Franklin
Franklin names 6 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Franklin BENJAMIN, an American statesman
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
BENJAMIN, an American statesman; born in Boston, Mass., Jan. 17, 1706. When 12 years old he was apprenticed to his brother James to learn the printer's trade. Three years later BENJAMIN FRANKLIN James started a newspaper called the "New England Courant." Benjamin tried his hand as a contributor to the columns of the newspaper, and with such success that, when his brother was arrested and imprisoned for a month by the speaker of the assembly for a too liberal exercise of his critical faculties, the management of the paper was confided to Benjamin. Differences arose between the brothers and Benjamin left Boston, drifting finally to Philadelphia, where he landed with only $1.25 in his pocket. He was fortunate enough to find employment immediately with a printer. An accident secured him the acquaintance of Sir William Keith, the governor of the colony, who persuaded him to go over to England for the requisite material to establish himself in the printing business in Philadelphia, by the promise to advance what money he would need for this purpose, and also to secure to him the pr printing for the government. Franklin arrived in London on Dec. 12, 1724. Instead of the letters of credit he expected he discovered that no one who knew Keith placed the smallest dependence upon his word. Franklin soon found employment in a London printing house, where he remained for the next 18 months. He then returned to Philadelphia, where in connection with a fellow printer whose father advanced some capital, he established a printing house for himself. In September, 1729, he bought for a trifle the "Pennsylvania Gazette." In the following year, Franklin married his old love, Deborah Read, a widow, a young woman of his own station in life, by whom he had two children, a son who died in his youth, and a daughter, Sally, who afterward became Mrs. Bache, a name since associated with the history of American science. In 1732 he commenced the publication of what is still known to literature as "Poor Richard's Almanac," which gained a wide circulation. His contributions to it have been republished in many languages. In 1736 Franklin was appointed clerk of the assembly, in 1737 postmaster of Philadelphia; and shortly after he was elected a member of the assembly. In 1746 he began those researches in electricity which gave him a position among the most illustrious natural philosophers. He exhibited in a more distinct form than heretofore the theory of positive and negative electricity; by his famous experiment with a boy's kite he proved that lightning and electricity are identical; and he it was who suggested the protecting of buildings by lightningconductors. At the comparatively early age of 47 he was elected to the Royal Society of London. Franklin was the author of many other discoveries. They are: (1) The course of storms over the North American continent-a discovery which marked an epoch in the science of meteorology, and which has since been utilized by the aid of land and ocean telegraphy. (2) The course and most important characteristics of the Gulf Stream, its high temperature, and the consequent uses of the thermometer in navigation. (3) The diverse powers of different colors to absorb solar heat. In 1757 he was sent to England to insist upon the right of the province to tax the proprietors of the land still held under the Penn charter for their share of the cost of defending it from hostile Frenchmen and Indians. His mission He was was crowned with success. absent on this work five years, during which he received honorory degrees from Oxford and Edinburgh. In 1764 he was again sent to England to contest the pretensions of Parliament to tax the American colonies without representation. The differences, however, became too grave to be reconciled by negotiation. The officers sent by the home government to New England were resisted in the discharge of their duty, and in 1775 patriotism as well as regard for his personal safety decided Franklin to return to the United States, where he at once participated actively in the measures and deliberations of the Colonists, which resulted in the declaration of independence, July 4, 1776. To secure foreign assistance in prosecuting the war in which the colonies were already engaged with Great Britain, Franklin then, in the 71st year of his age, was sent to Paris. He reached the French capital in the winter of 1776- 1777, where his fame as a philosopher as well as a statesman had already preceded him. His great skill as a negotiator and immense personal popularity led to an alliance between France and the United States signed by the French king Feb. 6, 1778, while opportune and substantial aids in arms and munitions of war as well as money were supplied from the royal arsenals and treasury. On Sept. 3, 1783, his mission was crowned with success through England's recognition of the independence of the United States. Franklin continued to discharge the duties of minister-plenipotentiary in Paris till 1785, when he was relieved at his own request. He reached Philadelphia Sept. 14, 1785, when he was elected almost immediately governor of Pennsylvania with but one dissenting vote besides his own. To this office he was twice re-elected unanimously. During the period of his service as governor he was also chosen a delegate to the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States. With the expiration of his third term as governor in 1788 Franklin retired from public life, after an almost continuous service of more than 40 years. Franklin was the founder and first president of the Philosophical Society of Pennsylvania, and an honorary member of all the leading scientific societies of the Old World. He died April 17, 1790, and was buried in the graveyard of Christ Church, Philadelphia.
Franklin SIR JOHN, an English navigator
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SIR JOHN, an English navigator, born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, April 16, 1786; when only a boy he went to sea, and later entered the English navy. In 1806 he was present at the battle of Trafalgar, and in 1814 at that of New Orleans, and in 1819 was appointed to head an overland expedition from Hudson's Bay to the Arctic Ocean. After suffering many hardships, he reached home in 1822. In the the following year he married a Miss Purden, the daughter of an architect. In 1825 he submitted to Lord Bathurst a plan "for an expedition overland to the mouth of the Mackenzie river, and thence by sea to the N. W. extremity of America, with the combined object also of surveying the coast between the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers." This proposition was accepted, and six days after he left Liverpool. In the same year, his wife died. In 1827 Captain Franklin arrived at Liverpool, where he was married a second time, and in 1820 had the honor of knighthood conferred upon him. In 1845, Sir John set out on a third expedition with two ships, called the "Erebus" and "Terror," and spent his first winter in a cove between Cape Riley and Beechey Island. After that period many expeditions were dis dispatched, both from England and America, in search of Sir John, of whom there were no tidings, and not till 1854 did the intelligence reach England that the brave navigator and his heroic companions had, in all probability, perished in the winter of 1850- 1851. This intelligence, however, wanted confirmation and Lady Franklin, resolved to have the mystery cleared up. Accordingly, a last expedition was fitted out, and the news was, in 1859, at length confirmed by the return of Captain McClintock, in the yacht "Fox," after a persevering search for the lost adventurers. This officer brought with him indisputable proofs of the death of Sir John and the loss of his crew. Several articles belonging to the unfortunate explorers were found at Ross Cairn and Point Victory. At the latter place a record was discovered, wherein it was stated that Sir John Franklin had died June 11, 1847. C. F. Hall, the eminent Arctic explorer, returned in September, 1869, from a 5-years' search for the remains of Sir John Franklin's companions with more relics of the expedition. Lieutenant Schwatka found the bodies of the Franklin party in his expedition of 1879-1880.
Franklin WILLIAM BUEL, an American military officer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM BUEL, an American military officer; born in York, Pa., Feb. 27, 27, 1823; was graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1843. In the Mexican War he served on the staff of General Taylor as a topographical engineer; was engaged in making reconnoissances and carried Taylor's orders at the battle of Buena Vista. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was assigned to the command of a brigade in Heintzelman's division. He took part in the battle of Bull Run, served with distinction in the Peninsular campaign and was promoted Major-General in 1862. Subsequently he served under McClellan in Maryland and under Burnside at Fredericksburg, was assigned to the Department of the Gulf, under Banks, in 1863; and in 1865 was brevetted Major- General in the regular army, but resigned a year later to engage in manufacturing. He was appointed United States Commissioner-General to the Paris Exposition in 1899. He died March 8, 1903. FRANKLIN AND MARSHAL COL- LEGE, an Lancaster, Pa.; founded in 1787 under educational institution in the auspices the United States; reported at the close of the Reformed Church in of 1919: Professors and instructors, 17; students, 298; president, H. H. Apple, D. D., LL.D.
Franklin a city of New Hampshire
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of New Hampshire, in Merrimack co. It is at the junction of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers, which here unite to form the Merrimack , and is on the Boston and Maine Railroad. The city has excellent water power and has manufactures of paper and pulp, hosiery , knitting machines, woolen goods, lumber, etc. Franklin is the birthplace of Daniel Webster, and contains a public library and a hospital. Pop. (1910) 6,132; (1920) 6,318.
Franklin a city of Pennsylvania
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Pennsylvania, It is the county-seat of Venango co. on the Allegheny river, and on the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the Lake Erie, Franklin, and Clarion, and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railroads. Its industries include flour mills, brick works, machine shops, and manufactures of tools. It is the center of an important oil-producing region. There are a public library, parks, and several handsome public buildings. Pop. (1910) 9,767; (1920) 9,970.
Franklin a city of Massachusetts
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Massachusetts, in Norfolk co. It is on the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, and includes the village of Unionville. Its industries include the manufacture of pianos, printing presses, straw hats, and cotton, woolen, and felt goods . It has an almshouse, a public library , and is the seat of Dean Academy. Pop. (1910) 5,641; (1920) 6,497.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The outline of Franklin's life in Collier's 1921 account still stands, and his electrical work — positive and negative charge, the identity of lightning with electricity, the lightning rod — is still credited to him, though some historians have since questioned whether the 1752 kite experiment was performed exactly as described. Two things the entry passes over are now standard: Franklin's illegitimate son William, whom the 1921 text omits in favour of "a son who died in his youth" (Francis, dead of smallpox in 1736), became the loyalist royal governor of New Jersey and was estranged from his father by the Revolution; and Franklin's Pennsylvania office was not "governor" but President of the Supreme Executive Council. Scholarship has been transformed less by new facts than by new access: the Yale and American Philosophical Society edition of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, begun in 1954, now runs to more than forty volumes and is freely searchable online. One posthumous act the entry could not report: the codicil to his will left funds to Boston and Philadelphia for 200 years, and the trusts matured in 1990 and were paid out to the two cities.
Written for this edition, 2026.