Linked from

The 63 pages that link to Benjamin Franklin, each with the reason it gives.

• American RevolutionRelated: His diplomacy helped turn the colonial revolt into an international war against Britain.

• Electric chargeRelated: His sign convention remains standard even though the electron's charge is negative.

• CapacitorRelated: His experiments clarified how charge was stored on the jar's conductors.

• American Revolutionary WarRelated: His diplomacy helped bring France into the war on the American side.

• Treaty of Paris (1783)Related: He was one of the American commissioners who negotiated the agreement in Paris.

• PhiladelphiaRelated: His decades in Philadelphia linked its civic institutions to the Revolution and the new nation.

• University of PennsylvaniaRelated: Franklin proposed an academy in Philadelphia that helped inspire Penn’s founding.

• John AdamsRelated: Adams worked with Franklin on diplomatic missions during the Revolution.

• Joseph PriestleyRelated: Franklin’s scientific correspondence and reputation helped Priestley enter transatlantic intellectual networks.

• Gulf StreamRelated: Franklin helped map the current to improve transatlantic mail-ship routes.

• Kuroshio CurrentRelated: His current-mapping work helped establish methods later used to chart ocean circulation.

• Indentured servitudeRelated: Franklin's early life as a bound apprentice offers a prominent example of contracted service outside plantation labor.

• EyeglassesRelated: He is commonly credited with devising bifocal spectacles.

• Marquis de LafayetteRelated: Franklin helped Lafayette connect his commitment to American independence with the Continental cause.

• Noah WebsterRelated: Franklin’s proposals for spelling reform anticipated debates Webster also pursued.

• Daylight saving timeRelated: His satirical essay is often cited as an early precursor, though it did not propose modern clock changes.

• Constitutional ConventionRelated: His interventions helped bring delegates toward agreement during difficult debates.

• Thomas PaineRelated: Franklin encouraged Paine to emigrate to the American colonies in 1774.

• George WhitefieldRelated: Franklin printed Whitefield’s sermons and recorded his impressions of Whitefield’s immense audiences.

• EpigramRelated: His maxims and satirical sayings show how epigrammatic brevity works in prose.

• Province of PennsylvaniaRelated: His printing and civic work helped shape public life in colonial Philadelphia.

• Continental CongressRelated: His diplomacy and political experience strengthened Congress’s efforts to secure French support.

• Electrostatic forceRelated: His charge terminology helped shape the description of electrical attraction and repulsion.

• Postal systemRelated: His administration helped improve routes and service between American colonies.

• The Saturday Evening PostRelated: The magazine once claimed a lineage from Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette, though that direct descent is disputed.

• Year Without a SummerRelated: Franklin connected the 1783 Icelandic haze with Europe’s abnormal cold, anticipating volcanic climate explanations.

• American Philosophical SocietyRelated: He proposed the society in 1743 and helped establish its early direction.

• Great AwakeningRelated: His printing and observations document how revival sermons reached colonial audiences.

• Leyden jarRelated: His experiments used Leyden jars to study charge, discharge, and electrical effects.

• Lightning rodRelated: Franklin proposed a grounded pointed rod to protect buildings from lightning.

• MesmerismRelated: Franklin’s commission tested whether mesmeric effects required the supposed fluid.

• Treaty of Alliance (1778)Related: Franklin’s diplomacy in Paris helped bring France to the alliance.

• United States Postal ServiceRelated: Franklin helped organize colonial postal routes before the federal postal system was established.

• Spelling reformRelated: His proposed alphabet pursued a much more radical sound-based redesign than ordinary spelling adjustments.

• The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of CapitalismRelated: Weber uses Franklin’s writings as a clear expression of the worldly ethic he analyzes.

• Animal magnetismRelated: He helped oversee the inquiry that challenged animal magnetism’s claimed mechanism.

• Ball lightningRelated: His writings helped establish early scientific discussion of unusual electrical phenomena.

• Benjamin SillimanRelated: Franklin’s earlier scientific public life offered a model for linking inquiry with civic culture.

• John Singleton CopleyRelated: Franklin’s portrait by Copley helped circulate the image of a prominent colonial figure.

• BifocalsRelated: Franklin is widely credited with inventing bifocal spectacles in the eighteenth century.

• Casimir PulaskiRelated: Franklin’s diplomatic advocacy helped bring Pulaski from France to the American cause.

• FrugalityRelated: Franklin's writings helped popularize thrift as a virtue in American civic culture.

• Rocking chairRelated: A rocking chair associated with Franklin helped popularize the form in early America.

• Colonial history of the United StatesRelated: His career connected colonial print culture, intercolonial politics, and the move toward revolution.

• De OfficiisRelated: Franklin cited Cicero’s work among the books that shaped his moral and civic outlook.

• History of advertisingRelated: His Pennsylvania Gazette made him a prominent early practitioner of newspaper advertising.

• History of journalismRelated: His printing and publishing ventures exemplify journalism’s early commercial and civic roles.

• Jared SparksRelated: Sparks edited Franklin’s writings as part of his effort to document the early republic.

• John Peter ZengerRelated: Franklin’s account helped preserve Zenger’s trial as an argument for candid political reporting.

• Roger Joseph BoscovichRelated: Franklin and Boscovich belonged to overlapping eighteenth-century scientific networks and exchanged ideas.