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How much do you know about America's rennaisance man? Take the quiz below and find out!
Here's a helpful hint: All the answers can be found somewhere on this website.
Franklin was born in the city of Boston, but, at the age of 17, he moved to Philadelphia, which he called home for the rest of his days. Or as Dr. S. Weir Mitchell memorably expressed it, "Franklin was born in Philadelphia at the age of 17."
The Courant was published by his older brother, James. Ben began assisting at the age of 12.
While sometimes erroneously called a "glass harmonica" Franklin named his invention a "glass armonica" or just "armonica." The harmonica is an entirely different instrument, invented in Europe several decades after Franklin's armonica.
Franklin was a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution
Without the alliance with France, the American Revolution may never have succeeded, and without the diplomatic skill of Benjamin Franklin, that alliance might never have happened.
Answer: a) Although people often oversimplify his discovery by stating that "Ben Franklin discovered electricty," people were aware of the existence of electricty since long before Franklin and his kite . But Franklin demonstrated that the 'substance' flowing through the air in lighting bolts was essentially the same as that seen in simple chemical batteries, albeit far more powerful.
The earliest known use of this proverb dates to a 1734 poem published in The London Magazine. Franklin was a young man at the time, but he had nothing to do with this bit of wisdom. The other quotations are all Franklin's, published in either Poor Richard's Almanac or The Pennsylvania Gazette
The idea behind the Franklin Stove is simple: Heat that goes up a chimney isn't heating your home. Instead of burning logs in a brick fireplace up against a wall, Franklin constructed it of metal, which would absorb and radiate heat, and placed it in the middle of the room.
