Happy 300th Birthday Benjamin Franklin

Guinnessy writes "Benjamin Franklin was born on 17 January 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. Franklin was a man of diverse talents: publisher, inventor, ambassador, politician, wit with some human frailities says NPR. In Physics Today, Philip Krider presents Franklin's work on electricity and the development of the lightning rod, work whose fame helped Franklin obtain aid from the French against the British. In the same magazine, Joost Mertens considers Franklin's explorations of the calming effects of oil on water. Those investigations, it turns out, had a less than calming effect on Dutch scholars. Philadelphia is planning a series of events celebratng Franklin's life throughtout the year."

Wait, we have a birthday post for Franklin

[antifoidulus]

but not for The Burninator [homestarrunner.com]? The injustice!

Refused Patent

[blamanj]

Also of note for those who follow intellectual property issues, when he invented the "Franklin stove," he refused the offered patent [about.com] preferring that the design be available to anyone.

A Ben-Related Search Engine

[shepmaster]

Saw this in a few press-releases, and it seems to work pretty well.

http://ben.clusty.com/ [clusty.com]

Has a neat timeline of his accomplishments and has resources for teachers and students.

Information didn't want to be free then, either

[ScentCone]

Also of note for those who follow intellectual property issues, when he invented the "Franklin stove," he refused the offered patent preferring that the design be available to anyone.

Lest anyone suddenly get the idea that Ben Franklin was an early "information wants to be free" sort of guy, don't forget that the only way he was able, in his early forties, to "retire" from the daily grind and turn his attention towards science, diplomacy, and nation-building was because he made himself relatively wealthy as a publisher. He set up printing franchises that made money off of publishing private works, and he took a share of the proceeds in his capacity as the guy helping to finance the operations and marketing thereof. He was very "modern" in that sense - a literary agent, a publisher/distributer, an investor in potentially lucrative creative material... intellectual property was exactly how he became wealthy. The "healthy and wise" part was how he lived long enough and well enough to put his proceeds to work for him, rather working for them. But without an early career in the sale of creative works, there would have been no Ben Franklin, Founding Father.

More NPR Coverage

[Lord Byron II]

From NPR's ScienceFriday.com:

The podcast:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/audio/scifriaudio.xml [sciencefriday.com]

The MP3:
http://libsyn.com/media/sciencefriday/scifri-20060 11325.mp3 [libsyn.com]

Re:Church and State

[Mendenhall]

There are MUCH older proponents of this separation. In the Augsburg Confession (penned by Melanchthon to reperesent the early views of the nascent Lutheran movement to the princes of Germany and the Roman Catholic Church), the following was stated (rather colorfully!):
Therefore, since the power of the Church grants eternal things, and is exercised only by the ministry of the Word, it does not interfere with civil government; no more than the art of singing interferes with civil government . For civil government deals with other things than does the Gospel. The civil rulers defend not minds, but bodies and bodily things against manifest injuries, and restrain men with the sword and bodily punishments in order to preserve civil justice and peace.

Re:Refused Patent

[Roblimo]

This is correct. Franklin refused patents on *all* of his many inventions so that they would be available to everyone -- and so that others might improve upon them.

- Robin

Are you kidding? He was notorious in France

[ianscot]

Franklin was involved with a succession of aristocratic French ladies during the revolution. He was getting around.

The letters back and forth with his various amours aren't explicit, but Ben was no prude, not by a mile, at any point in his life. (You're right that he was, er, active as a young man; he visited "houses of ill repute" in England.)

For that matter he married in a relatively informal way -- Deborah Reid and he sort of moved in together and presented it as a marriage, and so it was accepted as a common law thing. Not that unusual back then.

Heft a "Poor Richards" in Celebration

[matt_martin]

Be sure to get out there and try a "Poor Richard's" ale !

A number of US brewpubs are serving [poorrichardsale.com] their own batches of Poor Richard's which was formulated to the researched preferences of Bejamin Franklin

FWIW: its an "Open Recipe" [beertown.org] beer.

(mmmmmm, beeer)

Full Quote

[Anonymous Coward]

From wikiquote [wikiquote.org]

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, -- if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe, farther, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.

Speech to the Constitutional Convention (June 28, 1787)

Fart Proudly

[firehat]

...for the serious Enquiry of learned Physicians, Chemists, &c. of this enlightened Age [teachingam...istory.org]

Re:Benjamin Franklin, the truest of American Heroe

[Mr. Slippery]

The world we live in is far different from Franklin's, and it requires a different world view.

It's sad that people seem to think blowing shit up was invented in 2001. Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot [wikipedia.org], anyone?

The wire tapping isn't about trading liberty for security (how has your freedom been reduced by the government listening to Bin Laden's telephone calls?)

That's not what they're doing. They're listening to the phone calls of American citizens, without the Constitutionally required warrants.