HAPPY 300th BIRTHDAY BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

HAPPY 300th BIRTHDAY,
Benjamin FRANKLIN !

Brilliant scientific, visionary politician and kite-flyer,
Benjamin Franklin would be 300 years old

The Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary is celebrated during all January everywhere in the United States and mainly in his adoptive city of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). Benjamin Franklin was at the same time scientific, politician and one of most brilliant humanistic of the Age of Enlightenment. France, dear to his heart, will pay homage to him the next year.

Born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, in what was still an English colony, the autodidact Benjamin Franklin initially illustrated himself in Philadelphia, when he takes over the newspaper Gazette of Pennsylvania. Thanks to his leading articles and to his chronicles, the newspaper quickly becomes more read American colonies.

Very active in the intellectual life, he founds a philosophical newsgroup and manages his own research. In October 2003, the review "Physics Today" declares that Benjamin Franklin constitutes : the model of the scientist (…) who used his scientific curiosity, and that made him especially effective in the political and public domains

Benjamin Franklin builds a kite with two crossed sticks and a piece of silk, which resists the rain better than paper.

He installs an iron spike at the top of the vertical stick.

On a day of violent storm, in September, accompanied by his son he decides to fly his silk kite.

The hemp rope is connected to Franklin by a silk ribbon. A brass key is attached to it at this level. At the beginning nothing happens.

Franklin starts to despair. Then the hemp rope becomes conductive with the rain. Flashes appear in the sky. Franklin observes that loose fibres on the hemp rope diverge

Then he moves his fingers to the key and notices a strong spark; he feels an immense pleasure. Then he loads a lead bottle with electricity coming from the line of the kite. The alcohol which it contains ignites.

The famous image of the man whose kite is touched by the lightning shows what it is perhaps his greater contribution to science.

The experiments which he made in 1752 and the book "Experiments and observations on electricity" that he published thereafter confirmed that the lightning constituted an electric phenomenon.
He thus spread in the scientific world the idea that electricity could be a significant field of study, which led to the many current applications of its discovery.

For all his scientific discoveries, Benjamin Franklin became famous among the European scientists. He was elected member of "Royal Society of London", which awarded him in 1753 the Copley medal, distinction which we can nowadays consider as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

In 1772, the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris accepted him as associate, which was an exceptional honour because, according to its statutes, it could have only eight foreign members.

Commemorations of Tercentenary :

PHILADELPHIA December 15, 2005 – April 30, 2006 National Constitution Center	ST. LOUIS June 8, 2006 – September 4, 2006 Missouri Historical Society	HOUSTON October 11, 2006 – January 21, 2007 The Houston Museum of Natural Science
DENVER March 2 , 2007 – May 28, 2007 Denver Museum of Nature & Science	ATLANTA July 4, 2007 – October 14, 2007 Atlanta History Center	PARIS December 4, 2007 – March 30, 2008 Musée des Arts et Métiers and Musée Carnavalet

At the Musée Carnavalet, the exhibition will highlight Franklin's diplomatic mission to help the American "insurgents. At the Musée des Arts & Métiers, we will be showcasing Franklin the scientist, with an emphasis on the debates between Franklin and Abbé Nollet, Franklin's contemporary and rival in the debates about the discovery and uses of electricity.
Official web site : http://www.benfranklin300.com/