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Speaker 1: Hi, This is newt twenty twenty is going to be

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Speaker 1: one of the most extraordinary election years of our lifetime.

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Speaker 1: dot com Code free Book. This offer ends January thirty. First.

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Speaker 1: On this episode, I'm going to talk about one of

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Speaker 1: my favorite founding fathers, somebody that, having been born in Hasburg, Pennsylvania,

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Speaker 1: spent a large part of my childhood going to Philadelphia

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Speaker 1: surrounded by Franklin and the impact he'd made in the world.

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Speaker 1: I've always felt that the breadth of what he did

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Speaker 1: the extraordinary range from business person to publisher, to writer,

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Speaker 1: to invent her. Not just inventor in the sense of

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Speaker 1: physical things like lightning rods and bifocal glasses and the

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Speaker 1: Franklin stove, but inventor in the sense of inventing the

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Speaker 1: University of Pennsylvania, inventing the Volunteer fire Department, inventing the

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Speaker 1: American Philosophical Society. Franklin had such an extraordinary love for life,

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Speaker 1: such a deep work ethic, and such a cheerful willingness

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Speaker 1: to go out and turn ideas into projects and projects

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Speaker 1: into achievements, that there's almost nobody like him. There are

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Speaker 1: lots of other people who've done great things, but almost

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Speaker 1: nobody has covered the range from business to politics, to diplomacy,

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Speaker 1: to science, to invention to social leadership that Franklin personified.

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Speaker 1: And so I think he's well worth spending some time.

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Speaker 1: And he clearly is, by any standard, an immortal of

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Speaker 1: all of the Founding fathers other than George Washington, who

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Speaker 1: literally was the moral strength in which America was created

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Speaker 1: and really was the father of our country. But of

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Speaker 1: all the other Founding fathers except Washington, the one who

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Speaker 1: most deserves to be considered and immortal was Benjamin Franklin.

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Speaker 1: You can make a case, and some people will for

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Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson, who helped with Franklin to write the Declation Independence,

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Speaker 1: who became president, but for sheer scale of achievement, for

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Speaker 1: range of ideas, for the number of different kinds of contributions.

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Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin literally is an immortal. He also is a

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Speaker 1: great sign of what was making America really different because

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Speaker 1: he was someone who rose by his own efforts, not

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Speaker 1: because he was an aristocrat, not because he'd inherited a

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Speaker 1: lot of money, not because he had a unique position,

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Speaker 1: but just because he worked really hard and he was

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Speaker 1: really smart. And the result was because he had this

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Speaker 1: endless interest in life that every time he turned around

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Speaker 1: he was doing something fascinating, and much of the time

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Speaker 1: he was doing things that were historic and that literally

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Speaker 1: changed history for all of us. When you wear bifocal glasses,

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Speaker 1: you are, after all, dealing with an invention of Benjamin Franklin.

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Speaker 1: When you think about having a lightning rod to divert

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Speaker 1: the lightning so that your house doesn't burn up, you're

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Speaker 1: dealing with an invention of Benjamin Franklin. The whole concept

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Speaker 1: of constantly tinkering constantly learning. The discovery of electricity, which

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Speaker 1: is a true story. He goes out he wants to

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Speaker 1: figure out how electricity occurs, and so he flies a

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Speaker 1: kite in the middle of a thunderstorm and he attaches

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Speaker 1: metal so that lightning hits and he suddenly has discovered electricity.

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Speaker 1: This was at the time comparable to Einstein in the

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Speaker 1: twentieth century discovering relativity. People across the planet were stunned

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Speaker 1: that this American had undertaken But if you think about it,

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Speaker 1: is a very common sense, non theoretical experiment, and that

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Speaker 1: is sort of what marks Franklin. He just applies common

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Speaker 1: sense with a lot of intelligence, a real willingness to work,

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Speaker 1: and a kind of funny stubbornness. Now, remember Franklin is

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Speaker 1: born in Boston in seventeen oh six, the beginning of

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Speaker 1: a new century. He's the tenth son out of seventeen children.

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Speaker 1: And that was an era where the number one attitude

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Speaker 1: was you got to earn a living. Frankly, if you

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Speaker 1: want to leave town, we got other kids here too,

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Speaker 1: and we'd rather have you produced money than get a degree.

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Speaker 1: Franklin had stopped schooling when he was ten years old.

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Speaker 1: He worked in his father's candle shop. He made money,

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Speaker 1: and he listened and paid attention to everybody. The fact

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Speaker 1: is that there was nothing that didn't intrigue him. Now,

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Speaker 1: he also understood that having money was good. So if

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Speaker 1: you watch Franklin's long career, and he is at the

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Speaker 1: end the oldest person at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia,

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Speaker 1: he's constantly aware of the fact that having money beats

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Speaker 1: not having money. Franklin thought it was good to acquire wealth,

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Speaker 1: that if he acquired wealth, it liberated you. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: his goal was to be rich enough by forty to

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Speaker 1: be able to go into politics. And so he really

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Speaker 1: was working constantly at this question of can I find

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Speaker 1: a way? And he tried many different things simultaneously. He's

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Speaker 1: also focused on invention. He's focused on writing. He's one

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Speaker 1: of those rare people who had so much energy, had

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Speaker 1: such a great capacity to work. You know, here he is,

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Speaker 1: for example, at eleven years of age, inventing swim fins

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Speaker 1: for his hands. He's eleven years old and he's inventing

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Speaker 1: fins he can put in his hands so he can

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Speaker 1: swim better. By time he's twelve, he's an apprentice, has

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Speaker 1: left his father's candle shop, and now he's apprentice to

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Speaker 1: his brother. His brother, James, has a printing shop in Boston,

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Speaker 1: and at the age of twelve, Franklin is there, busy

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Speaker 1: working away learning how to print. His brother starts publishing

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Speaker 1: The New and Current, which is the first American newspaper

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Speaker 1: to use literary ideas and humorous essays, and this will

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Speaker 1: become an important part of Franklin's own style. Franklin doesn't

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Speaker 1: just look at facts. He has a very deep sense

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Speaker 1: of humor. He has a little bit cynical sense of humor.

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Speaker 1: I understood the human condition. He was quite willing to

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Speaker 1: write about it. And he also must have been an

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Speaker 1: amazingly fast writer. Remember this is an age when people

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Speaker 1: are setting type one letter at a time. So Type said,

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Speaker 1: he is a big deal. And if you write as

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Speaker 1: much as Franklin did, you spending a lot of time

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Speaker 1: setting type in order to send this stuff out. So

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Speaker 1: you have here a person who's constantly writing. Now by

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Speaker 1: the time he's sixteen, he's publishing his first letters, and

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Speaker 1: he a publishes fourteen of them in the Current. He

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Speaker 1: uses the pen name Silent do Good and vents himself

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Speaker 1: as a fictional widow of a country minister. You're already

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Speaker 1: seeing Franklin, who is very imaginative, very cheerful about pretending

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Speaker 1: to be a widow. At the same time, when his

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Speaker 1: brother finally realizes that Silent do Good is his younger brother,

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Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin, he ain't very happy with him. Franklin somehow

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Speaker 1: sort of faking people out, which he was, but he's

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Speaker 1: doing it really cheerfully. So he gets to airtate with

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Speaker 1: his brother and he runs off to Philadelphia because he

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Speaker 1: getting his brother can't get along anymore. Now at this

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Speaker 1: point he is a ripe old seventeen years of age.

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Speaker 1: Philadelphia then was the biggest city in America, the most bustling,

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Speaker 1: had the most commerce, had the most ships coming in

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Speaker 1: from London. Franklin finds work as a printer with Samuel Kemmer,

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Speaker 1: and he lodges in the home of John Reid, who

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Speaker 1: at the time he had no idea but automately becomes

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Speaker 1: his father in law. Now Franklin is a very sociable person,

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Speaker 1: and apparently he was a very good conversationalist, so people

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Speaker 1: liked him. You go to taverns, Hey, we got an

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Speaker 1: extra seat here, Come on over, Ben sit down and

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Speaker 1: chat with us. Yeah. One of the people who did

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Speaker 1: that was the Pennsylvania governor at the time, William Keith.

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Speaker 1: So he gets to know Franklin. He says, why don't

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Speaker 1: you set up your own print shop. Well, Franklin goes

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Speaker 1: back to Boston asks his father for a loan. His

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Speaker 1: father says, you know, Ben, I mean you're not old enough.

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Speaker 1: You had to do this. So Franklin goes back and

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Speaker 1: says to the governor, I'd love to do this. My

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Speaker 1: dad won't loan me the money. The governor loans him

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Speaker 1: the money. Now here's a guy who has only been

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Speaker 1: in town a couple of years and has made such

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Speaker 1: a strong impression that the governor thinks he's a good

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Speaker 1: business risk. Not only does the offer to pay the bill,

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Speaker 1: he offers to send Franklin and pay for Franklin to

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Speaker 1: go to London. Franklin gets to London and a lesson

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Speaker 1: that he will learn many times in his life. The

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Speaker 1: governor forgets to pay for him to come home. So

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Speaker 1: Franklin stuck in London to he can find the money

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Speaker 1: to come home. But he does come home, and when

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Speaker 1: he comes home, remember that he had been lodging with

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Speaker 1: John Reid, and he'd gotten to know Deborah read he

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Speaker 1: asked her to marry him. However, at this point in

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Speaker 1: his life he's only eighteen years old. Deborah's mother is thinking,

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Speaker 1: you know, this is a guy who's a little bit strange,

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Speaker 1: so she says, please be patient, be patient. But when

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Speaker 1: Franklin is abroad in London, Deborah's mother tries to convince

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Speaker 1: Deborah that she ought to marry John Rogers. But Rogers

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Speaker 1: is really a bad guy. He spends her dowry, he

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Speaker 1: runs up debts, he takes off for the West Indies,

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Speaker 1: and they think he has died. Franklin, who has not

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Speaker 1: gotten money from the governor come back home, is working

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Speaker 1: at Samuel Palmer's print shop in London in order to

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Speaker 1: publish enough stuff to make enough money to be able

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Speaker 1: to get home, And in seventeen twenty five he publishes

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Speaker 1: his first pamphlet in London, which is called a Dissertation

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Speaker 1: on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain and are that

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Speaker 1: humans actually lack free will and are therefore not morally

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Speaker 1: responsible for their actions. Now this is a fairly radical idea,

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Speaker 1: and people sort of thought Franklin had lost his mind,

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Speaker 1: but it does not in the long run a fit

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Speaker 1: who Franklin is because he certainly did, in fact believe

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Speaker 1: in free will and thought you could make your way,

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Speaker 1: and later in life will write a whole series of

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Speaker 1: articles and books about it, but it doesn't hurt him any.

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Speaker 1: This is the guy who's learning the hard way that

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Speaker 1: politicians don't always keep their word. Because the governor has

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Speaker 1: not brought him back home, so ultimately he does in

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Speaker 1: fact get back to Philadelphia. Took him two years instead

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Speaker 1: of one, and he sees Deborah, and poor Deborah is

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Speaker 1: there with the guy who's run off with her dowry

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Speaker 1: and apparently may have died in the Caribbean, so he

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Speaker 1: tries to make her feel better. He gets his job

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Speaker 1: back at Samuel Kimeron's print shop, and the very typical

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Speaker 1: Franklin behavior. Franklin, all his life, we'll see an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to get something done that requires founding an organization of

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Speaker 1: some kind, because he understands that organizations create a life

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Speaker 1: of their own. Well, he founds what's called the Hunt Club,

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Speaker 1: and the Hunter Club is a group of young men.

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Speaker 1: They meet on Friday evenings and they discuss everything that

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Speaker 1: intellectual stuff, personal stuff, business stuff, community stuff. So it's

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Speaker 1: a free, willing dialogue. But it does encourage them to

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Speaker 1: read books, It encourage them to think about ideas. It

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Speaker 1: gives him a space to begin to create a personal following,

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Speaker 1: because inevitably, in any group, frank That will be the

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Speaker 1: smartest guy, he'll be the best storyteller, and he'll be

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Speaker 1: the funniest person. So now he's been back home, he's

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Speaker 1: worked once again for somebody else, But by seventeen twenty

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Speaker 1: eight he's in a position where he can now, at

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Speaker 1: twenty two years of age, open his own print shop

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Speaker 1: with h Meredith, and Meredith actually gets a loan from

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Speaker 1: his own father. In seventeen twenty nine, they purchase the

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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Gazette from Samuel Kimmer, and at that point Franklin

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Speaker 1: begins to really roll because he likes to write. He

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Speaker 1: can write a lot. He has a style that people

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Speaker 1: are attracted to, and it both increases his name, idea

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Speaker 1: and modern parlance, and appears to create more money. He

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Speaker 1: writes a modest Inquiry in the Nature and Necessity of

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Speaker 1: a paper Currency, which called for an increase in the

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Speaker 1: money supply to stimulate the economy. At this stage of

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Speaker 1: his career something which will change by late in life.

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Speaker 1: He's basically what we would call an inflationist. He thinks

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Speaker 1: if we have more paper money floating around, people will

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Speaker 1: have more purchasing power, and therefore the economy will work better.

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Speaker 1: And this is part of what has been a permanent

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Speaker 1: running debate in American society between sound money people who

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Speaker 1: believe that money ought to attain its value, and lationary

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Speaker 1: people who believe that having money gradually depreciate actually increases

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Speaker 1: the purchasing power and increases the economy. And that fight

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Speaker 1: goes on for a long time. Franklin automoly decides that

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Speaker 1: paper money is dangerous, and in fact, one of the

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Speaker 1: reasons we end up with a constitution is to block

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Speaker 1: those who would inflate currency. The reason that mattered is

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Speaker 1: once you have a lot of property, if you're loaning

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Speaker 1: out money that's worth a dollar and they're going to

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Speaker 1: pay you back with money worth ninety cents, you're losing

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Speaker 1: on the loan. So people who are propertied really dislike

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Speaker 1: having an inflationary currency. Franklin goes from a young guy

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Speaker 1: with a theory to an older a wealthy guy with money,

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Speaker 1: and decises an older wealthy guy. He's with people like

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Speaker 1: Washington who don't want to have an inflationary currency. Now

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Speaker 1: he's picked to be the official government printer for Pennsylvania.

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Speaker 1: And there's a reason that this really matters. Government then,

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Speaker 1: like now, is a major purchaser of goods and services.

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Speaker 1: Everything that the state needs published is going to be

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Speaker 1: printed by Benjamin Franklin. So he now has a steady

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Speaker 1: stream of revenue which enables him. And remember at this

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Speaker 1: stage he's twenty four. But at twenty four he's able

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Speaker 1: to buy out Meredith. He becomes the most successful printer

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Speaker 1: in town. He owns his own company, and at twenty four,

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Speaker 1: having become the official government printer, Deborah reads, parents, think,

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Speaker 1: you know, probably would be a good thing to have.

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Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin has a son in law. Now he marries her,

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Speaker 1: even though they have no proof that her husband was dead.

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Speaker 1: John Rogers, remember, had married her, spent her dowry, run

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Speaker 1: up a whole bunch of death, fled to the Caribbean,

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Speaker 1: never been heard of again. And the question was what

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Speaker 1: proof do you have? And Franklin, as he often will,

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Speaker 1: just ignored it. And so he marries Deborah, and she

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Speaker 1: plays a huge role in his life is somebody that

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Speaker 1: he leans on. She did agree to raise Franklin's illegitimate son, William.

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Speaker 1: Truth is, historians are not quite sure who the mother was.

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Speaker 1: William becomes the deep part of Franklin's household, and later

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Speaker 1: in life will disappoint him deeply by being a loyalist

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Speaker 1: and staying with the British and becoming the governor of

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Speaker 1: New Jersey for the King against the Revolutionaries, which embitters

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Speaker 1: Franklin substantially. Deborah works with Franklin and this becomes a

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Speaker 1: very very important part of his life. She's really his

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Speaker 1: business partner, and when he goes off to do other things,

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Speaker 1: when he goes off to politic he goes off to

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Speaker 1: be a diplomat, She's the one who stays home. She

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Speaker 1: didn't particularly want to travel, and given the way ocean

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Speaker 1: travel was in that generation, that's understandable. She ran the businesses,

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Speaker 1: kept them profitable, made him money, and it all seemed

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Speaker 1: to work, and they worked forevery long time until she died.

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Speaker 1: She is a key hidden part of why Franklin was

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Speaker 1: able to be as effective as he was. She also

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Speaker 1: put up with him. She was onting to focus on

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Speaker 1: the mundane business and household side, which would not have

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Speaker 1: made him a historic figure, but was the base of

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Speaker 1: his ability to have the time and energy and resources

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Speaker 1: to be a historic figure. So Franklin got to play

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Speaker 1: at being Ben Franklin in large part because he had

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Speaker 1: a wife who was willing to tolerate him, willing to

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Speaker 1: support him, and was smart enough and hard working enough

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Speaker 1: that she could make a bunch of money while he

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Speaker 1: was doing other things. Franklin now that he's married and

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Speaker 1: he owns his own business and he's the largest printer

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Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. Now he turns and he begins to really

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Speaker 1: define himself as a citizen. By seventeen thirty one, he's

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Speaker 1: done all the stuff I've been describing to you, and

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Speaker 1: he's twenty five. He joins the Freemasons, which were a

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Speaker 1: very very important social and quasi religious group of that era.

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Speaker 1: He helps establish the Library Company of Philadelphia, which is

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Speaker 1: the first lending library in America. He aggressively defends the

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Speaker 1: freedom of the press and would clearly be on the

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Speaker 1: side of those who favor the First Amendment rights of

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Speaker 1: the press, and at twenty five years of age, he

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Speaker 1: publishes an Apology for Printers, which defends freedom of the press.

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Speaker 1: He also enters into a partnership, gets more printing equipment,

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Speaker 1: continuous to get wealthier. By seventeen thirty two they have

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Speaker 1: their first shout Francis fulger Franklin Sadly, Francis dies from

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Speaker 1: smallpox at the age of four. Franklin never forgives himself

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Speaker 1: because he should have been inoculated. The smallpox inoculation was

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Speaker 1: increasingly popular. People knew about it, and it worked. Franklin

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Speaker 1: would later write in his autobiography, quote in seventeen thirty six,

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Speaker 1: I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of

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Speaker 1: four years old, by the smallpox, taken in the common way.

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Speaker 1: I regretted bitterly, in still regret that I have not

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Speaker 1: given it to him by inoculation close quote. Franklin, in

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Speaker 1: seventeen thirty two publishes a German foreign language newspaper. In

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Speaker 1: the eighteenth century, there were so many Germans migrating to

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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania that there was serious talk of making German the

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Speaker 1: second language of the country. There was a very large

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Speaker 1: German population. Franklin was deeply opposed to making German the

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Speaker 1: second language, but he wasn't opposed to making money, so

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Speaker 1: he publishes a German language newspaper whose only difficulty as

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Speaker 1: it fails financially and again it's an example entrepreneurs don't

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Speaker 1: always succeed. Entrepreneurs have to be able to get back up,

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Speaker 1: go back and try it again, and see what they

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Speaker 1: can get done and what they can learn. He also

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Speaker 1: in seventeen thirty two something historic happens in the history

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Speaker 1: of American literature and in the history of Benjamin Franklin.

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Speaker 1: As an American citizen, he publishes the first edition of

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Speaker 1: Poor Richard's Almanac, using a pseudonym of Richard Saunders. Why

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Speaker 1: does Poor Richard's Almanac matter? It is extraordinarily successful. It's

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Speaker 1: a best seller, and it's going to be a best

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Speaker 1: seller for a generation because he writes it. There's a

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Speaker 1: new Almanac every year. It is filled with common sense

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Speaker 1: things like waste not, want not, a stitch in time

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Speaker 1: saves nine, penny wise and pound foolish, things which in

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Speaker 1: our era may not make a great deal sense. For example,

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Speaker 1: we don't use the British pounds. So the idea of

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Speaker 1: being penny wise and pound foolish meaning you're really smart

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Speaker 1: about a small thing, but you're dumb about a big thing.

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Speaker 1: One it does finally get to be obvious who's writing it.

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Speaker 1: It just spreads his fame across the whole all of

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Speaker 1: the colonies. He becomes the Grand Master of the Grand

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Speaker 1: Lodge of Mason of Pennsylvania. Again, he's rising in status,

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Speaker 1: he's rising in influence. He has a bigger and bigger

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Speaker 1: network of friends. By seventeen thirty six, at the age

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Speaker 1: of thirty, he's appointed Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly. So

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Speaker 1: now he's helping organize and taking care of the politicians

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Speaker 1: at the same time that the colonial government is hiring

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Speaker 1: his firm to print all of the printing, which is

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Speaker 1: helping make him increasingly wealthy. When we come back, Franklin

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Speaker 1: publishes Poor Richard's Almanac, and it becomes an instant bestseller.

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Speaker 1: In many ways, Franklin's greatest business accomplishment came from the

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Speaker 1: publication of Poor Richard's Almanac. You know, he published it

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Speaker 1: once a year for twenty five years, beginning on December nineteen,

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Speaker 1: seventeen thirty two, originally under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders,

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Speaker 1: but then ultimately everybody knew it was Benjamin Franklin. It

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Speaker 1: captured all sorts of information about the calendar, weather, predictions, sayings, poems, recipes, trivia, advice.

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Speaker 1: He thought it was a vehicle of instruction for common people,

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Speaker 1: folks who couldn't afford books. Normally, it was a literature

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Speaker 1: for the masses, and he was onto something because almanacs

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Speaker 1: were the most read secular books in the colonies. He

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Speaker 1: had little phrases from different years, but to give you

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Speaker 1: a feel for Franklin's sense of what people ought to hear,

355
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Speaker 1: he wrote, three may keep a secret if two of

356
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Speaker 1: them are dead lost time is never found again, and this,

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Speaker 1: by the way, captures his entire life. He did not

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Speaker 1: like to waste time because he felt it could never

359
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Speaker 1: be found again. He said, love your enemies, for they

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Speaker 1: tell you your faults and the affairs of this world.

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Speaker 1: Men are saved not by faith, but by the lack

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Speaker 1: of it. If you would not be forgot as soon

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Speaker 1: as you are dead and rotten, write things worth reading,

364
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Speaker 1: or do things worth writing. And way his life was both.

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Speaker 1: The way to see by faith is to shut the

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Speaker 1: eye of reason. Women are books, and men the readers be.

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Speaker 1: There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking,

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Speaker 1: speak little do much. A friend in need is a

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Speaker 1: friend indeed to all apparent beauties blind. Each blemish strikes

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Speaker 1: an envious mind. Fish and visitors stink in three days.

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Speaker 1: That may be one that's remember'd as well as anything

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Speaker 1: he ever wrote. Search others for their virtues, thyself for

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Speaker 1: thy vices. Now there's some advice very seldom followed. Search

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Speaker 1: others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices. He that

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Speaker 1: drinks his cider alone, let him catch his horse alone.

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Speaker 1: Fools need advice most, but wise men only are the

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Speaker 1: better for it. So thou classically Franklin, somebody who listened

378
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:07,000
Speaker 1: to people, picked up common sense, language and the fact,

379
00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:11,400
Speaker 1: wrote out a set of advice to everyday Americans, some

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00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:13,800
Speaker 1: of which he followed in his own life, and some

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00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:17,040
Speaker 1: of which he cheerfully ignored. He helps organize the Union

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Speaker 1: Fire Company of Philadelphia, and the duty of the Union

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Speaker 1: Fire Company Philadelphia was to train and organize fireman because

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Speaker 1: the city is getting big enough. It's the largest city

385
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Speaker 1: in the New World, and it's getting big enough that

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00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:32,159
Speaker 1: you need to have an organized fire department, because you

387
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:36,000
Speaker 1: have a real challenge of taking care of houses of

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00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:41,280
Speaker 1: start to burn down. He also becomes the postmaster of Philadelphia.

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Speaker 1: Now this is again an interesting example of Franklin. He

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00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 1: is now thirty one years old. The British government appoints

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Speaker 1: him postmaster of Philadelphia, which is frankly in office that

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00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:59,360
Speaker 1: makes money. Postmasters back then were commercial assignments. Say they

393
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 1: make money out of many different things. And then he

394
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,000
Speaker 1: does something which truly changes history, but in a way

395
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:10,120
Speaker 1: that's very practical rather than political. In seventeen forty two

396
00:25:10,840 --> 00:25:15,040
Speaker 1: he invents a free standing cast iron fireplace which is

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Speaker 1: known as the Franklin stove. Franklin stove, by the way,

398
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 1: is still available today. You can go online you can

399
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:25,440
Speaker 1: buy a Franklin stove. It was a very intelligent contribution

400
00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 1: to a better life because it used wood to generate

401
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:33,960
Speaker 1: heat with greater efficiency than the stoves are preceded. And interestingly,

402
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:36,720
Speaker 1: in terms of Franklin, he didn't patent it. In fact,

403
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:40,520
Speaker 1: he didn't patent any of his inventions. His idea was, look,

404
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:42,720
Speaker 1: if it works for me and my life is better,

405
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:44,439
Speaker 1: why shouldn't you be able to build it and your

406
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:46,880
Speaker 1: life can be better. He thought of this as part

407
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:50,280
Speaker 1: of his civic life, and he's inventing as a citizen,

408
00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 1: not as a businessman. Now on the business side, he's

409
00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:57,400
Speaker 1: very tough mind, and he's independently wealthy. But as an inventor,

410
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:01,479
Speaker 1: he just liked inventing things, and probably his most famous

411
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 1: as the bocal glasses. But he just had a constant

412
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:07,760
Speaker 1: looking at things thinking is there a way to do

413
00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:09,480
Speaker 1: it better? Is there a way to do it differently?

414
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,440
Speaker 1: In the same time period, by the way, in seventeen

415
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:15,160
Speaker 1: forty three, when he does have a daughter, Sarah, they

416
00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:18,280
Speaker 1: have her inoculated. They'd learned the lesson tragically from their

417
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,200
Speaker 1: sun dying from smallpox. They're not going to take the risk.

418
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Speaker 1: And the same year that his daughter is born, seventeen

419
00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 1: forty three, he writes a pamphlet called A Proposal for

420
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:33,560
Speaker 1: Promoting Useful Knowledge, and that leads to the American Philosophical Society.

421
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Speaker 1: And one of the offshoots of the American Philosophical Society

422
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:41,479
Speaker 1: is the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, which I

423
00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:44,200
Speaker 1: first visited when I was about ten and went to

424
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Speaker 1: a couple months ago. It is a great institution. It

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00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:49,959
Speaker 1: has all of Lewis and Clark's material because at the

426
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:52,439
Speaker 1: time of the Lewis and Clark expedition, he was the

427
00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:57,320
Speaker 1: only major science museum in the country. It's a remarkable

428
00:26:57,320 --> 00:26:59,199
Speaker 1: place to be. Go to Philadelphia to go by and

429
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 1: see it. He wakes up in the morning thinks, oh,

430
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:04,679
Speaker 1: why don't we have a philosophical society. Well, because he

431
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 1: writes so fast, I think I'll write a proposal for it.

432
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 1: And by the way, since I'm a publisher, I think

433
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 1: i'll publish it. So he's publishing his own pamphlet. At

434
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:17,560
Speaker 1: the same time, he's offering to sell Franklin stoves, and

435
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:21,000
Speaker 1: Franklin stoves sell very well. Now he wasn't pattenting it.

436
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:23,119
Speaker 1: Anybody else who wanted to could make a Franklin stove,

437
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,280
Speaker 1: but he didn't mind making money off it himself. By

438
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:30,080
Speaker 1: seventeen forty seven, he publishes a pamphlet called Plain Truth

439
00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:34,399
Speaker 1: and proposes the formation of a Philadelphia militia. Let's just

440
00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:36,080
Speaker 1: think about it. This is the guy who wakes up

441
00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:39,199
Speaker 1: in the morning, has a big idea and writes it

442
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,920
Speaker 1: down and sends it out, and people in the habit

443
00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:45,480
Speaker 1: now thinking, I wonder what Franklin's up to next. What

444
00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:48,520
Speaker 1: makes Franklin amazing is at forty two years of age

445
00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 1: in seventeen forty eight, he retires. He's now made enough money,

446
00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:56,240
Speaker 1: he takes on a partner who gives him additional income

447
00:27:56,320 --> 00:27:58,520
Speaker 1: the rest of his life, and the partner runs the

448
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:02,719
Speaker 1: daily operations, the printing. And because he now has free time,

449
00:28:03,080 --> 00:28:06,480
Speaker 1: he becomes a member of Philadelphia City Council. So now

450
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 1: they have businessman, inventor, writer, now politician. And by the

451
00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:18,440
Speaker 1: following year, in seventeen forty nine, he writes proposals relating

452
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:21,880
Speaker 1: to the education of youth in Philadelphia. There's a great

453
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:24,719
Speaker 1: strike by one of my favorites about franklin Is. At

454
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 1: one point during his political career, he took a very

455
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:32,840
Speaker 1: unpopular position, and a number of people wanted to sort

456
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:36,640
Speaker 1: of brow Beatie into giving it up. And so one

457
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:40,640
Speaker 1: evening he invited them to dinner, and they all came

458
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,000
Speaker 1: over to his house, and he had a very nice house,

459
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:46,400
Speaker 1: and they all sit around the dining room table and

460
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:50,320
Speaker 1: he serves them this very strange porridge which they all

461
00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:54,840
Speaker 1: can barely taste so bad. And he finishes, he cleans

462
00:28:54,880 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 1: his ball, and he says, gentlemen, this is actually sawdust. Now,

463
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,200
Speaker 1: if I'm prepared to eat a bowl of sawdust, what

464
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 1: do you think you're going to do to intimidate me?

465
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:10,520
Speaker 1: It was so clear that Franklin wasn't somebody that you

466
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: could intimidate. By seventeen fifty, what I think after his

467
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 1: bifocal glasses is his most interesting invention. He proposes using

468
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:25,240
Speaker 1: lightning rods to keep houses safe. Franklin figured out that

469
00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 1: if I could put up a pole that was above

470
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:31,880
Speaker 1: the house so it would attract the lightning, and if

471
00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,560
Speaker 1: I could ground the pole in the ground so that

472
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:37,400
Speaker 1: the electricity would come straight down the pole go into

473
00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:39,960
Speaker 1: the ground and never touch the house, that your house

474
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 1: wouldn't burn down. Well, it may have been after his

475
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 1: bifocal invention the most practical and most widespread improvement in

476
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 1: life that anybody made. It. It's incalculable today how many

477
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:56,160
Speaker 1: houses did not burn down because of Benjamin Franklin, But

478
00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:58,560
Speaker 1: the numbers would be in the hundreds of thousands by now.

479
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:02,760
Speaker 1: He continues to be involved as an active person. In

480
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:08,760
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty he is developing lightning runs. The following year

481
00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 1: he decides, in passing he'll help found what was then

482
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:15,760
Speaker 1: called the Academy for Education of Youth, and we call

483
00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 1: at the University of Pennsylvania. And so he's going from

484
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,840
Speaker 1: place to place, almost like a Johnny apple seat of

485
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:27,320
Speaker 1: a better life. He's also mentally exploring the world. So

486
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:30,560
Speaker 1: the same year that he's helping found what becomes University

487
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:33,720
Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania, he also is writing an article on the

488
00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:37,480
Speaker 1: Experiments and Observations on electricity. He's also that year, by

489
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:40,680
Speaker 1: the way, elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly and as a

490
00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 1: city alderman. All this is happening simultaneously. The following year,

491
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty two, he builds on his article on

492
00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: the experiments and observations and electricity, and in a classically

493
00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 1: American model, he leaves the laboratory. He steps outside and

494
00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 1: he flies a kite, and the kite attracts lightning, and

495
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,520
Speaker 1: the lightning is electrical, and he then publishes how you

496
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 1: can conduct the experiment because he had thought through the

497
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:12,480
Speaker 1: key part, which is, all right, if you attract the lightning,

498
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 1: where is electricity going? And he made sure it wasn't

499
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:19,080
Speaker 1: going through him. He also in passing the same year,

500
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: I remember, he's making money, he's serving as a city alderman,

501
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:26,240
Speaker 1: he's serving in the Pennsylvanian Assembly, he's still writing a lot.

502
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:32,160
Speaker 1: And in seventeen fifty two he founds the Philadelphia Contributionship now,

503
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:35,480
Speaker 1: what is a contributionship, Well, you and I think of

504
00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:39,280
Speaker 1: it as a fire insurance company, and so literally in

505
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:42,120
Speaker 1: passing he says, yeah, if we all contribute it a

506
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 1: little bit, then if one of us had our house

507
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 1: burned down, we could collect on the value of the

508
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 1: house based on our contributions. And so the Philadelphia Contributionship

509
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 1: sets the base for a mutual fire insurance company, which

510
00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 1: becomes a model that's very, very widespread. The next year,

511
00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:03,760
Speaker 1: in seven fifty three, he's appointed Deputy Postmaster General of

512
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:07,120
Speaker 1: the Colonies. Now think about this. The British government now

513
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,200
Speaker 1: is saying to Franklin, we trust you enough, we think

514
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 1: you're smart enough, we think you're a good enough businessman.

515
00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:15,960
Speaker 1: We want you to help run all of the post

516
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:20,200
Speaker 1: offices in the entire thirteen colonies, which of course also

517
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:24,440
Speaker 1: gives him an excuse to learn more and more and

518
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:28,120
Speaker 1: to think beyond Philadelphia and think beyond Pennsylvania. Now he'd

519
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 1: already been born and grown up in Boston, so now

520
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 1: he has an increasing sense of the East Coast of

521
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:37,920
Speaker 1: the United States, the Atlantic Coast, and all the different

522
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:42,640
Speaker 1: colonies from Georgia up through Massachusetts. Also that year, in

523
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty three, he gets the Copley Medal, which is

524
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:48,880
Speaker 1: the highest award the Royal Society of London can give.

525
00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:54,480
Speaker 1: So he's being recognized worldwide as a scientist. He is

526
00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 1: the postmaster for all of the colonies. He is serving

527
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 1: in the city government, the state government, and he's active

528
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:08,560
Speaker 1: in founding various organizations. And he's continuing to be a scientist.

529
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 1: All of this is simultaneous, and as a scientist in passing,

530
00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:14,520
Speaker 1: because I remember he never went to graduate school, never

531
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:17,960
Speaker 1: took a science course. He is recognized as a worldwide

532
00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,880
Speaker 1: contributor because of the work he's done on electricity. He's

533
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 1: also concerned about what we would call national security, and

534
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:29,800
Speaker 1: he's concerned about the French and Indians in the West.

535
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,920
Speaker 1: And remember that the French Indian War will start in

536
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,000
Speaker 1: what we call Pittsburgh, then called Fort Duquesne, which was

537
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 1: a French outpost coming to the French are coming down

538
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:43,360
Speaker 1: from Canada, We're coming from the Atlantic coast, and we're

539
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:47,360
Speaker 1: about to collide in western Pennsylvania. And in seventeen fifty

540
00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:51,880
Speaker 1: four Franklin Princes of Cartoon Join or Die, which argues

541
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 1: that the colonies have to work together in confederation, they

542
00:33:55,640 --> 00:34:00,520
Speaker 1: have to protect themselves, that no single colony is going

543
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:04,960
Speaker 1: to be capable of developing its own defenses. Now, this

544
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:07,600
Speaker 1: is a pretty radical view at the time, and one

545
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,120
Speaker 1: of the signals it's a radical view that year seventeen

546
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 1: fifty four is the British government fires. They say, you're

547
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:17,120
Speaker 1: now not the Deputy Postmaster General. Your political views are

548
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:20,720
Speaker 1: too radical. And for the first time Franklin is faced

549
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:23,520
Speaker 1: with the consequences that if he really believes what he

550
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 1: says he believes, he's going to pay some real costs

551
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:28,880
Speaker 1: for that. In the midst of all this, in seventeen

552
00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:34,040
Speaker 1: fifty five, Franklin, with doctor Thomas Bond, founded the Pennsylvania Hospital,

553
00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:38,399
Speaker 1: the nation's first hospital focused on the sick, the poor,

554
00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:41,640
Speaker 1: and the insane. And again when you go to Philadelphia,

555
00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:45,799
Speaker 1: you just see case after case of Franklin's impact. Two

556
00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 1: hundred years later, the French and Indian War starting in

557
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty six, and you'll remember that it's Washington who

558
00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:56,120
Speaker 1: plays a leading role in starting the French and Indian War.

559
00:34:56,600 --> 00:35:00,800
Speaker 1: Franklin was asked to lead Pennsylvania militia against the who

560
00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:05,480
Speaker 1: were defeating the English troops, accompanied by his son, Franklin

561
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 1: fought mercilessly to take back land, established new forts, and

562
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:13,000
Speaker 1: push back against the French forces. He served as an

563
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,920
Speaker 1: officer in the militia without even receiving pay, because his

564
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 1: devotion to duty was so deep. He was a wealthy businessman,

565
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:22,880
Speaker 1: so he could afford to be a volunteer for free.

566
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:26,760
Speaker 1: In seventeen fifty seven, while the French and New Wars underway,

567
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:29,920
Speaker 1: Franklin is elected to go to England to talk about

568
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:35,000
Speaker 1: colonial disputes with Parliament. He stays for five years, and

569
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:39,439
Speaker 1: this is I think one of the most important examples

570
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:45,840
Speaker 1: of change in leading up to American independence. Franklin leaves

571
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 1: the colonies as a loyal British servant. He finds out

572
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:56,200
Speaker 1: over time that in fact, he'll never be accepted. He

573
00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:59,080
Speaker 1: can be wealthy, doesn't matter. He can be a world

574
00:35:59,120 --> 00:36:02,959
Speaker 1: class scientist, doesn't matter. He can win elections back home,

575
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:07,240
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. He can be the funniest, best story

576
00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:11,040
Speaker 1: teller in the room, doesn't matter. He's not an aristocrat.

577
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:14,000
Speaker 1: He's never going to be accepted as an aristocrat. And

578
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: I think it's the bitterness of beginning to realize that

579
00:36:17,640 --> 00:36:21,400
Speaker 1: which begins to turn him against the English government and

580
00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:23,760
Speaker 1: mak him begin to think of himself as an American.

581
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:27,560
Speaker 1: He stays from seventeen fifty seven for five years, goes

582
00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:30,560
Speaker 1: back to Boston for two years, and in the process

583
00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:34,600
Speaker 1: he invents the glass harmonica. This was a very sophisticated

584
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:39,920
Speaker 1: device which made a series of sounds. It was widely received,

585
00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:44,640
Speaker 1: probably ranked along with the lightning rod and the bifocals

586
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:48,480
Speaker 1: and the Franklin stove among the most widely received of

587
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:54,680
Speaker 1: Franklin's inventions. Both Beethoven and Mozart used Franklin's harmonica. By

588
00:36:54,719 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty four, he loses his seat in the Pennsylvania Assembly,

589
00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:02,080
Speaker 1: but goes back to London as a colonial agent, and

590
00:37:02,239 --> 00:37:05,719
Speaker 1: the next year, seventeen sixty five, the Stamp Act is

591
00:37:05,719 --> 00:37:08,920
Speaker 1: passed by the House of Commons. Remember, the Stamp Act

592
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:13,200
Speaker 1: is designed to raise money from the Americans to help

593
00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:15,919
Speaker 1: pay the cost to the French and Indian War, which

594
00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:20,280
Speaker 1: the British reason had protected America from attack, and therefore

595
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 1: the Americans ought to bear some burden. The Americans, of course,

596
00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:26,640
Speaker 1: resented the idea, did not want to pay the Stamp Act,

597
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:29,920
Speaker 1: and that was the beginning of the Deep disaffection that

598
00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:33,680
Speaker 1: would automately lead to the revolution because Franklin knew that

599
00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:36,960
Speaker 1: Americans were against it. In seventeen sixty six, just one

600
00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:40,279
Speaker 1: year after the Act was passed, he testifies in the

601
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:43,799
Speaker 1: House of Commons in favor of repeal of Stamp Act,

602
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:47,200
Speaker 1: proving that his loyalties are to the colonies. Yet the

603
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:50,919
Speaker 1: very same year, while he's testifying in the Commons, he's

604
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:54,440
Speaker 1: elected as a member of the Royal Society of Sciences.

605
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:58,160
Speaker 1: He may not be an aristocrat to the aristocrats, but

606
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:01,160
Speaker 1: he's clearly an aristocrat to the scientists, and they have

607
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:04,520
Speaker 1: the greatest admiration for him. Well, that's going on. The

608
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:07,680
Speaker 1: British troops are being sent to Boston. The British government's

609
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:11,759
Speaker 1: getting tougher and tougher. The fact is that Franklin was

610
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:16,600
Speaker 1: committed to representing the American side. It's also in this

611
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:21,320
Speaker 1: period that his daughter Sally marries Richard Bach. Franklin really

612
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:24,959
Speaker 1: wanted not to do that because Bach's situation financial was bad,

613
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 1: and he was afraid that Bach was just marrying her

614
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:31,440
Speaker 1: for her money. Nonetheless, his wife, Deborah allowed them to

615
00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:35,959
Speaker 1: be married, against Franklin's wishes. He accepted the marriage after

616
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:40,160
Speaker 1: Sally had their first child, Ben helped Richard obtain several loans,

617
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:43,440
Speaker 1: helped him set up a few stores. But the truth

618
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 1: is Franklin supported Sally and her eight children for the

619
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:49,080
Speaker 1: rest of his life. He was, in fact a very

620
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:52,680
Speaker 1: generous family man and was deeply concerned about his family,

621
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:54,839
Speaker 1: even if he didn't spend very much time with him.

622
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:59,360
Speaker 1: By seventeen sixty nine, the American Philosophical Society, which he

623
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:03,279
Speaker 1: had helped found, has elected Franklin as its president, and

624
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:05,480
Speaker 1: then they re elected him every single year after that

625
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:09,560
Speaker 1: until he died. So he's the health of the Philosophical Society.

626
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:13,440
Speaker 1: He's inventing musical instruments, he's inventing practical things like the

627
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:18,400
Speaker 1: Franklin stove, the bifocals and lightning rods. And then the

628
00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:22,760
Speaker 1: Boston Massacre occurs. British troops shoot at colonists. The whole

629
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:27,120
Speaker 1: colonies are upset and are afraid, and Franklin tries to

630
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:30,320
Speaker 1: find a way to bring Britain and the colonies back together.

631
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:34,759
Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy one, he begins writing his autobiography, which

632
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:37,560
Speaker 1: I can tell you if you have never read it

633
00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:41,520
Speaker 1: is absolutely worth your getting and reading. It's a remarkable book.

634
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 1: It's very candid, it's very wise. I don't care who

635
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:48,839
Speaker 1: you are. You will learn things you'll apply to your

636
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:53,879
Speaker 1: own life. If you read Franklin's autobiography. In London, he

637
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:57,440
Speaker 1: gets a series of letters, some thirteen letters come to

638
00:39:57,520 --> 00:40:00,840
Speaker 1: him from an anonymous sender. The letter had been stolen.

639
00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:05,759
Speaker 1: There were correspondents between the Massachusetts Governor, the Royal Governor

640
00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 1: Thomas Hutchison, and the Royal Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver, who

641
00:40:10,520 --> 00:40:16,160
Speaker 1: are writing English authorities. Somehow these letters had gotten stolen

642
00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:19,200
Speaker 1: and they were given to Franklin, who then sends them

643
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:22,719
Speaker 1: to Samuel Adams and authorizes them to be shown to

644
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:26,080
Speaker 1: the members of the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence, but not

645
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:31,719
Speaker 1: copied or published. Now, this clearly is a totally inappropriate

646
00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:35,279
Speaker 1: act and will begin the process of really alienating the

647
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:38,960
Speaker 1: English and Franklin. By seventeen seventy three, the Stamp Act

648
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:42,480
Speaker 1: not having worked, Parliament passes the Tea Act, which then

649
00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:46,360
Speaker 1: leads in Boston to people dressing up as Indians and

650
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:48,719
Speaker 1: dumping the tea in the harbor and what we call

651
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:53,640
Speaker 1: the Boston Tea Party. And interestingly, Franklin, who of course

652
00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:57,040
Speaker 1: was from Boston originally as real ties, emotionally back to

653
00:40:57,080 --> 00:41:00,200
Speaker 1: Boston as well as to Philadelphia. That same year. Here

654
00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:05,040
Speaker 1: the Massachusetts Speaker, Thomas Cushing gives the letters that Franklin

655
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 1: had sent to the Massachusetts House, and the House concluded

656
00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:13,800
Speaker 1: that Governor Hutcherson intended to overthrow the Constitution. They decide

657
00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:20,120
Speaker 1: to petition for Hutchinson and Oliver's removal, and despite Franklin's wishes,

658
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:24,200
Speaker 1: the letters are published in the Boston Gazette. When we

659
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:28,960
Speaker 1: come back, Franklin loses his wife Deborah, and makes the

660
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:50,600
Speaker 1: transition from being an Englishman to being an American. Franklin

661
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 1: tries to communicate to the British through satire. In September

662
00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:59,000
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy three, he publishes two articles in the Public

663
00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:03,600
Speaker 1: Advertiser in London, one quote Rules by which a Great

664
00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:07,279
Speaker 1: Empire may be reduced to a small one, and the

665
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,239
Speaker 1: second Edict by the King of Prussia. Both of them

666
00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:13,280
Speaker 1: are satirical, and both of them attacked the British attitude

667
00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:16,160
Speaker 1: toward the colonies. Now, remember, at this point, the aristocrats

668
00:42:16,200 --> 00:42:19,200
Speaker 1: aren't amused. They don't want to be lectured by some colonial,

669
00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:22,239
Speaker 1: even if he's a famous scientist and a wealthy man,

670
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:26,359
Speaker 1: and they're increasingly angry because they see the Americans as

671
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:30,520
Speaker 1: totally ungrateful and treasonous. When Britain had fought the French,

672
00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:33,840
Speaker 1: Britain had defeated the Indians, Britain had protected the colonies

673
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:37,000
Speaker 1: and all they get back in return. His constant complaint

674
00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:40,799
Speaker 1: refusal to pay taxes, and people who clearly are not

675
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:45,359
Speaker 1: appropriate for English society. Two things happened in the early

676
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:51,200
Speaker 1: seventeen seventies that really affect Franklin. First was that his wife,

677
00:42:51,239 --> 00:42:55,120
Speaker 1: Debor dies. He was still in England. They'd been separated physically,

678
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:58,200
Speaker 1: but they wrote each other constantly. She had run the

679
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:01,480
Speaker 1: business in his absence. When he did return home to America,

680
00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:04,640
Speaker 1: he wrote a friend, quote, I have lately lost my

681
00:43:04,719 --> 00:43:08,560
Speaker 1: old and faithful companion, and I every day become more

682
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:11,640
Speaker 1: sensible of the greatness of that loss, which cannot now

683
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:17,120
Speaker 1: be repaired. Close quote I suspect you both realized how

684
00:43:17,160 --> 00:43:19,840
Speaker 1: many days they'd been apart, how much of their lives

685
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:23,720
Speaker 1: had been separate, and with gratitude, how much she had done,

686
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:27,880
Speaker 1: how she had enabled him to be Benjamin Franklin because

687
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:30,720
Speaker 1: she had run the business, she'd earned the money she'd

688
00:43:30,719 --> 00:43:33,880
Speaker 1: paid attention to, all the details that he'd cheerfully ignored.

689
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:36,920
Speaker 1: But the other thing which happened in the seventeen seventies

690
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:39,960
Speaker 1: while he was still in London, when word reached Great

691
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:44,040
Speaker 1: Britain that the official letters of the Governor and the

692
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:49,600
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Governor had been somehow submitted to the House of

693
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:54,560
Speaker 1: Commons of the colony. There was an enormous uprising in

694
00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:58,120
Speaker 1: Britain of interest where did these come from? Who was responsible?

695
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:02,920
Speaker 1: And finally Franklin cleared in December seventeen seventy three. He

696
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 1: wrote a brief note to the newspapers saying I'm the

697
00:44:06,600 --> 00:44:10,240
Speaker 1: person who released him. Well, that guaranteed that the Privy Council,

698
00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:15,120
Speaker 1: which was in effect the highest political judicial body in Britain,

699
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:18,319
Speaker 1: would see him and would demand to know what he

700
00:44:18,360 --> 00:44:20,840
Speaker 1: was doing and why he was doing it, And he

701
00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:24,000
Speaker 1: went twice. The first time he went, he frankly thought

702
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:26,440
Speaker 1: they were going to inquire about what had happened with

703
00:44:26,520 --> 00:44:29,799
Speaker 1: Hutchinson and Oliver the governor Lieutenant Governor and why were

704
00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:33,200
Speaker 1: they in such trouble. Instead, he found that the Solicitor

705
00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:36,359
Speaker 1: General of Britain attacked him for a full solid hour

706
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:40,000
Speaker 1: and when they said okay, it's your turn, he just

707
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:42,480
Speaker 1: stood there quietly and said, I didn't realize this was

708
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:45,120
Speaker 1: the point of this, and I want a lawyer. And

709
00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:47,080
Speaker 1: they agreed he ought to have a lawyer. So two

710
00:44:47,120 --> 00:44:49,960
Speaker 1: weeks later they came back together. But in the interim

711
00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:54,239
Speaker 1: the Boston Tea Party, news had reached Great Britain that

712
00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:57,600
Speaker 1: the Americans had dressed like Indians, gone into the harbor,

713
00:44:57,600 --> 00:45:00,760
Speaker 1: thrown the tea from the East India Company into the harbor,

714
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:04,240
Speaker 1: destroying it. And there was a high sense of rage

715
00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:07,880
Speaker 1: in the governing class in Britain. And so when Franklin

716
00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:13,440
Speaker 1: shows back up, he is attacked for several hours in

717
00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:16,960
Speaker 1: a very direct and aggressive and nasty way, and it's

718
00:45:17,040 --> 00:45:19,680
Speaker 1: quite clear that he is the target and that there's

719
00:45:19,719 --> 00:45:22,920
Speaker 1: nothing he can do to defend himself. He is wearing

720
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:27,600
Speaker 1: a blue coat, which, to show how Franklin's mind worked,

721
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:32,240
Speaker 1: he will wear again when he signs the Peace Treaty

722
00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:35,960
Speaker 1: declaring the United States to be free and independent. And

723
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:38,680
Speaker 1: somebody said, why do you have this old coat? Remember

724
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:43,040
Speaker 1: the Peace Treaty now that he's signing is more than

725
00:45:43,080 --> 00:45:46,360
Speaker 1: a decade later, And he said, for a little sense

726
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:49,959
Speaker 1: of revenge. Franklin was not a man who one could

727
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:53,080
Speaker 1: attack easily or lightly or expect to ever turn the

728
00:45:53,080 --> 00:45:56,799
Speaker 1: other cheek. So he goes home having been attacked by

729
00:45:56,840 --> 00:46:01,879
Speaker 1: the British elites, and now he is clearly committed independence.

730
00:46:02,440 --> 00:46:05,840
Speaker 1: He's elected as a Pennsylvania delegate to the second Continental Congress,

731
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:11,080
Speaker 1: and he also, ironically, having been fired by the British

732
00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:15,040
Speaker 1: as the postmaster General, which happened the day after the

733
00:46:15,080 --> 00:46:19,040
Speaker 1: Privy Council meeting to punish him, he is now elected

734
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:23,000
Speaker 1: as the Postmaster General of the colonies by the Continental Congress.

735
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:25,280
Speaker 1: So at the very moment that the British are losing

736
00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:28,719
Speaker 1: control of the post offices, they are being turned back

737
00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:31,359
Speaker 1: over to the guy who had been in charge of

738
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:34,560
Speaker 1: the post offices on behalf of the king, So Franklin

739
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:35,880
Speaker 1: knew what he was doing and how to do it.

740
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:39,480
Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy six, he's asked to be one of

741
00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:44,040
Speaker 1: five people who draft the Declician Independence, and he is

742
00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:48,200
Speaker 1: clearly a key figure who people trust and plays a

743
00:46:48,280 --> 00:46:51,919
Speaker 1: significant role in working with Jefferson and Adams to get

744
00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:56,280
Speaker 1: the final draft of the Decliian Independence approved by the Congress.

745
00:46:57,120 --> 00:47:02,399
Speaker 1: Then he's asked to go to France to be a

746
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:06,000
Speaker 1: commissioner from the Continental Congress in order to get the

747
00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:09,399
Speaker 1: French to help us. Remember, at this point, without the

748
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:12,439
Speaker 1: help of France, the United States will lose the war

749
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:16,319
Speaker 1: to Britain because we'll have no money, will have no ammunition,

750
00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:20,719
Speaker 1: we'll have no uniforms, well, have no effective navy. And

751
00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:24,799
Speaker 1: so this was life and death. And Franklin, who had

752
00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:28,759
Speaker 1: the great advantage of being a world famous scientist, is

753
00:47:28,800 --> 00:47:32,879
Speaker 1: a very major player. And because he's also so personable,

754
00:47:33,239 --> 00:47:38,400
Speaker 1: so amused by life, and so engaging with people, he

755
00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:44,480
Speaker 1: became a very, very widely admired and liked diplomat. Franklin

756
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:48,440
Speaker 1: plays a key role is in Europe, not in America,

757
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:51,800
Speaker 1: works very hard to keep the French on our side.

758
00:47:52,560 --> 00:47:56,799
Speaker 1: And then after Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown in seventeen eighty one,

759
00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:01,200
Speaker 1: effectively ending the military part of the war, Congress appoints Franklin,

760
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:05,279
Speaker 1: along with John Jay, John Adams, and Henry Lawrence, to

761
00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:09,120
Speaker 1: be a commissioner to negotiate peace, and in seventeen eighty

762
00:48:09,160 --> 00:48:13,520
Speaker 1: three they complete the negotiations and they signed the peace Treaty. Franklin,

763
00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:17,000
Speaker 1: by the way, is the toughest, most hard nosed person

764
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:19,920
Speaker 1: on the question of whether or not there should be

765
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:23,879
Speaker 1: any compensation for Tories who had stayed on the side

766
00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:27,720
Speaker 1: of the British and said absolutely no, these people were traitors.

767
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:29,960
Speaker 1: They should not get a penny, and he was just

768
00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:32,600
Speaker 1: firm that that was not going to be part of

769
00:48:32,600 --> 00:48:36,240
Speaker 1: the agreement. They signed the peace Treaty, as I said earlier,

770
00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:39,760
Speaker 1: with Franklin wearing the same coat that he had worn

771
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:43,600
Speaker 1: back when the Privy Council tried to humiliate it. And

772
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:48,000
Speaker 1: Franklin then returns because now he's no longer totally drowning

773
00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:51,719
Speaker 1: and being a diplomat, so he returns to being an

774
00:48:51,760 --> 00:48:56,240
Speaker 1: inventor and a commentator. In seventeen eighty three, we complete negotiations,

775
00:48:56,480 --> 00:48:59,960
Speaker 1: we signed the peace Treaty. Now the colonies are independent state.

776
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:04,880
Speaker 1: And one year later Franklin writes quote an economical project

777
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:08,640
Speaker 1: for diminishing the cost of light, which is in fact

778
00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:13,000
Speaker 1: the first document proposing daylight savings time. He does this

779
00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:15,520
Speaker 1: in passing. He just thinks himself, gosh, wouldn't it make

780
00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:17,839
Speaker 1: sense if we change so that we had more time,

781
00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:21,000
Speaker 1: more daylight? And he writes this out and of course

782
00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:24,719
Speaker 1: well over a hundred years later it begins to be implemented,

783
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:28,520
Speaker 1: so the daylight savings time that we currently celebrate can

784
00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:31,399
Speaker 1: be traced back to an idea from Benjamin Franklin. Then

785
00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:34,399
Speaker 1: the same year he invents the bifocal glasses. As he's

786
00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:37,400
Speaker 1: getting older, he notices he has one pair of glasses

787
00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:40,360
Speaker 1: seeing a close one pair of glasses for seeing in

788
00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:43,719
Speaker 1: the distance. He's constantly taking off one putting on the other.

789
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:46,759
Speaker 1: You always have to carry extra glasses, And he thinks

790
00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:50,040
Speaker 1: to himself, well, what if I arrange itself. When you

791
00:49:50,120 --> 00:49:52,160
Speaker 1: look down, which is what you do when you're reading,

792
00:49:52,640 --> 00:49:55,279
Speaker 1: you have close vision, and when you look out, which

793
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:58,759
Speaker 1: you're looking up, you have distance vision. He goes to

794
00:49:58,920 --> 00:50:03,680
Speaker 1: the con Institutional Convention in Philadelphia in seventeen eighty seven.

795
00:50:03,719 --> 00:50:06,960
Speaker 1: He's the oldest person at the convention. He occasionally falls

796
00:50:07,000 --> 00:50:10,560
Speaker 1: asleep during the sessions, but he also won. The convention

797
00:50:10,719 --> 00:50:14,120
Speaker 1: is about to melt down in bitterness and an hostility

798
00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:17,160
Speaker 1: between the large states and the small states. And his

799
00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:20,960
Speaker 1: most important intervention, he says, why don't we suspend for

800
00:50:21,040 --> 00:50:24,239
Speaker 1: a day, have a day of prayer and fasting, and

801
00:50:24,400 --> 00:50:27,400
Speaker 1: have various ministers come in and pray to us. To

802
00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:30,239
Speaker 1: get ourselves back on the right mindset, which is in

803
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:33,720
Speaker 1: fact precisely what they do. And a very famous moment

804
00:50:34,080 --> 00:50:38,320
Speaker 1: when he is leaving the Constitutional Convention, having completed the work,

805
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:42,280
Speaker 1: and the lady says to him on Independence Hall steps,

806
00:50:42,280 --> 00:50:44,759
Speaker 1: what have you done? And he said, we have created

807
00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:49,400
Speaker 1: a republic if you can keep it, and understood thoroughly

808
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:51,040
Speaker 1: that in the long run it would be up to

809
00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:53,480
Speaker 1: the American people whether or not it would work and

810
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:56,200
Speaker 1: whether or not it would survive. I wanted to comment,

811
00:50:56,680 --> 00:51:01,520
Speaker 1: to go and stand there at Independence Hall and think

812
00:51:02,440 --> 00:51:07,120
Speaker 1: about the people who signed the Declition Independence, To go

813
00:51:07,160 --> 00:51:11,919
Speaker 1: across to the great New Constitution Center, which is just remarkable,

814
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,480
Speaker 1: to go to the Franklin Institute, and to realize again

815
00:51:15,480 --> 00:51:18,839
Speaker 1: and again the impact that this guy had. To take

816
00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:21,160
Speaker 1: a map and go around and see all the different

817
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:26,200
Speaker 1: places where there are universities or insurance companies, or libraries

818
00:51:26,280 --> 00:51:29,920
Speaker 1: or fire departments, things that Benjamin Franklin created in his lifetime.

819
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:33,280
Speaker 1: By seventeen eighty eight, he's begin to realize that eighty

820
00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:35,920
Speaker 1: two years of age, he likely doesn't have many more

821
00:51:35,960 --> 00:51:38,480
Speaker 1: years left, so he writes a will leaving most of

822
00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:42,640
Speaker 1: his estate to his daughter, Sarah. Seventeenty nine, he's elected

823
00:51:42,640 --> 00:51:46,880
Speaker 1: president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery.

824
00:51:47,320 --> 00:51:52,520
Speaker 1: Here's a guy who constantly, endlessly fought for human freedom,

825
00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:57,120
Speaker 1: who steadily spread the opportunity for freedom, and who at

826
00:51:57,120 --> 00:52:00,000
Speaker 1: the end of his life is working on the abolition

827
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:05,200
Speaker 1: of slavery. In fact, submits the first antislavery petition before

828
00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:08,520
Speaker 1: the US Congress. He had slaves very early, two slaves

829
00:52:08,520 --> 00:52:11,080
Speaker 1: who worked in his household, but when he was young,

830
00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:13,319
Speaker 1: but as he got older, he began to think, this

831
00:52:13,400 --> 00:52:16,239
Speaker 1: is an evil institution. And if you believe in the

832
00:52:16,280 --> 00:52:18,960
Speaker 1: principles of the American Revolution, if you believe in a

833
00:52:18,960 --> 00:52:22,280
Speaker 1: declaration that says we're all created equal, it's simply wrong.

834
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:24,800
Speaker 1: And at a time when it was still a very,

835
00:52:24,920 --> 00:52:29,480
Speaker 1: very radical position, he was actively in favor of the

836
00:52:29,520 --> 00:52:34,880
Speaker 1: abolition of slavery. Ultimately, in seventeen ninety he dies, Washington

837
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 1: is now president, the country is established. He leaves behind

838
00:52:39,520 --> 00:52:41,880
Speaker 1: a fair amount of wealth for Sally and her husband,

839
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:45,360
Speaker 1: but he leaves behind for the world a whole series

840
00:52:45,400 --> 00:52:49,560
Speaker 1: of inventions and breakthroughs and understandings that are just astonishing

841
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:53,680
Speaker 1: and that ultimately improve the lives of millions and millions

842
00:52:53,680 --> 00:52:56,120
Speaker 1: of people. Gives you a sense of why he is

843
00:52:56,160 --> 00:53:01,759
Speaker 1: an immortal and why somebody who I think represents the

844
00:53:01,840 --> 00:53:05,720
Speaker 1: best of the American tradition of constant effort, constant dreaming,

845
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:12,080
Speaker 1: constant hard work to term the dreams into reality. You

846
00:53:12,160 --> 00:53:15,640
Speaker 1: can read more about Benjamin Franklin and see my recommendations

847
00:53:15,640 --> 00:53:19,239
Speaker 1: for further study on our show page at Newtsworld dot com.

848
00:53:19,400 --> 00:53:23,360
Speaker 1: Newtsworld is produced by Westwood One. The executive producer is

849
00:53:23,400 --> 00:53:27,400
Speaker 1: Debbie Myers. Our producer is Garnsey Sloan. Our editor is

850
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:32,560
Speaker 1: Robert Borowski. Our researchers are Rachel Peterson and Hunter Estes.

851
00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:36,120
Speaker 1: The artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley.

852
00:53:36,640 --> 00:53:40,719
Speaker 1: The music was composed by Joey Salvia. Special thanks to

853
00:53:40,719 --> 00:53:44,360
Speaker 1: the team at Englishlee sixty and Westwood Ones, Tim Sabian

854
00:53:44,640 --> 00:53:48,319
Speaker 1: and Robert Mathers. Please email me with your comments at

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Speaker 1: newt at newtsworld dot com. If you've been enjoying Newtsworld,

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Speaker 1: I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and both rate

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Speaker 1: us with five stars and give us a review so

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Speaker 1: others can and what it's all about. On the next

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Speaker 1: episode of Newts World, as Tax day approaches. I thought

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Speaker 1: we'd devote an episode to some of America's more ridiculous taxes,

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Speaker 1: like the vending machine fruit tax in California and the

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Speaker 1: soda tax in Philadelphia, and we'll spend a day in

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Speaker 1: the life of taxes that we all encounter every day.

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Speaker 1: I'm new Ingrich. This is Newtsworld.