a response to this movement. Then I could draw the conclusion that Franklin was writing his autobiography to show something about who Americans are, what we should be, and how to do it. The connection between the three themes is the lessons of virtuosity and from this arrive to the conclusion that this is the major reason for the undertaking of the work. This autobiography helped me realize just how important of a man Benjamin Franklin really was. I used to think, “Ooohhh the kite guy, and the U.S. Constitution signer,” but now I learned that he was more then just a “Kite guy.” This book taught me about many facts about Franklin’s life, and about how his hard work really paid off. Here I have written a few of Franklin’s accomplishments that I believe were his most important. In 1727, Franklin with a number of his acquaintances organized a discussion group known as the Junto, which later became the American Philosophical Society. Next in 1729, Franklin bought the “Pennsylvania Gazette,” a dull, poorly edited weekly newspaper, which he made, by his witty style and judicious selection of news, both entertaining and informative. Later in 1731 he founded what was probably the first public library in America, chartered in 1742 as the Philadelphia Library. About five years later, in 1736, Franklin became clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the next year was appointed deputy postmaster of Philadelphia. About this time, he organized the first fire company in that city and introduced methods for the improvement of street paving and lighting. Always interested in scientific studies, he devised means to correct the excessive smoking of chimneys and invented, around 1744, the Franklin stove, which furnished greater heat with a reduced consumption of fuel. Later Franklin advanced a tenable theory of the Leyden jar, supported the hypothesis that lightning is an electrical phenomenon, and pro...
