About 1728, or 1729, young Franklin set up a newspaper, the second in Phila delphia, which proved very profitable, and otherwise useful, as affording an op portunity of making himself known as a political writer, by inserting several of his writings of that kind into it. In addi tion to his printing-house, he set up a shop to sell books and stationary, and in 173ii he married his wife, who proved very useful in assisting to manage the shop, &c. He afterwards began to have some leisure, both for reading books and writing them, of which he gave many spe cimens from time to time. In 1732 he began to publish poor Richard's Alma neck, which was continued for many years. It w.,s always remarkable for the numerous and valuable concise maxims it contained for the economy of human life, all tend ling to exhort to industry and frugality ; nd in the almanack for the last year, 11 the maxims were collected in an ad ress to the reader, entitled The Way to 'ealth. This has been translated into arious languages, and inserted in various ublications. It has also been printed on ' large sheet, proper to be framed and ung up in conspicuous places in all houses, as it very well deserves to be. 'Air. Franklin became gradually more known for his political talents, and in the year 1736, he was appointed clerk to the general assembly of Pennsylvania, and was re-elected by succeeding assemblies or several years, till he was chosen re Ilresentative for the city of Philadelphia: and in 1737 he was appointed post-mas er to that city. In 1738 he formed the rst fire company there, to extinguish and prevent fires, and the burning of houses ; an example which was soon fol. owed by other persons and other places. And soon after he suggested the plan for an association for insuring houses and ships from losses by fire, which was adopted, and the association continues to this day. In the year 1744, during a war between France and Great Britain, some French and Indians made inroads upon the frontier inhabitants of the province, who were unprovided for such an attack ; the situation of the province was at that time truly alarming, being destitute of every means of defence. At this crisis Franklin stepped forth, and proposed to a meeting of the citizens of Philadelphia, a plan of a voluntary association for the defence of the province. This was ap proved of and signed by 1200 persons immediately. Copies of it were circu lated through the province, and in a short time the number of signatures amounted to 10,000. Franklin was chosen colonel of the Philadelphia regiment, but he did not think proper to accept of the honour.
Pursuits of a different nature now oc cupied the greatest part of his attention for some years. Being always much ad dicted to the study of natural philosophy, and the discovery of the Leyden experi ment in electricity having rendered that science of general curiosity, Mr. Franklin applied himself to it, and soon began to distinguish himself in that way. He engaged in a course of electrical experi ments with all the ardour and thirst for discovery which characterized the philo sophers of that day. By these he was ena bled to make a number of important dis coveries, and to propose theories to ac count for various phenomena, which have been generally adopted, and will probably endure for a long time. His observations he communicated in a series of letters to his friend Mr. Collinson, the first of which is dated March 28, 1747. In these he makes known the power of points in drawing and throwing off the electric matter, which had hitherto escaped the notice of electricians. He also made the discovery of plus and minus, and of posi tive and negative states of electricity; from whence, in a satisfactory manner, he ex plained the phenomena of the Leyden phial, first observed by Cuneus, or !tins chenbroech, which had much preplexed philosophers. He sheaved that the bottle, when charged, contained no more elec tricity than before, but that as much was taken from one side as was thrown on the other, and that to discharge it, it was ne cessaryto make a communication between the two sides, by which the equilibrium might be restored, and that then no signs of electricity would remain. He
then demonstrated by experiments, that the electricity did not reside in the coat ing, as had been supposed, but in or upon the glass itself. After a phial was charg ed, he removed the coating, and found that, upon applying a new coating, the shock might still be received. In the year 1749 he first suggested his idea of explaining the phenomena of thunder gusts, and of the aurora borealis, upon electrical principles. He pointed out many particulars in which lightning and electricity agreed, and he adduced many facts, and reasoning from facts, in sup port of his positions. In the same year he conceived the bold and grand idea of ascertaining the truth of his doctrine, by actually drawing down the forked light ning by means of sharp pointed iron rods, raised in the region of the clouds, from whence he derived his method of securing buildings and ships from lightning. It was not until the summer of 1752 that he was enabled to complete his grand discovery of the electrical kite, which being raised up into the clouds, brought thence the electricity, or lightning, down to the earth, and M. D'Alebard made the expe riment about the same time in France, by following the track which Franklin had before pointed, out.
The letters which he sent to Mr. Col linson, it is said, were refused a place among the papers of the Royal Society of London, and Mr. Collinson published them in a separate volume, under the title of New Experiments and Observa tions on Electricity, made at Philadelphia, in America ; which were read with avidi ty, and soon translated into different lan guages. His theories were at first oppos ed by many philosophers, some of them members of the Royal Society of Lon don ; but in 1755, when he returned to that city, they voted him the gold me dal, which is annually given to the per son who presents the best paper on some interesting subject. He was also admit ted a member of the society, and had the degree of doctor of laws conferred upon him by several universities; but at this time, by reason of the war which broke out between Great Britain and France, he returned to America, and interested himself in the public affairs of that coun try. Indeed, he had done this long be fore ; for although philosophy was a prin cipal object in Franklin's pursuit for se veral years, he did not confine himself to it alone. In the year 1747 he became a member of the General Assembly of Philadelphia. Being a friend to the rights of the people from his infancy, he soon distinguished himself as a steady oppo nent to the unjust schemes of the pro prietaries. He was soon looked up to as the head of the opposition, and to him have been attributed many of th8 spirit ed replies of the Assembly to the mes sages of the governors. His influence in that body was very great ; this arose not from any superior powers of elo quence; he spoke but seldom, and he was never known to make an elaborate harangue ; his speeches often consisted of a single sentence, or a well told story, the moral of which was always obviously to the point. He never attempted the flowery fields of oratory ; his manner was plain and mild ; his style in speaking was like that of his writings, simple, un adorned, and remarkably concise. With this plain manner, and his penetrating and solid judgment, he was able to con found the most eloquent and subtle of his adversaries, to confirm the opinions of his friends, and to make converts of the unprejudiced who had opposed him ; with a single obervation he has render ed of no avail a long and elegant dis course, and determined the fate of a question of importance.