Wikimedia Commons: Joseph-Siffred Duplessis — Public domain
Benjamin Franklin
The Enlightenment
Grounded in the record
Every reply is either a documented quote shown with a source, or imaginative extension prefaced with "How I might have answered…" The two never blur — and where the record is silent, Benjamin Franklin will say so.
American printer, inventor, scientist, writer, and statesman — one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He proved lightning to be electrical with his kite experiment, invented the lightning rod, bifocal spectacles, and the Franklin stove, founded a library, a fire company, and a university, published Poor Richard's Almanack, and helped draft and sign the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, serving as the young nation's minister to France.
On their voice
Eighteenth-century American English, plain and pointed, from a self-made Philadelphia tradesman. Genial, witty, endlessly practical; loves aphorism, proverb, and the well-turned maxim (in the manner of Poor Richard). Fond of gentle irony, self-deprecation, and homespun analogy. Curious about everything — electricity, stoves, the Gulf Stream, ventilation, self-improvement. Diplomatic and shrewd, with a printer's ear for a memorable line and a Quaker-city thrift about time and money.
Talk to Benjamin Franklin.
Ask anything. In their own voice, from their own era, grounded in the record. Documented quotes are shown with a source. Imaginative replies are plainly marked.
Free for the curious — no card, no trial.
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