LARGE LANGUAGE MODEL OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: 1/4: Ingenious: A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist by Richard Munson (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.6 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 June 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Ingenious-Biography-Benjamin-Franklin-Scientist/dp/0393882233
Benjamin Franklin was one of the preeminent scientists of his time. Driven by curiosity, he conducted cutting-edge research on electricity, heat, ocean currents, weather patterns, chemical bonds, and plants. But today, Franklin is remembered more for his political prowess and diplomatic achievements than his scientific creativity.
In this incisive and rich account of Benjamin Franklin’s life and career, Richard Munson recovers this vital part of Franklin’s story, reveals his modern relevance, and offers a compelling portrait of a shrewd experimenter, clever innovator, and visionary physicist whose fame opened doors to negotiate French support and funding for American independence.
Munson’s riveting narrative explores how science underpins Franklin’s entire story―from tradesman to inventor to nation-founder―and argues that Franklin’s political life cannot be understood without giving proper credit to his scientific accomplishments.
1752
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBS Eye on the World. |
| 0:08.5 | Here's John Batchelor. |
| 0:11.4 | It is 1762, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
| 0:17.1 | The governor, man by the name of John Penn, |
| 0:24.3 | rushes across town to the home of Benjamin Franklin. |
| 0:32.6 | It's early in the morning, recorded as 2 a.m. The governor is frightened. He needs help. |
| 0:40.9 | There's a mob closing on Philadelphia to kill Native Americans. This scene is one of many illustrating the many lives of Benjamin Franklin in a new book, Ingenius, a biography of Benjamin Franklin's |
| 0:48.5 | scientist. Richard Munson is the author. I congratulate him and welcome him. Richard, at that moment, Franklin is a brave man. |
| 0:58.3 | What does John Penn ask of him, where does this mob come from called the Paxton Boys? |
| 1:04.8 | Good day to you. |
| 1:06.5 | Good day to you. |
| 1:07.2 | Thanks for the invitation. |
| 1:08.6 | Paxton Boys were a gang, basically, in the Western settlements that were opposing the Indian tribes that had owned that or had been involved in that land for ages. |
| 1:20.2 | They had slaughtered innocent Indians or Native Americans, and they were on their way to Philadelphia, where they hoped that they would slaughter even more. |
| 1:29.0 | And John Penn, the governor of the Commonwealth, |
| 1:34.6 | who had never been a good friend of Franklin's, |
| 1:37.0 | they tended to fight each other, |
| 1:38.7 | but he was desperate. |
| 1:39.5 | He couldn't do much to stop the gang, he thought. |
| 1:43.2 | But Franklin, who we mostly think of as a clever, humorous, you know, fun sort of guy, as you know, |
| 1:50.2 | he showed great bravery this day. |
| 1:51.9 | He actually, with two other people, went to where they crossed the river on their way to Philadelphia |
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