Ava+T.



Benjamin Franklin was the 15th out of 17 siblings and was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston Massachusetts and died April 17 1790 at the age of 84
 * Benjamin Franklin The Printer **

When Benjamin was 15 his brother started The New England Courant the first "newspaper" in Boston. **Benjamin Franklin** was one of the [|Founding Fathers of the United States]. A renowned [|polymath], Franklin was a leading author, printer, [|political theorist] , politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, 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. As an inventor, he is known for the [|lightning rod], [|bifocals] , and the [|Franklin stove] , among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and a university.

Benjamin wanted to write for the paper too, but he knew that James would never let him. After all, Benjamin was just a lowly apprentice. So Ben began writing letters at night and signing them with the name of a fictional widow, Silence Dogood. Dogood was filled with advice and very critical of the world around her, particularly concerning the issue of how women were treated. Ben would sneak the letters under the print shop door at night so no one knew who was writing the pieces. They were a smash hit, and everyone wanted to know who was the real "Silence Dogood. After 16 letters, Ben confessed that he had been writing the letters all along. While James's friends thought Ben was quite precocious and funny, James scolded his brother and was very jealous of the attention paid to him.Before long the Franklins found themselves at odds with Boston's powerful Puritan preachers, the Mathers. Smallpox was a deadly disease in those times, and the Mathers supported inoculation; the Franklins' believed inoculation only made people sicker. And while most Bostonians agreed with the Franklins, they did not like the way James made fun of the clergy, during the debate. Ultimately, James was thrown in jail for his views, and Benjamin was left to run the paper for several issues.Upon release from jail, James was not grateful to Ben for keeping the paper going. Instead he kept harassing his younger brother and administering beatings from time to time. Ben could not take it and decided to run away in 1723.
 * Franklin as printer **

As expected James didn't come after Ben when he ran away. Ben couldn't find any printing work in New York though. He went to Philadelphia Pennsylvania. The runway apprentice made half the trip by boat. He walked the other fifty miles.ben arrived in Philadelphia tired and dirty. His extra shirts and stockings were bulging out of his pockets. He was hungry so he bought three penny rolls from a bakery. As Ben walked along, a girl named Deborah Read saw him from her doorway. Ben rented a room from Debby's family. He found a job with a printer. Ben did so well that he soon was running the business. The governor of Pennsylvania saw Ben's work and was impressed, so he offered to help him with his business. If Ben would visit England to buy printing supplies the governor promised he would pay the bills. The eighteen year old printer was thrilled by the offer. He reached London on Christmas Eve in late 1725, but the the governor had been all talk. He never sent the money and Ben was stranded in England, 3,000 miles from home. Ben made the best of things though, he found a job at a London printing house. During his year and a half in England, he learned more about printing and met famous scientists and authors. In 1725, at the age of nineteen he wrote and printed a booklet about religion.

Upon Denham's death, Franklin returned to his former trade. In 1728, Franklin had set up a printing house in partnership with Hugh Meredith; the following year he became the publisher of a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette. The Gazette gave Franklin a forum for agitation about a variety of local reforms and initiatives through printed essays and observations. Over time, his commentary, and his adroit cultivation of a positive image as an industrious and intellectual young man, earned him a great deal of social respect. But even after Franklin had achieved fame as a scientist and statesman, he habitually signed his letters with the unpretentious 'B. Franklin, Printer.

Benjamin Franklin was an amazing man and a huge part of the way our country is today. Even though he lost his friendship with one of his brothers, Ben Franklin made a life for himself as an accomplished printer. Franklin had mixed success in his plan to establish an inter-colonial network of newspapers that would produce a profit for him and disseminate virtue. He began in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1731. After the second editor died, his widow Elizabeth Timothy took over and made it a success, 1738–46. She was one of the colonial era's first woman printers.For three decades Franklin maintained a close business relationship with her and her son Peter who took over in 1746. The Gazette had a policy of impartiality in political debates, while creating the opportunity for public debate, which encouraged others to challenge authority. Editor Peter Timothy avoided blandness and crude bias, and after 1765 increasingly took a patriotic stand in the growing crisis with Great Britain. However, Franklin's Connecticut Gazette proved unsuccessful.

The composer lays the type out on a composing stick, then places it in a frame called a galley. The galleys are given to the stoneman, who combines them tightly together on a form. The firm is given to the pressmen, who set it on the stone. Then ink is beaten onto the type with mallets. Wet paper is placed on the tympan, secured by the frisket, and folded over the inked type. The stone I'd then rolled under the platen, where a pressman pulls down the lever and the type is pressed onto the paper.
 * How to they printed back then. **

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Who Was Benjamin Franklin by: Dennis Brindell Fradin

**//__Giovanni da Verrazzano__//**

 Giovanni da Verrazzano was born around 1485 near Val di Greve, 30 miles south of Florence, Italy. Around 1506 or 1507, he began pursuing a maritime career, and in the 1520s, he was sent by King Francis I of France to explore the East Coast of North America for a route to the Pacific. He was introduced to adventure and exploration at an early age. Sometime between 1507 and 1508 Verrazzano went to France to meet with King Francis I. During this period, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and Ferdinand Magellan were making names for themselves on behalf of spain and portugal and Francis I was concerned and planned an expedition. **Reasons of Expediton** King Francis of France got worried because France was falling for behind. So he sent Giovanni on a expedition in search for a northwest passage Verrazzano prepared four ships, loaded with ammunition, cannons, lifeboats, and scientific equipment, with provisions to last 8 months. He also left to seek gold an riches. 1524 Giovanni da Verrazano sailed to America looking for a northwest passage. He sailed up the coast of North America from what is now North Carolina to Nova Scotia. He may have even sailed a little north on what is the Hudson River. He did not stay on the river long because it looked like a storm was approaching. One of the first maps of the North American coast was made from the drawings he made on his voyage. As Verrazano explored the Atlantic coast of North America farther north, he discovered New York Harbor, Block Island and Narragansett Bay. Because he often anchored far off-shore, Verrazano missed discovering the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. He sailed farther north to Maine and Newfoundland before returning to France While sailing south of Jamaica, the crew spotted a heavily vegetated, seemingly unpopulated island, and Verrazzano dropped anchor to explore it with a handful of crewmen. The group was soon attacked by a large assemblage of cannibalistic natives who killed them and ate them all as Girolamo ,Givoanni's brother, and the rest of the crew watched from the main ship, unable to help. http://www.biography.com/people/giovanni-da-verrazzano-9517737 http://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-da-Verrazzano
 * Image of Verrazzano---Map of Expeditons**
 * Accomplishments**
 * Death**
 * Links**