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93 unusual facts about Benjamin Franklin


56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team

Units of the 111th Infantry trace their lineage back to 1747, when Benjamin Franklin first established his famed "Associators" in Philadelphia.

Angle Township, Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota

Benjamin Franklin and British representatives established the initial U.S. and Canadian borders in the Treaty of Paris in 1783 from a map that mis-represented the source of the Mississippi River.

Anne Louise Boyvin d'Hardancourt Brillon de Jouy

She was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, with whom she had a large correspondence having become acquainted with him during and after his stay in Paris during the American Revolution.

Antoine Court de Gébelin

In Paris, he was initiated into Freemasonry at the lodge Les Amis Réunis, in 1771, and moved on to the lodge Les Neuf Sœurs where he welcomed Benjamin Franklin as a lodge-brother.

Antonio José Ruiz de Padrón

In 1785 he went to Pennsylvania and met and debated with George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.

Antonio Nariño

In his impressive library there was even a portrait of Benjamin Franklin that hung above the mantle.

Audrey Parker's Come and Gone

She then quotes Benjamin Franklin's warning of trading freedom for security.

Battle of Flamborough Head

Jones immediately wrote a report to his own government master, Benjamin Franklin, one notable feature of which was, inevitably, the conduct of Captain Landais.

Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed

Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed is a biography of Benjamin Franklin written by William Cabell Bruce in 1917.

Big Boy Restaurants

After dropping Big Boy affiliation, Franklin's adopted a Benjamin Franklin theme renaming the signature hamburger "Big Boy" as "Big Ben".

Braddock Expedition

Braddock had received important assistance from Benjamin Franklin, who helped procure wagons and supplies for the expedition.

Bruno Hoffmann

Hoffmann also appeared in several films, including a Benjamin Franklin documentary.

Buck Privates Come Home

There is a joke used in the film that is often attributed to Benjamin Franklin.

Camberley Obelisk

This theory is supported by a letter written by Norris, dated 3 June 1778, in which he notes: "Did this day heliograph intelligence from Dr Franklin in Paris to Wycombe".

Capacitor

Benjamin Franklin investigated the Leyden jar and came to the conclusion that the charge was stored on the glass, not in the water as others had assumed.

Carron Company

Benjamin Franklin visited the factory, leaving works and is said to have left a design for a stove- 'Dr Franklin's stove or the Philadelphia stove'

Catherine S. Snodgrass

In 2005, it was named a Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist in the category of Best New Voice (Children's/Young Adult).

Charles Bittinger

For example, in 1929, he created a series of murals, depicting stages in the life of Benjamin Franklin, for the Franklin Institute.

Charles Scribner's Sons Building

Among its many details are piers anchoring three large bays which include four medallions with busts of printers: Benjamin Franklin, William Caxton, Johann Gutenberg, and Aldus Manutius.

Château Ramezay

Benjamin Franklin stayed there overnight in 1776, while trying to raise troops to fight for the Americans in the American Revolutionary War.

Christ Church, Philadelphia

American Revolutionary War leaders who attended Christ Church include George Washington, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross (after she had been read out of the Quaker meeting house to which she belonged for marrying John Ross, son of an assistant rector at Christ Church).

Many other notable people are buried at nearby associated Christ Church Burial Ground including Benjamin Franklin and five signers of the United States Declaration of Independence.

Continental Congress

Benjamin Franklin had put forth the idea of such a meeting the year before but was unable to convince the colonies of its necessity until the British placed a blockade at the Port of Boston in response to the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

As the ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin not only secured the "bridge loan" for the national budget, but also he persuaded France to send an army of about 6,000 soldiers across the Atlantic Ocean to America—and also the dispatch of a large squadron of French warships under Comte de Grasse to the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina.

De Kleine Komedie

Henry Fizeaux was a banker who had close ties with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.

Distichs of Cato

Cato was in common use as a Latin teaching aid all the way to the 18th century, used by Benjamin Franklin.

Edward Bancroft

Bancroft worked as a spy for Benjamin Franklin in Britain before the Revolution, and while serving as secretary to the American Commission in Paris.

Bancroft now encountered another colonial agent in London, Benjamin Franklin, representative of Pennsylvania.

Electric charge

One of the foremost experts on electricity in the 18th century was Benjamin Franklin, who argued in favour of a one-fluid theory of electricity.

Electrostatic motor

In the 1740s and 1750s, the first electrostatic motors were developed by Andrew Gordon and by Benjamin Franklin.

Erasmus Darwin House

A founding member of the Lunar Society, it was here that he received many famous 18th-century personalities, including Josiah Wedgwood, Matthew Boulton, Benjamin Franklin and James Watt.

Flux Family Secrets: The Ripple Effect

For example, the player replaces various musical influences that Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and Abbey Road Studios had contributed to history, and may also learn about the various characters and time periods.

Franklin County, Ohio

The county was established on April 30, 1803, less than two months after Ohio became a state, and was named after Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin Templeton Investments

It is listed on the NYSE under the ticker BEN, in honor of Benjamin Franklin, who was admired by founder Rupert Johnson, Sr.

FranklinCovey

Among other products, the company markets the FranklinCovey planning system, modeled in part on the writings of Benjamin Franklin, and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, based on Covey's research.

Franklinia

After several years of study, William Bartram assigned the “rare and elegant flowering shrub,” to a new genus Franklinia, named in honor of his father's great friend Benjamin Franklin.

Frédéric-Louis Allamand

Born in Payerne, Switzerland, he moved to Leiden, Netherlands in 1749 to live with his uncle, Jean-Nicolas-Sébastien Allamand (1713–1787), a professor in philosophy and mathematics at Leiden University, well known naturalist, member of the Royal Society and correspondent of Benjamin Franklin.

Fugio Cent

This coin was reportedly designed by Benjamin Franklin; as a reminder to its holders, he put at its bottom the message, "Mind Your Business".

It was designed by Benjamin Franklin and rare examples are highly sought after by collectors.

Gaetano Filangieri

According to the Gaetano Filangieri Philosophical Society, one of Filangieri's ardent admirers was Benjamin Franklin, and the two corresponded from 1780 until Filangieri's death in 1788.

Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans

Mistake: In the episode "Washington Story", Stan Francis played a young George Washington but in the end credits, he is named as Benjamin Franklin (this might be a mistake limited to the home video edit taking the end credits from a different episode).

Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

This quote is often attributed to Benjamin Franklin since it appeared in his Poor Richard's Almanack; however, it was first used in print by John Clarke in a 1639 book of English and Latin proverbs.

Hellfire Caves

Though not believed to have been a member, Benjamin Franklin was a close friend of Dashwood who visited the caves on more than one occasion.

Hiding in Time

Nathan Crew is an accidental tourist in Colonial America who is swept up in the events unfolding before him, including having Benjamin Franklin coax him into being an unwitting participant in the Boston Tea Party.

Hysterical History

Jack Mercer as Christopher Columbus / Native-American Reporter / Native-American Chief / Benjamin Franklin / James W. Marshall / Alexander Graham Bell

Indentured servant

Two famous bound apprentices were Benjamin Franklin who illegally fled his apprenticeship to his brother, and Andrew Johnson, who later became President of the United States.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

The IEEE logo is a diamond-shaped design which illustrates the right hand grip rule embedded in Benjamin Franklin's kite, and it was created at the time of the 1963 merger.

James Jay

He was instrumental in obtaining the endowments for Benjamin Franklin's projected college (now the University of Pennsylvania) in Philadelphia (with William Smith, 1755) and King's (now Columbia) College, New York.

John Philip Falter

Falter's first Saturday Evening Post cover, a portrait of the magazine's founder, Benjamin Franklin, is dated September 1, 1943.

Kemblesville, Pennsylvania

Benjamin Franklin is thought to have owned property within the village limits, and the surrounding township is named after him.

Kite Man

As a boy, he was obsessed with Benjamin Franklin and attempted to recreate his famous kite-flying electrical experiment.

Land value tax in the United States

Land value taxation in the United States has a long history dating back from Physiocrat influence on Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, and continues to be used today, particularly in Pennsylvania.

Langmuir–Blodgett film

Advances to the discovery of Langmuir–Blodgett films began with Benjamin Franklin in 1773 when he dropped about a teaspoon of oil onto a pond.

Lean manufacturing

Most of the basic goals of lean manufacturing are common sense, and documented examples can be seen as early as Benjamin Franklin.

Leyden jar

In the 1700s American statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin performed extensive investigations of both water-filled and foil Leyden jars, which led him to conclude that the charge was stored in the glass, not in the water.

Los Angeles Electric 8

The Los Angeles Electric 8 produces arrangements of older works for their ensemble including Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Dmitri Shostakovich, Giovanni Domenico Rognoni Taeggio, Giovanni Gabrieli, Olivier Messiaen, Igor Stravinsky and Benjamin Franklin.

Louis Lebègue Duportail

Promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Royal Corps of Engineers, Duportail was secretly sent to America in March 1777 to serve in Washington's Continental Army under an agreement between Benjamin Franklin and the government of King Louis XVI of France.

Ludwig Erdwin Seyler

He grew up in Hanover with his uncle, J.G.R. Andreae, the Hanover court pharmacist and a noted natural scientist of the Age of Enlightenment, who was a friend of Benjamin Franklin.

Magicicada septendecim

Kalm then described documents (including one that he had obtained from Benjamin Franklin) that had recorded in Pennsylvania the emergence from the ground of large numbers of cicadas during May 1715 and May 1732.

Marly-la-Ville

Also a devoted physicist, he tested the experimental ideas of Benjamin Franklin at his house, completing the first capture electrical charge from lightning.

Money order

Telltale watermark when held up to the light should reveal images of Benjamin Franklin, repeated on the left side (top to bottom).

Necpaly

The first member of the Franklins’ clan was Benjamin Franklin, an illegitimate son of Dionyz Justh and great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin.

Northwest Angle

Benjamin Franklin and British representatives established the initial U.S. and Canadian borders in the Treaty of Paris in 1783 from the Mitchell Map of colonial American geographer John Mitchell, which mis-represented the source of the Mississippi River.

Old Albany Post Road

Milestones were first known to have been placed in 1763, sometime after Benjamin Franklin, who had advocated their use, was appointed the colonies' Joint Postmaster General.

Pepper's Adventures in Time

Time has been altered, however; many elements of the 1960s American counterculture are combined with the life and times of Benjamin Franklin.

Philadelphia Independence

For men's soccer, this backing came in the form of a supporters' association known as the Sons of Ben, named for Founding Father and Philadelphia icon Benjamin Franklin, founded in January 2007.

Pontlevoy

Each year his company issued a new series of brightly colored cards commemorating notable men (including Benjamin Franklin) with flowers and illustrations of fairy tales.

Prestonfield House

The new estate remained in the family's possession for many generations, who played host to many great thinkers of their times, including David Hume, Benjamin Franklin, Dr Samuel Johnson, and Allan Ramsay.

Professor Carter Nichols

Luckily for them, Benjamin Franklin was able to vouch for them as Batman concludes that Silas was framed as the highwaymen's leader.

Prokop Diviš

Benjamin Franklin had invented the lightning rod in 1752 in the United States, but it did not work well, because it was not grounded, while Diviš's apparatus in 1754 was.

Refunding Certificate

The Refunding Certificate, issued only in the $10 denomination depicting Benjamin Franklin, was a type of interest-bearing banknote issued by the United States Treasury.

Rudolph's Shiny New Year

The group then travels to the island of 1776, which reflects Colonial America and is ruled over by "Sev" (AKA 1776), who resembles Benjamin Franklin.

Saddle River Township, New Jersey

The new Township was named after Governor of New Jersey William Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin.

Saint-Goustan

The name of this wharf is a tribute to Benjamin Franklin, the famous diplomat, physicist and engineer who landed at Auray on 3 December 1776 to ask for French aid in the War of Independence.

Saratoga campaign

On December 4, 1777, word reached Benjamin Franklin at Versailles that Philadelphia had fallen and that Burgoyne had surrendered.

Saul of the Mole Men

He made friends with its recipient, Benjamin Franklin, who was the custodian of the two stones, the key to the power of the Gabro Maternicus, the mother rock.

Schiehallion experiment

The Royal Society formed the Committee of Attraction to consider the matter, appointing Maskelyne, Joseph Banks and Benjamin Franklin amongst its members.

Self-Made Men

Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, is sometimes said to have created the concept of the self-made man.

Solomon Townsend

Stranded in London following the outbreak of hostilities, Townsend's passage back to America was facilitated by Benjamin Franklin.

Townsend made his way to Paris where he befriended Benjamin Franklin and was received at the French court.

Swadeshabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai

In 1912, he published Vrithantha Pathra Pravarthanam, the famous book on Journalism and his biography books on Karl Marx and Benjamin Franklin.

The Dragon's Apprentice

There, a young man named Edmund McGee leads them to his master, Benjamin Franklin.

The Many Hands

The Doctor and Martha are confronted by the walking dead, first a solitary figure which attacks a stagecoach containing Benjamin Franklin, then by an army of the creatures rising from the putrid waters of the Nor' Loch.

The Yellow Kid

Word balloons containing characters' speech had appeared in political cartoons since at least the 18th century, including some published by Benjamin Franklin.

Theta Xi

William S. Mason, considered to be one of the greatest benefactors and supporters of Theta Xi, was the main supporter of the fraternity's adoption of Benjamin Franklin as its patron saint.

Too Late with Adam Carolla

Carolla walks in the woods with a guy who looks somewhat like Benjamin Franklin, and plays straight man as the "1780s guy" questions current phenomena such as metrosexuals ("We call them homosexuals") and Oprah Winfrey ("Nubian sorceress").

United States passport

The minister to France, Benjamin Franklin, based the design of passports issued by his mission on that of the French passport.

Urban planning in the United States

Benjamin Franklin, a leading citizen, helped improve city services and founded new ones, such as fire protection, a library, and one of the American colonies' first hospitals.

Warren Tavern

In the early years of the Warren Tavern it was frequented by many national heroes such as Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.

WBEN-FM

Named after Benjamin Franklin, the station pioneered a "Playing Anything We Feel Like" radio format, a concept which originated in Canada with the Jack FM concept.

William Strahan

For many years, Strahan attended debates in Parliament and wrote reports of the proceedings that were widely circulated; his paragraphs of political news were frequently printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette, and he became a friend of its owner, Benjamin Franklin.

Winton M. Blount

In 1971, his profile was depicted alongside that of Benjamin Franklin's on the face of a silver proof coin commemorating the inauguration of the new Postal Service.

Yatri

It was invented by Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century and recreated for Yatri by the late Gerhard Finkenbeiner, a master glass blower in Waltham Massachusetts from Franklin’s original sketches.


Camden Children's Garden

The facility includes indoor attractions such as the Philadelphia Eagles Four Seasons Butterfly House, Plaza de Aibonito, a Puerto Rican tropical greenhouse exhibit, and Benjamin Franklin’s Secret Garden and Workshop.

Committee of Five

On June 11, the members of the Committee of Five were appointed; they were: John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia.

Fart Proudly

"Fart Proudly" (also called "A Letter To A Royal Academy", and "To the Royal Academy of Farting") is the popular name of a "notorious essay" about flatulence written by Benjamin Franklin circa 1781 while he was living abroad as United States Ambassador to France.

Fleury Mesplet

In 1774 he emigrated to Philadelphia; it is thought that he may have been persuaded to do so by Benjamin Franklin.

Greatness

For example, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Descartes, Benjamin Franklin, Goethe, and others with IQs in the mid 160s or above were superior in their versatility to those attaining lower scores, such as George Washington, Palestrina, or Philip Sheridan.

Passy

Passy is known to Americans as the home of patriot Benjamin Franklin during the nine years that he lived in France during the American Revolutionary War.

Peter Josyph

In addition to the plays of Pinter, Chekhov, and Ibsen, Victory Rep performed originals by Josyph and his adaptations of classic American authors such as Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Benjamin Franklin, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, and surgeon-author Richard Selzer.

Rare Book Room

It includes Library of Congress copies of Poor Richard's Almanack by Benjamin Franklin, and other rare editions: a Gutenberg Bible of 1455, William Harvey's book on the circulation of blood, Galileo ’s Sidereus Nuncius, the first printing of the United States Bill of Rights, and the Magna Carta.

Reportedly haunted locations in Pennsylvania

Library Hall in Philadelphia features a statue of Benjamin Franklin where claims have it that the statue comes to life and dances in the streets.

Seaton Schroeder

She was also a great-granddaughter of Sarah Franklin Bache and Richard Bache, and more notably she was the great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin as well as a niece of George Mifflin Dallas the 11th Vice President of the United States, serving under James K. Polk.

Syng inkstand

It is thus both a work of art and an important artifact from American history, having been used by such prominent founding fathers as Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, and James Madison.

Thomas Jefferson Building

From left to right when one faces the building, they are Demosthenes (portico north side), Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Babbington Macaulay, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sir Walter Scott and Dante Alighieri (portico south side).