Benjamin Franklin
In Our Time
BBC
4.6 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 March 2012
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Benjamin Franklin. A printer, statesman, diplomat, writer and scientist, Franklin was one of the most remarkable individuals of the eighteenth century. His discoveries relating to the nature of electricity, and in particular a celebrated experiment which involved flying a kite in a thunderstorm, made him famous in Europe and America. His inventions include bifocal spectacles, and a new type of stove. In the second half of his life he became prominent as a politician and a successful diplomat. As the only Founding Father to have signed all three of the fundamental documents of the United States of America, including its Declaration of Independence and Constitution, Benjamin Franklin occupies a unique position in the history of the nation. With:Simon MiddletonSenior Lecturer in American History at the University of SheffieldSimon NewmanSir Denis Brogan Professor of American History at the University of GlasgowPatricia FaraSenior Tutor at Clare College, University of Cambridge.Producer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Thanks for downloading the In Our Time Podcast. |
| 0:39.0 | For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK forward slash radio for. I hope you enjoy |
| 0:46.5 | the program. Hello in the early stages of the American War of Independence an ambassador traveled from New York to negotiate an |
| 0:54.4 | alliance with the French. His arrival in Paris caused a sensation. The second U.S. President, |
| 1:00.1 | John Adams later wrote, |
| 1:01.6 | his name was familiar to government and people, to kings, |
| 1:05.2 | courties, nobility, clergy and philosophers as well as plebeians, to such a degree |
| 1:09.7 | that there were scarcely a peasant or citizen, a coachman or a footman, a lady's chamber maid or a scullion in a kitchen, |
| 1:15.8 | who was not familiar with it and who did not consider him as a friend to humankind. |
| 1:20.7 | This ambassador was Benjamin Franklin, one of the most brilliant minds of the 18th century. |
| 1:26.1 | As a scientist he made important discoveries about the nature of electricity and invented |
| 1:30.4 | the lightning conductor. |
| 1:31.4 | He was the 15th of 17 children, apprenticed at the age of 12 |
| 1:35.0 | to a printer, he became a successful businessman and a writer, but perhaps above all, |
| 1:39.4 | he celebrated as one of America's founding fathers, a signatory to its constitution. |
| 1:44.0 | With me to discuss the remarkable life of Benjamin Franklin, a Simon Middleton, senior lecturer |
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