1790: Benjamin Franklin dies.

Printer, newspaper publisher, statesman, inventor, scientist, patriot, revolutionary – no one, with the possible exception of Thomas Jefferson, cast a more imposing shadow over young America.

Franklin spent his working life as a printer and publisher and much of his legacy rests there. But his contributions to the scientific sphere were equally impressive.

Although not formally trained as a scientist, Franklin was hardly a duffer when he forayed into the field following his retirement from the printing trade. He possessed a keen intellect and a naturally logical and inquisitive mind, and his experiments with electricity, begun in the early 1750s, yielded results that led to a number of technological advances, the lightning rod and the electric battery among them.

Franklin’s work with electricity brought him international fame, several honorary degrees and membership in Britain’s Royal Society, but he was active in other areas, too. He studied weather closely and proposed better methods for tracking storm progression. He invented the catheter while trying to help his ill brother, and he conducted experiments to make agriculture more efficient.

Franklin retained a lifelong interest in science but the events of the day moved him inexorably toward the politics of revolution.

When Franklin died in 1790 at the age of 84, more than 20,000 people attended the funeral.

(Source: Thinkquest.org)

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