Benjamin Franklin

In Our Time: Culture

BBC

History

4.6 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2012

⏱️ 43 minutes

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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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0:45.2	Hello in the early stages of the American War of Independence
0:48.8	an ambassador traveled from New York to negotiate an alliance with the French
0:52.4	His arrival in Paris caused a sensation.
0:55.9	The second US President John Adams later wrote,
0:58.7	his name was familiar to government and people, to kings, courties, nobility, clergy and philosophers as well as plebeians, to such a degree
1:06.6	that they were scarcely a peasant or citizen, a coachman or footman, a lady's chamber
1:11.1	made or a scullion in a kitchen who was not familiar with it and who did not consider him as a friend to humankind.
1:17.5	This ambassador was Benjamin Franklin, one of the most brilliant minds of the 18th century.
1:23.0	As a scientist he made important discoveries about the nature of electricity
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