Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 37. Chapters: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Bill DeWeese, John Perzel, Jacob Holgate, Frederick Muhlenberg, Gerardus Wynkoop II, Dennis M. O'Brien, Andrew Hamilton, William Bingham, K. Leroy Irvis, George Latimer, Rees Hill, Matthew J. Ryan, James Engle, Bob O'Donnell, Joseph Lawrence, Kenneth B. Lee, Cadwalader Evans, H. Jack Seltzer, Ner Middleswarth, Nathaniel Boileau, Richard J. Baldwin, Charles C. Smith, Roy E. Furman, Frank B. McClain, James Cooper, James J. Manderino, John Cessna, Milton William Shreve, Samuel Anderson, John R. Farr, Herbert Fineman, Robert K. Hamilton, John Tod, Herbert Peter Sorg, Hiram G. Andrews, William Marks, Franklin H. Lichtenwalter, John Laporte, John Gilmore, W. Stuart Helm, William Davidson, Ira T. Fiss, William Caldwell Anderson Lawrence. Excerpt: Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 - April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass 'armonica'. He formed both the first public lending library in America and the first fire department in Pennsylvania. Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity; as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies, then as the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical and democratic values of thrift, hard work, e...