In 1783 he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society:
Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.
We’re sure he would have been even happier to see what had been discovered 200 years thence, and would have felt right at home in the Hare & Hedgepig.
was he a president?
1- Noooo… He was a scientist, to some extent at least. Wasn’t he?
-is pathetically ignorant-
(1) Never, although he was President of Pennsylvania for three years. (That office no longer exists.) He also did just about everything else you can imagine. He’s worth learning about.
Er… he, y’know, invented the lightbulb, bifocals, daylight savings time(I think?)…
I’ll make sure to turn on a light for him ^^ When it gets dark, that is.
BUt man, I know what he meant about feeling like he’s going to miss out on some great, great stuff… I feel like that a lot : /
Not lightbulbs — not even close! Franklin died 57 years before Thomas Edison was born. Electric light was one of those hundred-year inventions he didn’t get to see.
OHSHOOT. This is what learning so much history in a short time has done to me. I combine different people into one. Franklin/Edison, secretaries of state/war/ect, so on. It’s rather bad for testing. But I can’t seem to stop it >.<
Speaking of hitory, he probably expects us to have finished the rest of the textbook(like 200 pages) when we get back monday. Because that’s what days off are for. *headdesk*
Sounds as if your history classes can’t see the forest for the trees. We try to avoid that mistake at Muse Academy.
Franklin made things happen, usually dozens of things at once. He was interested in everything, believed in making the world a better place, wasn’t stuffy, worked hard, and had fun. If his ghost ever shows up at the H&H, the wungs are under orders to give it extra-special V.I.P. treatment.
Ben Franklin is my favorite historical figure. He invented bifocals, which is my kind of glasses. Thank you for eyesight and daylight savings, and the odometer and the lightning rod…good stuff, man.
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! *splat* Franklin is one of my favorite historical people.
Happyyyy BIRTHDAY!!!!! Here is a pie for you, Ben Franklin, and I won’t throw it because I have deep respect for you.
7- When I was in Philadelphia, there was one place where they had a hologram simulation of his ghost and you could ask it questions. We didn’t get to go go to that attraction, although I wanted to.
I did like the Franklin Institute very much, though, and I think it would have pleased him greatly. Happy Birthday, Ben!
11 – That is amazingly creepy.
I would NOT want to talk to a hologram of a dead person, no matter how much I respect him.
that would be so weird
I found it! I found this post I made ages ago, on a one-time visit to MB after hearing about it so much in Muse. I note nobody welcomed me… I guess they were all too busy discussing holograms of Ben Franklin
I wonder what Ben would say if he could see our dear country now…
14 – I shudder to think.
(15) What makes you say that?
16 – I don’t know, the general state of things…
The economy… the war in Iraq… do you think he’d approve of Obama being elected?
Why not? As for wars and economic problems, those were not exactly unknown in Franklin’s day and had been cropping up over and over again for thousands of years. He probably wouldn’t be surprised to hear that we haven’t eliminated them yet.
18 – I know.
I think he might be proud to see how we’ve progressed socially, but… you never know. He might have been an anti-feminist or something. And, true. Conflict wasn’t unheard of. But, I don’t know… *sigh*
Franklin wrote copiously on a wide variety of topics, so we know his opinions about many issues (as well as how his opinions changed over time). Feminism in the modern sense hadn’t been invented in Franklin’s times, so it’s possible that he never wrote about that. We do know, however, that he liked intelligent women — and if other people’s memoirs of his time in Paris are to be trusted, they liked him, too.
20 – I never knew that. I’ve learned more on MuseBlog than in school.
In my experience, schools never teach the really important things (Muse Academy excepted, of course).
22 – Very true.
happy birthday to the gentleman from Pennsylvania! Did you know he founded the first philosophical society in America? Among many other things.
20) Mr. F was indeed very well liked by the women of Paris. He’s a real character. I think he was pribably the best diplomat we as an emerging country could ask for. He wore “rustic” clothes to appeal to the French court who thought us all quaint rustic types, I believe…well you do what you have to do!
I think Franklin would be happy to know we’re still in business. That outcome wasn’t self-evident in his lifetime.
And that we’ve done away with slavery. That was his last big project, but he died before he got very far with it.
19~ I believe I remember seeing somewhere a quote of his about, ah, enjoying intelligent women more than just beautiful ones. In thoughtful discourse and more, presumably.
Happy birthday, Mr. Franklin! I can understand what he means about wishing to know what will be discovered in the future.
*gasp* No one has yet mentioned the glass armonica!!
(27) You can play his armonica online,courtesy of the Franklin Institute:
http: // sln.fi.edu/franklin/musician/virtualarmonica.html
28~ Ooh, cool! I don’t know if I’ll be able to get it on my internet connection, but that’s interesting. I’ve been to Dean Shostak’s “crystal concert” at Williamsburg, and he plays one.
I love the sound!
Benjamin Franklin! We own a wonderful biography on him, therefore my brain is crammed with seemingly random facts on the man. He had far too many siblings, ran away from an apprentice-ship with his not-very-loving older brother, founded the first fire department, married Deborah Read, (who laughed at him when they first met, possibly because his pockets were stuffed with bread), once electrocuted himself while trying to cook a turkey with electricity, his oldest son, William, was a spoiled child, possibly illegitimate, and joined the Loyalist side during the American Revolution, his youngest and favorite son (whose name escapes me… Frankie?) died as a child, (which I found terribly depressing), he was much loved by the French, who wore his portrait in their hair, but not by Abigail Adams, who found his behavior with the French women scanadalous, he invented the Franklin oven, wrote Poor Richard’s Almanac, and had a wonderful sense of humor.
I didn’t google any of that, I swear.
30- The best biography about Mister Franklin is his autobiography. I read it for school, and it was wonderful.
Benjamin franklin is probably my favorite founding father. He should get more credit. As i recall, he once wrote a very nice letter from the viewpoint of a arab sultan of the barbary coast, which was at the time taking slaves from trade ships (causing america and for a short time sweden to invade in 1801 as the first barbary war-they won, forcing barbary to surrender and stop pirating-they started pirating again in 1815, causing another invasion by the united states) pointing out how hypocritical the americans were being with their outrage over americans being taken as slaves when they themselves practiced slavery.
I love playing water glasses, but I never got enough to make an armonica.