Benjamin Franklin
(aka Richard Y.)

Hi! I am Benjamin Franklin. I was born on January 17, 1706 on a cold winter day in Boston Massachusetts Colony. My father is a candle maker. He had seventeen kids. I was the fifteenth. When I was young I loved to read and I was very smart. I was always the leader of all of my friends. My father sent me to school for two years. At the age of ten, I was taken home to help my father. I didn't like candle making. I wanted to become a sailor, but my father sent me to my brother James' printing shop. I was tired of working for James after two years. At age twenty-two, I opened my own printing shop in Philadelphia. I woke early and slept late. I wrote and printed an almanack called "Poor Richard's Almanack." I wrote things like "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a person healthy, wealthy, and wise." The witty almanack made me rich and famous throughout the colonies and Europe. Then I turned my interest to make Philadelphia a safer and more pleasant place to live. I founded the first public lending library, a fire department and the University of Pennsylvania. I invented the Franklin stove and it was used in America for more than 200 years.

I devoted myself to electricity. I designed a kite experiment which proved that lightning was electricity. So I invented a lightning rod to protect people's homes. The rod would draw the electrical charge out of the clouds and down to the ground.

I loved to read and learn throughout my whole life. I knew the "doors to wisdom are never shut." My intelligence made me famous in France. I was able to get French help for the United States to gain independency from England. I signed the peace treaty with England.

I died on April 17,1790 at age 84. Born without money, through hard work and intelligence, I became the founding father of the United States. I was remembered as an author, scientist, a printer, a diplomat, an ambassador, and an inventor.

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