This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories,

the show where America is the star and the American people.

Our next story is about one remarkable American.

Born the son of a Boston candle maker, Benjamin Franklin grew into the symbolic role

of the archetypal American.

He was indeed a blend of poor Richard and Leonardo da Vinci. Franklin has the

distinction of many firsts. He invented the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, bifocals, the catheter.

Chess.com also reminds us that Franklin was also the first known chess player, as well as the first

chess author in America.

Here again to tell us a story is the Jack Miller Center's editorial officer and historian,

Elliot Trago. Let's take a listen.

Entrepreneur, philosopher, scientist, inventor, and writer. We ought to add chessmaster to the list of Benjamin Franklin's accomplishments.

His essay, Morals of Chess, combines his timeless wit, inherit competitiveness, and shrewd strategy that also speaks to the fragile, yet boundless potential of America's founding principles.

Originally written and presented to Franklin's small cadre of fellow intellectuals in the 1730s,

morals of chess would not be released for public consumption until 1786.

Much had occurred over the course of that half century. In 1732, Franklin released the first Poor Richard's Almanac, an immensely successful guide full of practical advice and witticisms for American colonists.

In 1751, he helped found the educational institution that became the University of Pennsylvania, and throughout the 1750s and 1760s, he served as the postmaster general for the crown,

and eventually an agent for the colonies representing American interests in Great Britain.

And of course, by 1776, Franklin and his fellow colonists began and would eventually win a war of liberation from

Great Britain. As the colony's most recognizable figure, Franklin's influence became essential

to the American cause, especially when he was sent to France as America's first ambassador

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