I just finished watching the first two hours of the new PBS program about Benjamin Franklin. From what I've seen so far it seems he was brilliant, interested in everything, and an inventor. Most of that was probably in our high school history books. I knew he had played around with a kite in a lightening storm but I didn't remember that his experiments led to the invention of the lightening rod which saved a lot of churches and barns from burning down. I did not know that he had only two years of school. He went to work in his father's candle factory when he was 10. Definitely a rags to riches story. These two hours got us to 1775. What I found most interesting was that he was sort of an unintentional rebel. He had spent years in London trying to make the relationship of the colonies to England more equitable. It reminded me of Martin Luther, who didn't set out to break away from the Catholic church; an unintentional protestant. Stay tuned. Next week, the American Revolution.
Ben Franklin has been one of my heroes since I read a short biography when I was a kid. I just read (reread?) his autobiography and found his trip from Boston to Philadelphia very interesting and exciting. That alone could have made at least a two hour video!
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