Benjamin Franklin

(1706-1790) He was an American politician, scientific and inventor. He studied the electricity and invented the lightning conductor and other different gadgets. He was honest and efficient, he was an important promoter of the USA independence. Benjamin Franklin was the most loved person in his ages in America and the only one who became famous in Europe. His appearance was very plain, cheerful and he had sense of humour, so all the people loved and respected him.

As a politician: He created the fire brigade of Philadelphia, the public library, the Philosophic American Society and the University of Pensilvania. In 1757 he was sent to London to stand up for the interests of the American colonies. Once, he was a whole day in the House of Commons, answering many questions about the resistance of the colonies besides the English tax law, the one what was really bad to the interest of the Americans colonists. The result was that the Parliament revoked the law and the war was postpone ten years, giving the independents enough time to prepare themselves. Benjamin Franklin leaved London and returned to Philadelphia in 1775 and became being part of the independents. That year he was named the member for Pensilvania in the II Continental Congress, in which the 13 north American colonies decided to form an army to fight against England. Next year, he wrote with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the Declaration of Independence (1776). Due to his prestige, he was selected in December of that year, to go on tour in Europe (1776-1785) looking for help to the independence cause. It was very important to achieve the help of France because without it they could lose the fight to achieve the independence. Franklin convinced the French king, Luis XVI, of sending goods to the general Washington secretly and a year later, he was able to get into the war after sign a treaty of friendship. When the war ends and they get he independence, Benjamin Franklin was one who talked to finish the treaty of peace to end the conflict (1783). In 1787, he was one of the person in charge of write the American Constitution.

As a scientific: When he was in France, in 1752, he made the famous experiment of the kite, and he could demonstrate that the clouds wear electricity and the lightnings are discharges of electricity. To do the experiment, he used a kite with a metal wire tied to a silk thread, that must to get charged with energy, gotten by the wire. During the storm he put the hand near a key tired to a silk thread, and he saw sparks flying, so that showed the presence of electricity. Due to this discover, he could invent the lightning conductor and the heater Franklin. He was also a musician.

Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia when he was 84 years old. One of the reasons of his longevity was that he knew many things about the health.