Читать книгу A Philadelphia Story - Lori Litchman - Страница 14

FRANKLIN WAS BORN IN 1706 IN BOSTON, came to Philadelphia as a teenager in 1723, and loved the city so much that he stayed. Throughout his life, he would become not only an iconic Philadelphian but also a founding father of the country and poster boy for the self-made man living the American dream. Franklin is best known as one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence and led a notable life as a politician and a statesman. He was a printer and publisher by trade; he owned the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper and garnered recognition for his publication of Poor Richard’s Almanack. He later became immersed in the sciences. One of his first inventions was the Franklin stove, a wood stove that was more efficient than the open fireplaces of the time period. Then later in life when his eyesight was failing, Franklin invented the bifocal lens.

PHILLY FACT “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” This quote is often attributed to Mr. Philadelphia himself, Ben Franklin, regarding his fondness for a good brew. Unfortunately, there is no documentation that he ever said it, and the evidence actually points to him favoring wine.

He was a voracious reader and wanted to share his love of books with his fellow Philadelphians, which helped facilitate the creation of the first lending library—The Library Company of Philadelphia. Thomas Cadwalader was also one of the founders of the Library Company. Franklin had previously gathered a group of like-minded men to meet on Friday nights to imbibe and discuss politics, morals, and science. The group was called the Junto (from the Spanish word for “together”), and together the men birthed The Library Company of Philadelphia. Back then, books were incredibly expensive, and only the elite could afford to have a large library. Franklin came up with an idea for the members of the Junto to gather their friends and ask all of them to share their collective wealth. Franklin asked 50 subscribers to donate 40 shillings each and commit to an annual donation of 10 shillings a year for the next 50 years. Penn’s secretary, James Logan, considered the “best judge of books in these parts,” helped pick out the first books to buy for the library. Logan himself had an enormous collection of books—4,000 of which his descendants bequeathed to the Library Company in 1795. The Library Company of Philadelphia exists today as an independent research library that is free and open to the public and specializes in American history and culture from the 17th through 19th centuries.

Benjamin Franklin, a Philadelphia original

(Painting by Joseph-Siffrein Duplessis; via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

The Junto eventually became the wellspring of another scientific organization—the American Philosophical Society. In 1739, Philadelphia botanist John Bartram came up with the idea of starting a Junto-like club of “the most ingenious and curious men” who would gather together to discuss science. Bartram was not the people person that Franklin was, so he turned to his friend to help him gather support for the club. Franklin started the buzz for the proposed academy of “learned” men, and in May 1743, the American Philosophical Society (APS) was born. Many of the country’s founding fathers ultimately became members, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. Today, the APS is a museum open to the public that houses a collection of Franklin’s personal books, the journals of Lewis and Clark, and 800 letters from Charles Darwin.

In addition to his noble and scientific pursuits, Franklin was a key figure in numerous practical advances in early Philadelphia society that ultimately made the city safer and more livable. One of those developments was Franklin’s role in the creation of fire companies and insurance. Concerned over the city’s ability to fight fires, Franklin published his concerns in his newspaper and discussed them with the members of the Junto. In December 1736, Franklin and a group of 30 men launched the Union Fire Company. Their firefighting equipment, which consisted of leather buckets and “strong bags,” was primitive by today’s standards. But in a short matter of time, Philadelphians banded together to form several other volunteer fire companies. Knowing that these companies would not prevent or even stop all fires, Franklin and members of the Union Fire Company met with other fire companies, and together they created the country’s first property insurance company: The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insuring of Houses from Loss by Fire. Subscribers would pay a fee each year and be able to recover their losses should a fire damage their home. Today, The Philadelphia Contributionship Mutual Holding Company is still insuring Philadelphians and also operates Vector Security Holdings, which offers a variety of security systems.

One of the most famous stories about Franklin is the one everyone learns as a kid. The story goes something like this: It was a dark and stormy night when the founding father decided to harness the power of lightning by concocting a silk kite with a metal key placed in a Leiden jar, an early tool for storing electricity. Franklin believed that if lightning was indeed electricity, he would be able to capture said energy in the jar by way of the key.

Allegedly, Franklin flew his kite, which was obviously struck by lightning. When he moved his hand toward the key in the jar, he was shocked, literally, to discover his hypothesis was correct. Throughout the years, though, scientists and historians believed the story to be complete rubbish because, if it were true, Franklin would have most certainly died from the charge. In fact, the Discovery Channel show MythBusters set out to prove the story a fraud. They suited up a gel dummy and attached a silk kite and key to it. They also outfitted the fake Franklin with a monitor to determine how much electricity would have gone into his body. The experiment showed that Franklin would have fried if it were true, effectively debunking the kite-and-key legend.

Chances are that Franklin wrote about such an experiment in his newspaper but, knowing that such a successful experiment could kill him, he didn’t actually conduct it. Some also suggest that Franklin may have flown a kite before the storm hit and was able to collect a small amount of electricity to prove that his theory that lightning was in fact electricity was true. Franklin later invented the lightning rod, a key component in helping prevent fires in colonial America and still to this day.

The development of Philadelphia as an educational hub is also grounded in the contributions Franklin made to his adopted city. Franklin wanted the youth of Pennsylvania to get educated there and not need to go to another colony or Europe. He wanted to create a nonsectarian college where students could prepare to be government and business leaders. They would study the sciences and would be taught in English rather than Greek or Latin. Franklin first started two schools for younger children—The Academy and the Charity School of Philadelphia—with the hopes of preparing students there for higher education. In 1755, Franklin and a board of trustees were granted a charter for the College of Philadelphia. The College of Philadelphia later combined with the University of the State of Pennsylvania, which became known what is today as the University of Pennsylvania. In 1765, the school founded the nation’s first medical school. Dr. John Morgan, who earned his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh, is credited with founding the medical school. Morgan was also a founding member of the American Philosophical Society and a doctor at Pennsylvania Hospital. Morgan, along with William Shippen, led many of the first lectures at Penn’s new medical school. Shippen helped found Penn and Princeton (formerly the College of New Jersey), was an original member and vice president of the American Philosophical Society, and served on the Continental Congress.