Ben Franklin was just so multifaceted, it's hard to stop stealing his copy.

When Ben Franklin was a kid in Boston, his dad wondered what to do with him. (We know the feeling.) Mr Franklin Senior had 17 kids, so it's hard to blame him for having trouble when he got down to Ben, the last son. At first, Abiah Franklin wanted Ben to become a clergyman. Yeah, right. But school was expensive, and Ben flunked arithmetic, so they thought 'apprentice'. (No, not with Donald Trump.) Ben wanted to go to sea, but Mr Franklin didn't like the idea, so Ben ended up in his big brother's print shop. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ben eventually taught himself maths, and a lot of other things, and as he got older he 'corresponded' with a lot of academic societies. Let's face it, Franklin was THE genius of his day. Sort of Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Dyson the hoover man rolled into one. He still loved the sea, too, and took an interest in shipping. So in 1786, he wrote these 'maritime observations' down. What's cool about this, besides the map that shows where the 'Esquimaux' live, is that it shows the 'Gulph Stream'. And tells you how to get from England to Boston in only 20-30 days. Wow. What a fast-paced world that was.

We wish we had Ben around today. He would have helped solve global warming, we're sure of it. This excerpt is left as a photographic image for you. This time, YOU sort out those long esses…

Dmitri Gheorgheni

28.09.15 Front Page

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