to form similar plans, 

 from whence originated the libraries at 

 Boston, New-York, Charleston, &c. ; 

 that of Philadelphia being now scarcely 

 inferior to any in Europe. 



About 1728, or 1729, young Franklin 

 set up a newspaper, the second in Phila- 

 delphia, winch proved very profitable, 

 and otherwise useful, as affording an op- 

 portunity of making himself known as a 

 political writer, by inserting several of 

 his writings of that kind into it. In addi- 

 tion to his printing-house, he set up a 

 1 op to sell books and stationary, and in 

 3-J he married his wife, who proved 

 ry usei'ui in assisting to manage the 

 op, &c. He afterwards began to have 

 me leisure, both for reading books and 

 writing them, of which he gave many spe- 

 cimens from time to time. In 17^2 he 

 began to publish poor Richard's Alma- 

 nac k, which was continued for many years. 

 It was always remarkable for the numerous 

 and valuable concise maxims it contained 

 for the economy of human life, all tend- 

 ing to exhort to industry and frugality ; 

 and in the almanack for the last year, 

 all the maxims were collected in an ad- 

 dress to the reader, entitled The Way to 

 Wealth. This has been translated into 

 various languages, and inserted in various 

 publications. It has also been printed on 

 a large sheet, proper to be framed and 

 hung up in conspicuous places in all 

 houses, as it very well deserves to be. 

 Mr. Franklin became gradually more 

 nown for his political talents, and in the 

 ar 1736, he was appointed clerk to the 

 neral assembly of Pennsylvania, and 

 was re-elected by succeeding assemblies 

 for several years, till he was chosen re- 

 presentative for the city of Philadelphia: 

 and in 1737 he was appointed post-mas- 

 ter to that city. In 1738 he formed the 

 first fire company there, to extinguish 

 and prevent fires, and the burning of 

 houses; an example which was soon fol- 

 ~owed by other persons and other places. 

 ' nd soon after he suggested the plan 

 r an association for insuring houses and 

 ships from losses by fire, which was 

 adopted, and the association continues to 

 is day. In the year 1744, during a war 

 tween France and Great Britain, some 

 rench and Indians made inroads upon 

 the frontier inhabitants of the province, 

 who were unprovided for such an attack ; 

 the situation of the province was at that 

 time truly alarming, being destitute of 

 every means of defence. At this crisis 



Franklin stepped forth, and proposed to 

 a meeting of the citizens of Philadelphia, 

 a plan of a voluntary association for the 

 defence of the province. This was ap- 

 proved of and signed by 1200 persons 

 immediately. Copies of it were circu- 

 lated through the province, and in a 

 short time the number of signatures 

 amounted to 10,000. Franklin was chosen 

 colonel of the Philadelphia regiment, but 

 he did not think proper to accept of the 

 honour. 



Pursuits of a different nature now oc- 

 cupied the greatest part of his attention 

 for some years. Being always much ad- 

 dicted to the study of natural philosophy, 

 and the discovery of the Leyden experi- 

 ment in electricity having rendered that 

 science of general curiosity, Mr. Franklin 

 applied himself to it, and soon began 

 to distinguish himself in that way. He 

 engaged in a course of electrical experi- 

 ments with all the ardour and thirst for 

 discovery which characterized the philo- 

 sophers of that day. By these he was ena- 

 bled to make a number of important dis- 

 coveries, and to propose theories to ac- 

 count for various phenomena, which have 

 been generally adopted, and will probably 

 endure for a long time. His observations 

 he communicated in a series of letters to 

 his friend Mr. Collinson, the first of 

 which is dated March 28, 1747. In these 

 he makes known the power of points in 

 drawing and throwing off the electric 

 matter, which had hitherto escaped the 

 notice of electricians. He also made the 

 discovery of plus and minus, and of post' 

 tive and negative states of electricity; from 

 whence, in a satisfactory manner, he ex- 

 plained the phenomena of the Leyden 

 phial, first observed by Cuneus, or Mus- 

 chenbroech, which had much preplexed 

 philosophers. He shewed that the bottle, 

 when charged, contained no more elec- 

 tricity than before, but that as much was 

 taken from one side as was thrown on the 

 other, and that to discharge it, it was ne- 

 cessaryto make a communication between 

 the two sides, by which the equilibrium 

 might be restored, and that then no 

 signs of electricity would remain. He 

 then demonstrated by experiments, that 

 the electricity did not reside in the coat- 

 ing, as had been supposed, but in or upon 

 the glass itself. After a phial was charg- 

 ed, he removed the coating, and found 

 that, upon applying a new coating, the 

 shock might still be received. In the 

 year 1749 he first suggested his idea of 

 explaining the phenomena of thunder- 

 gusts, and of the aurora borealis, upon 





