Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, Inventor, Statesman

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706–April 17, 1790) was a scientist, publisher, and statesman in colonial North America, where he lacked the cultural and commercial institutions to nourish original ideas. He dedicated himself to creating those institutions and improving everyday life for the widest number of people, making an indelible mark on the emerging nation. Fast Facts: Benjamin Franklin Born: January 17, 1706 in Boston, MassachusettsParents: Josiah Franklin and Abiah FolgerDied:  April 17, 1790 in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaEducation: Two years of formal educationPublished Works: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards AlmanackSpouse: Deborah Read (common law, 1730–1790)Children: William (unknown mother, born about 1730–1731), Francis Folger (1732–1734), Sarah Franklin Bache (1743–1808) Early Life Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Josiah Franklin, a soap and candlemaker, and his second wife Abiah Folger. Josiah Franklin and his first wife Anne Child (m. 1677–1689) immigrated to Boston from Northamptonshire, England in 1682. Anne died in 1689 and, left with seven children, Josiah soon married a prominent colonist named Abiah Folger. Benjamin was Josiahs and Abiahs eighth child and Josiahs 10th son and 15th child—Josiah would eventually have 17 children. In such a crowded household, there were no luxuries. Benjamins period of formal schooling was less than two years, after which he was put to work in his fathers shop at the age of 10. Colonial Newspapers Franklins fondness for books finally determined his career. His older brother James Franklin (1697–1735) was the editor and printer of the New England Courant, the fourth newspaper published in the colonies. James needed an apprentice, so in 1718 the 13-year-old Benjamin Franklin was bound by law to serve his brother. Soon after, Benjamin began writing articles for this newspaper. When James was put in jail in February 1723 after printing content considered libelous, the newspaper was published under Benjamin Franklins name. Escape to Philadelphia After a month, James Franklin took back the de facto editorship and Benjamin Franklin went back to being a poorly treated apprentice. In September 1723, Benjamin sailed for New York and then Philadelphia, arriving in October 1723. In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin found employment with Samuel Keimer, an eccentric printer just beginning a business. He found lodging at the home of John Read, who would become his father-in-law. The young printer soon attracted the notice of Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith, who promised to set him up in his own business. For that to happen, however, Benjamin had to go to London to buy a printing press. London and Pleasure and Pain Franklin set sail for London in November 1724, engaged to John Reads daughter Deborah (1708–1774). Governor Keith promised to send a letter of credit to London, but when Franklin arrived he discovered that Keith had not sent the letter; Keith, Franklin learned, was known to have been a man who dealt primarily in expectations. Benjamin Franklin remained in London for nearly two years as he worked for his fare home. Franklin found employment at the famous printers shop owned by Samuel Palmer and helped him produce The Religion of Nature Delineated by William Wollaston, which argued that the best way to study religion was through science. Inspired, Franklin printed the first of his many pamphlets in 1725, an attack on conservative religion called A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain. After a year at Palmers, Franklin found a better paying job at John Watts printing house; but in July 1726, he set sail for home with Thomas Denham, a sensible mentor and father figure he had met during his stay in London. During the 11-week voyage, Franklin wrote Plan for Future Conduct, the first of his many personal credos describing what lessons he had learned and what he intended to do in the future to avoid pitfalls. Philadelphia and the Junto Society After returning to Philadelphia in late 1726, Franklin opened a general store with Thomas Denham and when Denham died in 1727, and Franklin went back to work with the printer Samuel Keimer. In 1727 he founded the Junto Society, commonly known as the Leather Apron Club, a small group of middle-class young men who were engaged in business and who met in a local tavern and debated morality, politics, and philosophy. Historian Walter Isaacson described the Junto as a public version of Franklin himself, a practical, industrious, inquiring, convivial, and middle-brow philosophical [group that] celebrated civic virtue, mutual benefits, the improvement of self and society, and the proposition that hardworking citizens could do well by doing good. Becoming a Newspaper Man By 1728, Franklin and another apprentice, Hugh Meredith, set up their own shop with funding from Merediths father. The son soon sold his share, and Benjamin Franklin was left with his own business at the age of 24. He anonymously printed a pamphlet called The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency, which called attention to the need for paper money in Pennsylvania. The effort was a success, and he won the contract to print the money. In part driven by his competitive streak, Franklin began writing a series of anonymous letters known collectively as the Busy-Body essays, signed under several pseudonyms and criticizing the existing newspapers and printers in Philadelphia—including one operated by his old employer Samuel Keimer, called The Universal Instructor in All Arts and Sciences and Pennsylvania Gazette. Keimer went bankrupt in 1729 and sold his 90-subscriber paper to Franklin, who renamed it The Pennsylvania Gazette. The newspaper was later renamed The Saturday Evening Post. The Gazette printed local news, extracts from the London newspaper Spectator, jokes, verses, humorous attacks on rival Andrew Bradfords American Weekly Mercury, moral essays, elaborate hoaxes, and political satire. Franklin often wrote and printed letters to himself, either to emphasize some truth or to ridicule some mythical but typical reader. A Common Law Marriage By 1730, Franklin began looking for a wife. Deborah Read had married during his long stay in London, so Franklin courted a number of girls and even fathered an illegitimate child named William, who was born between April 1730 and April 1731. When Deborahs marriage failed, she and Franklin began living together as a married couple with William in September 1730, an arrangement that protected them from bigamy charges that never materialized. A Library and Poor Richard In 1731, Franklin established a subscription library called the Library Company of Philadelphia, in which users would pay dues to borrow books. The first 45 titles purchased included science, history, politics, and reference works. Today, the library has 500,000 books and 160,000 manuscripts and is the oldest cultural institution in the United States. In 1732, Benjamin Franklin published Poor Richards Almanack. Three editions were produced and sold out within a few months. During its 25-year run, the sayings of the publisher Richard Saunders and his wife Bridget—both aliases of Benjamin Franklin—were printed in the almanac. It became a humor classic, one of the earliest in the colonies, and years later the most striking of its sayings were collected and published in a book. Deborah gave birth to Francis Folger Franklin in 1732. Francis, known as Franky, died of smallpox at the age of 4 before he could be vaccinated. Franklin, a fierce advocate of smallpox vaccination, had planned to vaccinate the boy but the illness intervened. Public Service In 1736, Franklin organized and incorporated the Union Fire Company, based on a similar service established in Boston some years earlier. He became enthralled by the Great Awakening religious revival movement, rushing to the defense of Samuel Hemphill, attending George Whitefields nightly outdoor revival meetings, and publishing Whitefields journals between 1739 and 1741 before cooling to the enterprise. During this period in his life, Franklin also kept a shop in which he sold a variety of goods. Deborah Read was the shopkeeper. He ran a frugal shop, and with all his other activities, Benjamin Franklins wealth rapidly increased. American Philosophical Society About 1743, Franklin moved that the Junto society become intercontinental, and the result was named the American Philosophical Society. Based in Philadelphia, the society had among its members many leading men of scientific attainments or tastes from all over the world. In 1769, Franklin was elected president and served until his death. The first important undertaking was the successful observation of the transit of Venus in 1769; since then, the group has made several important scientific discoveries. In 1743, Deborah gave birth to their second child Sarah, known as Sally. An Early Retirement All of the societies Franklin had created up to this point were noncontroversial, in so far as they kept with the colonial governmental policies. In 1747, however, Franklin proposed the institution of a volunteer Pennsylvania Militia to protect the colony from French and Spanish privateers raiding on the Delaware River. Soon, 10,000 men signed up and formed themselves into more than 100 companies. It was disbanded in 1748, but not before word of what Pennsylvania colonys leader Thomas Penn called a part little less than treason was communicated to the British governor. In 1748 at the age of 42, with a comparatively small family and the frugality of his nature, Franklin was able to retire from active business and devote himself to philosophical and scientific studies. Franklin the Scientist Although Franklin had neither formal training nor grounding in math, he now undertook a vast amount of what he called scientific amusements.  Among his many inventions was the Pennsylvania fireplace in 1749, a wood-burning stove that could be built into fireplaces to maximize heat while minimizing smoke and drafts.  The Franklin stove was remarkably popular, and Franklin was offered a lucrative patent that he turned down. In his autobiography, Franklin wrote, As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously. He never patented any of his inventions. Benjamin Franklin studied many different branches of science. He studied smoky chimneys; he invented bifocal glasses; he studied the effect of oil upon ruffled water; he identified the dry bellyache as lead poisoning; he advocated ventilation in the days when windows were closed tight at night, and with patients at all times; and he investigated fertilizers in agriculture. His scientific observations show that he foresaw some of the great developments of the 19th century. Electricity His greatest fame as a scientist was the result of his discoveries in electricity. During a visit to Boston in 1746, he saw some electrical experiments and at once became deeply interested. His friend Peter Collinson of London sent him some of the crude electrical  apparatuses of the day, which Franklin used, as well as some equipment he had purchased in Boston. He wrote in a letter to Collinson: For my own part, I never was before engaged in any study that so engrossed my attention and my time as this has lately done. Experiments conducted with a small group of friends and described in this correspondence showed the effect of pointed bodies in drawing off electricity. Franklin decided that electricity was not the result of friction, but that the mysterious force was diffused through most substances, and that nature always restored its equilibrium. He developed the theory of positive and negative electricity, or plus and minus electrification. Lightning Franklin carried on experiments with the Leyden jar, made an electrical battery, killed a fowl and roasted it upon a spit turned by electricity, sent a current through water to ignite alcohol, ignited gunpowder, and charged glasses of wine so that the drinkers received shocks. More importantly, he began to develop the theory of the identity of lightning and electricity and the possibility of protecting buildings with iron rods. He brought electricity into his house using an iron rod, and he concluded, after studying electricitys effect on bells, that clouds were generally negatively electrified. In June 1752, Franklin performed his famous kite experiment, drawing down electricity from the clouds and charging a Leyden jar from the key at the end of the string. Peter Collinson gathered Benjamin Franklins letters together and had them published in a pamphlet in England, which attracted wide attention. The Royal Society elected Franklin a member and awarded him the Copley medal with a complimentary address in 1753. Education and the Making of a Rebel In 1749, Franklin proposed an academy of education for the youth of Pennsylvania. It would be different from the existing institutions (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, William Mary) in that it would be neither religiously affiliated nor reserved for the elites. The focus, he wrote, was to be on practical instruction: writing, arithmetic, accounting, oratory, history, and business skills. It opened in 1751 as the first nonsectarian college in America, and by 1791 it became known as the University of Pennsylvania. Franklin also raised money for a hospital and began arguing against British restraint of manufacturing in America. He wrestled with the idea of slavery, personally owning and then selling an African-American couple in 1751, and then keeping an enslaved person as a servant on occasion later in life. But in his writings, he attacked the practice on economic grounds and helped establish schools for black children in Philadelphia in the late 1750s. Later, he became an ardent and active abolitionist. Political Career Begins In 1751, Franklin took a seat on the Pennsylvania Assembly, where he (literally) cleaned up the streets in Philadelphia by establishing street sweepers, installing street lamps, and paving. In 1753, he was appointed one of three commissioners to the Carlisle Conference, a congregation of Native American leaders at Albany, New York, intended to secure the allegiance of the Delaware Indians to the British. More than 100 members of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga,  Cayuga,  Seneca, and  Tuscarora) attended; the Iroquois leader Scaroyady proposed a peace plan, which was dismissed almost entirely, and the upshot was that the Delaware Indians fought on the side of the French in the final struggles of the French and Indian War. While in Albany, the colonies delegates had a second agenda, at Franklins instigation: to appoint a committee to prepare and receive plans or schemes for the union of the colonies. They would create a national congress of representatives from each colony, who would be led by a president general appointed by the king. Despite some opposition, the measure known as the Albany Plan passed, but it was rejected by all of the colonial assemblies as usurping too much of their power and by London as giving too much power to voters and setting a path toward union. When Franklin returned to Philadelphia, he discovered the British government had finally given him the job he had been lobbying for: deputy postmaster for the colonies. Post Office As deputy postmaster, Franklin visited nearly all the post offices in the colonies and introduced many improvements into the service. He established new postal routes and shortened others. Postal carriers now could deliver newspapers, and the mail service between New York and Philadelphia was increased to three deliveries a week in summer and one in winter. Franklin set milestones at fixed distances along the main post road that ran from northern New England to Savannah, Georgia, to enable the postmasters to compute postage. Crossroads connected some of the larger communities away from the seacoast with the main road, but when Benjamin Franklin died, after also serving as postmaster general of the United States, there were still only 75 post offices in the entire country. Defense Funding Raising funds for the defense was always a grave problem in the colonies because the assemblies controlled the purse-strings and released them with a grudging hand. When the British sent General Edward Braddock to defend the colonies in the French and Indian war, Franklin personally guaranteed that the required funds from the Pennsylvania farmers would be repaid. The assembly refused to raise a tax on the British peers who owned much of the land in Pennsylvania (the Proprietary Faction) in order to pay those farmers for their contribution, and Franklin was outraged.  In general, Franklin opposed Parliament levying taxes on the colonies—no taxation without representation—but he used all his influence to bring the Quaker Assembly to vote for money for the defense of the colony. In January 1757, the Assembly sent Franklin to London to lobby the Proprietary faction to be more accommodating to the Assembly and, failing that, to bring the issue to the British government. Statesman Franklin reached London in July 1757, and from that time on his life was to be closely linked with Europe. He returned to America six years later and made a trip of 1,600 miles to inspect postal affairs, but in 1764 he was again sent to England to renew the petition for a royal government for Pennsylvania, which had not yet been granted. In 1765, that petition was made obsolete by the Stamp Act, and Franklin became the representative of the American colonies against King George III and Parliament. Benjamin Franklin did his best to avert the conflict that would become the American Revolution. He made many friends in England, wrote pamphlets and articles, told comical stories and fables where they might do some good, and constantly strove to enlighten the ruling class of England upon conditions and sentiment in the colonies. His appearance before the House of Commons in February 1766 hastened the repeal of the Stamp Act. Benjamin Franklin remained in England for nine more years, but his efforts to reconcile the conflicting claims of Parliament and the colonies were of no avail. He sailed for home in early 1775. During Franklins 18-month stay in America, he sat in the Continental Congress and was a member of the most important committees; submitted a plan for a union of the colonies; served as postmaster general and as chairman of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety; visited George Washington at Cambridge; went to Montreal to do what he could for the cause of independence in Canada; presided over the convention that framed a constitution for Pennsylvania; and was a member of the committee appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence and of the committee sent on the futile mission to New York to discuss terms of peace with Lord Howe. Treaty With France In September 1776, the 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin was appointed envoy to France and sailed soon afterward. The French ministers were not at first willing to make a treaty of alliance, but under Franklins influence they lent money to the struggling colonies. Congress sought to finance the war with paper currency and by borrowing rather than by taxation. The legislators sent bill after bill to Franklin, who continually appealed to the French government. He fitted out privateers and negotiated with the British concerning prisoners. At length, he won from France recognition of the United States and then the Treaty of Alliance. The U.S. Constitution Congress permitted Franklin to return home in 1785, and when he arrived he was pushed to keep working. He was elected president of the Council of Pennsylvania and was twice reelected despite his protests. He was sent to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, which resulted in the creation of the Constitution of the United States. He seldom spoke at the event but was always to the point when he did, and all of his suggestions for the Constitution were followed. Death Americas most famous citizen lived until near the end of the first year of President George Washingtons administration. On April 17, 1790, Benjamin Franklin died at his home in Philadelphia at age 84. Sources Clark, Ronald W. Benjamin Franklin: A Biography. New York: Random House, 1983.Fleming, Thomas (ed.). Benjamin Franklin: A Biography in His Own Words. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier Son, 1909.Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York, Simon and Schuster, 2003.Lepore, Jill. Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin. Boston: Vintage Books, 2013.

Professional Sports - Free Agency is Causing the Slow...

Free Agency is Causing the Slow Death of Baseball What ever happened to the old days? This is a comment that my Dad and Grandpa are always saying when it comes to major league baseball in this era. Like clockwork, at the beginning of every baseball season my Dad says, Every year my team has all new faces. How am I supposed to root for this team if I dont even know who is playing for them. Now, more than ever, this comment is true. It is true because of free agency in baseball. Free agency is destroying the fabric of the baseball blanket in America. This is the same blanket that many of us sports fans have grown up with and have drawn accustomed too. Baseball is our national pastime. If something is not done to change free agency†¦show more content†¦What this breaks down to is that a player with less than three years experience has to settle for whatever the team that owns his rights as a player offers him. A player with more than three years but less than six years experience in the majors can file for an independent arbit ration meeting if he feels that he is worth more than the contract that he signed when he was in his first three years in the majors. The arbitrator then decides if the player is worth more money or if he is not worth more money. Finally, after a person has spent six full seasons in the major leagues he is then eligible for free agency which means he is capable of going where the money takes him and that is what most of these players do. Whether that is right or wrong nobody knows, but the fact of the matter is that free agency is causing problems in baseball. Worsnop also states that professional sports leagues are thriving in the United States. Fan attendance is at an all-time high and TV revenues are skyrocketing. But the issue of free agency continues to plague player-management relations. This is especially true in major league baseball. 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Pinnacle Manufacturing Part Free Essays

Part I. c – Summary of Observations Including Assessment of Business Risk Based on the financial ratios calculated, it appears that Pinnacle Manufacturing (the â€Å"Company†) is both using up cash assets and increasing its debt. The Cash Ratio has declined each of the past three years indicating that the Company has a decreasing ability to pay its current liabilities from cash and will be required to liquidate assets to pay off current liabilities. We will write a custom essay sample on Pinnacle Manufacturing Part or any similar topic only for you Order Now The Current Ratio has also declined each of the last three years. In 2009, it was 218. % or 2. 186. This means that for every dollar of current liabilities the Company had $2. 18 in current assets with which to pay those liabilities. Inventory Turnover has declined from 4. 04 times per year in 2009 to 3. 78 times per year in 2011. This would seem to indicate that sales are slowing and inventory is not being sold as quickly as in prior years. This is further supported by the increasing Days to Sell Inventory number. In 2009 Days to Sell Inventory was 90. 44 and had grown to 96. 48 days in 2011. This makes it important to assess inventory obsolescence in light of these numbers. Debt to Equity has increased significantly from 2009 to 2011. In 2009, the Debt to Equity Ratio was 70. 81%. In 2011, it had grown to 96. 48%. This might indicate that the Company does not have room to continue to borrow should it need cash to operate. If borrowing is not available as a financing tool, it is likely that the Company might need to look to its stockholders for additional cash or resort to more costly forms for financing. Gross Profit Margins have declined from 29. 1% in 2009 to 27. 5% in 2011. This ratio is helpful analytically to indicate that possible misstatements might exist in the areas of sales, COGS, A/R and inventory. As noted above there is already a negative trend in inventory for the Company. Similarly, Profit Margin for the Company has declined from 3. 77% to 2. 84% between 2009 and 2011. A decline in profit margin can signal misstatements in various operating expense account s and balance sheet items. It can also simply signal a declining business trend for the Company. Return on Assets shows the Company’s ability to generate a profit based on assets and equity. In 2009, the Company’s profit margin was 3. 07% and in 2011 it had fallen to 1. 91%. Overall, the Company appears to have slowing sales leading to growing inventory. The Company is increasing its debt burden to help cash flow since sales seem to be declining and inventory is growing. The profitability of the Company is declining steadily. Finally, if the Company finds itself in default of any loan covenants it will have to liquidate assets to pay its debts. Forced asset sales are never beneficial to the seller and would only exacerbate the already declining business trends of the Company. Part I. f – What Data is More Useful in Evaluating the Potential for Misrepresentations? We believe that each set of data has its strengths and weakness. The balance sheet data available for Pinnacle Manufacturing is extremely helpful in evaluating whether certain income statement items could be misstated. As an example, to know the trend in the asset Accounts Receivable: Trade made evaluating the income statement item Bad Debt expense easier. As a result, the financial data for the parent Pinnacle could be cross-referenced more easily. However, the subsidiary income statements allow greater detail into the business components that make up Pinnacle. A possible overstatement in one account for one of the subsidiaries could be cancelled out by a similar understatement in the in the same account for another subsidiary. When the numbers are rolled-up to the parent company, there might not be a noticeable problem in the account. As a result possible insufficient planning would result. With the subsidiary information, an audit of each corresponding account could result in a more accurate number for the parent company. This would appear to help acceptable audit risk for the audit firm. ? Part I. g – Observations based on Accounts Receivable, Inventory and Short/Current Long-term Debt Accounts Receivable: Trade has grown in absolute dollar amount from just under $9. 6 Million in 2010 to over $14 Million in 2011. As a result, we believe it is important to look at the reasonableness of the allowance for bad debts and bad debt expense. Confirmation of balances with customers will help to uncover any discrepancies between Pinnacle and its customers about amounts owed and paid. This could impact the internal control over posting of payments at Pinnacle and whether the money is being diverted through fraud. Inventory has grown from slightly over $25 Million at year-end in both 2009 and 2010 to more than $32 Million in 2011. Growing inventory could be indicative of inventory obsolescence. Obsolete inventory would be subject to a write-down in value. We would want to explore these areas. We have identified Inventory as an area of possible misstatement for Pinnacle. Short/Current Long-term debt has increased from 2009 and 2010 levels in 2011. In 2009 and 2010, the short/current portion of long-term debt was only $41,070. In 2011 it had increased to almost $4 Million. We are concerned that a misstatement has occurred. If the amount is correct, we would want to ascertain why the sudden increase. If it is due to a scheduled one-time balloon payment being due it is less of a concern than if a loan has been accelerated due to default or failure to meet certain loan covenants. The long-term solvency of Pinnacle depends on the success of its operations to raise capital for future growth and expansion as well as its ability to make payments on its debts. If Pinnacle is in default and a loan has been called or accelerated it would negatively impact the Company’s ability to borrow in the future. ? Part I. h – Going Concern Issue We assess the likelihood that Pinnacle is likely to fail financially in the next twelve months as low. While many of the items discussed indicate that Pinnacle has some financial problems, its current ratio is still well over 1. It might be holding some obsolete inventory but even obsolete inventory has some value to generate cash. In twelve months, if the Company does not resolve its growing inventory issues and possibly rework some of its debt deals, the decision might be different. Currently, sales are growing as is Income from operations and net income. The Company has a positive cash flow which buys it time to try to fix its underlying problems. Inattention to these details could cause us to revisit this question next year with a more dire answer. How to cite Pinnacle Manufacturing Part, Essay examples