Benjamin Franklin (January 17 [O.S. January 6] 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a leading author, political theorist, politician, printer, scientist, inventor, civic activist, and diplomat. As a scientist he was a major figure in the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As a political writer and activist he, more than anyone, invented the idea of an American nation,[1] and as a diplomat during the American Revolution, he secured the French alliance that helped to make independence possible.

Franklin was famous for his curiosity, his writings (popular, political and scientific), his inventions, and his diversity of interests. As a leader of the Enlightenment, he gained the recognition of scientists and intellectuals across Europe. An agent in London before the Revolution, and Minister to France during the war, he, more than anyone else, defined the new nation in the minds of Europe. His success in securing French military and financial aid was a great contributor to the American victory over Britain. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the iron furnace stove (also known as the Franklin stove), a carriage odometer and a musical instrument known as the armonica. He was an early proponent of colonial unity. Many historians hail him as the "First American."

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Franklin learned printing from his older brother and became a newspaper editor, printer, and merchant in Philadelphia, becoming very wealthy. In 1718, at the age of 12, Benjamin Franklin began in apprentice service to his half-brother, James, in the printing business and continued until he was twenty-one. In the printing business, he improved in spelling and punctuation. In his autobiography, he accounts that he schooled himself in composition because it was not taught in reading or writing schools at that time. Here he provides another piece of documentation that writing was defined as penmanship. Franklin attributed his improvement in composition to writing down his arguments for friendly debates and his father''s suggestions to style, organization and insightfulness. Another contributing factor toward improving his compositions proved to be comparing his notes, recreations, and reorganization to models of good writing. His successful approaches to self-instruction in compositions led him to design a school in Philadelphia in 1740 where he advocated that students write legibly, read the "best" writers, model their own writing after the "best" writers, form their own style by writing letters to others, write abstracts and retellings of what they read in their own words. In 1749, Franklin voiced his idea in his Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth where he stressed the importance of using writing as a tool for thinking, increasing comprehension through retelling, and communicating with others. This sounds familiar to what we stress today as goals in writing.

For the Americans, Franklin was always "Old dependable, intelligent and praise worthy. He was to them their very own emissary representing America in all that it stood for. The many mantles that Benjamin Franklin wore are hard to define. A man with a scientific genius, a canny business, a revolutionary, a philosopher and a wit – Benjamin Franklin was all this and much more.

Franklin was born in humble origins in Boston USA, in 1706, the fifteenth of the seventeen children of a poor candle maker. At the age of 12 he was apprenticed to his half- brother James, a printer. At Philadelphia he gained experience with various printers and finally he opened his own printing shop. The business of printing was a mere stepping stone to success. He ventured into writing and then to publishing that put him on the road to fame. Franklin''s entrepreneurship was one factor that spurred him on and made him a household name across the globe.

Franklin''s tryst with writing in his tens and the attraction never ebbed thereafter. He began writing unsigned or pseudonymous ballads and satires. He would slip these under his brother''s door, who would publish them unsuspectingly. Franklin''s linguistic abilities made him a master of many languages. Latin, French, German, Italian, Spanish were languages he spoke with flair. Being a voracious reader he devoured books on science and philosophy. His autobiography and books on home on home spun maxims have made delightful reading material for generations to come. Over the years his publications grew and at the age of twenty six he initiated the poor Richard''s Almanacs.

As politician he fought for colonies in London before the Revolution. He published a satiric piece that lashed out at Britain''s imperialism entitled- Rules by which a great empire may be reduced to a small one. With vigorous energy his satire spelled out the "rules" i.e. the injustices suffered by colonies. His secular humanitarian approach made him an endearing figure in the international political scenario.

Franklin''s dedication to his country was exemplary. Even when a prosperous businessman of the publishing world, his allegiance to his country never took a back seat. An active participant in the American Revolution he even took up many civic projects in the ensuing years. He set in motion the first professional police force and the first volunteer fire company in Philadelphia, the first American fire-insurance company, the University of Pennsylvania and the world famous Pennsylvania Hospital.

Franklin''s intellect and broadminded approach to things made him a key figure in American politics. He was the first statesman to build on the concept of a united nation. He invented the American dual system of state government united under a federal authority, two decades before the Revolutionary War.

Ingeniously he solved the political problems that arose in the aftermath of the War of Independence. His sagacious handling of the near collapse of the constitutional convention in Philadelphia won him respect that few can equal. The small states wanted equal representation in the Congress and the big ones wanted delegations based on population. Franklin engineered the compromise under which the senate is based on the first plan and the House of Representatives on the second.

Franklin''s achievement in the field of science has placed him amongst the pioneers of scientists on whose achievements we today stand successful. Apart from drawing electricity from a cloud on a kite string. He created the first viable theory of electricity. He dispelled the theory that lightning and electricity were two separate forces. Franklin proved that they are the same thing. The terms "positive" and "negative" were introduced to us by Franklin. The concepts of battery, conductor, electrical charge and discharge were defined by Franklin. He invented the electrical condenser, used today in every radio, television and telephone circuit. To him goes the credit of inventing the lighting rod, that removed forever the terror from people''s lives. His studies always promoted practical results. He invented the chemical fertilizer, the Franklin stove he bifocal spectacles. While chartering the Gulf Stream he discovered that storms rotate while traveling forward and that this explained the water sprouts at sea.

Franklin''s hum our often had a scientific base. On a windy day in England he noticed waves on the surface of a brook. He told a group of friends that he could "magically" calm the waters. Slipping upstream alone, he poured some oil from the unscrewed top of his cane into the water. Slowly the waves subsided and all that his friends could do was to give him a hearty applause. This aura of mystery never left him and won him quite a reputation.

Nothing elucidates Franklin''s life better than his own maximum, "God helps them that help themselves, "His life was a story of constant endeavor and the desire to achieve. His pragmatic insight that social institutions are made not by Divine Will but by men made him an instant hero in France in 1770. he was to the French that divine spark of liberty that questioned the rule of tyranny that had infested the social structures of France for generations. He was the liberator who "snatched the lightning from the skies end the scepters from the tyrants."

To the royal structures of Britain, he was in contrast a dangerous man, sprung from the new libertine culture of America. A dangerous man, he held the deadly weapon that unleashed chaotic liberty. The stiff upper lipped annals of power and royalty, crumbled under his scatting satire. His revolutionary spirit celebrated the song of liberty and individual freedom.

In 1770 Franklin died. The French National Assembly went into mourning for three days. Biographer Car Van Doran summed up his life saying, "Mind and will, talent and art, strength and ease, wit and grace met in him as if nature had been lavish and happy when he was shaped." But perhaps the best tribute came from Comte de Mira beau, the great French Revolutionary orator who called Franklin the philosopher who did most to extend the rights of man over the earth, "Antiquity would have raised altars to this mighty genius."