Ann Dougherty, age 12, of Rutland, Vt., for her question:
WHAT DID BENJAMIN FRANKLIN INVENT?
Benjamin Franklin was one of America's great early statesmen. He was the only man who signed all four of the key documents in American history: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain and the Constitution of the United States. In addition, he was a great inventor.
Franklin was one of the first men in the world to experiment with electricity. He flew a homemade kite during a thunderstorm in 1752 and proved that lightning is electricity. Then he tamed lightning by inventing the lightning rod.
The Franklin stove proved most useful to people of his day. By arranging the flues in his own stove in an efficient way, Franklin could make his sitting room twice as warm with one fourth as much fuel as he had been using.
People also appreciated his invention of bifocal eyeglasses. This invention allowed both reading and distant lenses to be set in a single frame.
Franklin discovered that disease flourishes in poorly ventilated rooms. He also showed Americans how to improve acid soil by using lime.
Franklin also became the first scientist to study the movement of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic ocean. He spent much time charting its course and recording its temperature, speed and depth.
Franklin was the first to show scientists and naval officers that sailors could calm a rough sea by pouring oil on it. In addition, he came up with the daylight saving time idea for summer, saying that it struck him as silly and wasteful that people should "live much by candle light and sleep by sunshine."
Franklin refused to patent any of his inventions or to use them for profit. He preferred to have them used freely as his contribution to the comfort and convenience of everyone.
Franklin was born in Boston, Mass., in 1706, the 15th child in a family of 17. Before he was finished, he had become a statesman, writer, philosopher, public servant, diplomat, inventor and one of America's greatest citizens.
In 1736, after a career in publishing and writing, he was appointed clerk to the Pennsylvania Assembly, and in 1751 he became a member. In 1737 he was made postmaster of Philadelphia, and in 1753, one of the two deputy postmasters general of all the colonies.
He taught himself to read several foreign languages and to play a number of musical instruments.
After helping to write the Declaration of Independence, he was sent to France in 1776 to get French help of money, supplies and soldiers. The French loved Franklin's simplicity, humor and wisdom. France agreed to help.
Franklin was one of the members of the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He helped to hold the Convention together when some members grew discouraged and wanted to go home. Even more important, he helped in getting the members to agree and accept the final plan.