Namit+M

Namit M

Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable was born in 1745 in Saint-Marc, Haiti and died August 28,1818 in Saint Charles, Missouri. His mom was a slave. He was the first permanent settler in Chicago. Du Sable was educated in France and in the 1770's he sailed to New Orleans. From there he sailed up the Mississippi river to Peoria, Illinois. He married a Potawatomi women named Kittihawa(Catherine).Then he settled along northern bank of the Chicago river near lake Michigan and started a fur trading post and a farm in 1779. Du Sable sold his land on May 7,1800 and came back to Peoria, Illinois. Later, he moved to St. Charles, Missouri and died there on August 28,1818. [|__http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=76,4,3,2__]

[|__http://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Baptist-Point-Du-Sable__]

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/300129.html

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Benjamin Franklin’s Inventions

Benjamin Franklin is one of the founding fathers of America. He was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. He died on April 17,1790 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Benjamin had invented many inventions. His top three most known inventions are the Lighting Rod, The Franklin Stove, and The Bifocals.



The Bifocals are eyeglasses that have a top half and a bottom half. The top half is for distance and the bottom half is for reading. Bifocals are usually prescribed to people that suffer from presbyopia. Presbyopia is the loss of the eye's ability to change its focus to see objects that are near. Benjamin suffered from presbyopia. Benjamin decided to create the Bifocals because he became frustrated every time he had to switch between his long distance glasses and his reading glasses. In August 1784 Benjamin wrote that he was “happy in the invention of double spectacles, which serving for distant objects as well as near ones, make my eyes as useful as they were.” Franklin could see long distances by peering through the lens at the top of the glasses. To read, he would easily look through the bottom of the lens.



In North America during the eighteenth century, the main source of heat in homes were open wood fires. The smoke from thousands of fires made Philadelphia very sooty and gloomy. There was also the real danger that sparks flying out of the chimneys could set wood houses on fire. So Benjamin Franklin created the Pennsylvania Fireplace or the Franklin Stove in 1742. It is a metal-lined fireplace that sits in the middle of a room. It has baffles in the back for improved airflow. It gives more heat and less than an open fireplace and consumes less wood. This cast-iron furnace radiates heat from the middle of the room in all directions. The iron walls even absorb heat, giving warmth to the room even after the fire goes out. The Franklin Stove was a great invention because it made Philadelphia less sooty and less gloomy, but more importantly it also stops the risk of a fire starting because no sparks fly out of the Franklin Stove.



Once Ben knew how electricity worked, he wanted to protect houses from the dangerous and destructive forces of lightning. The Lightning Rod is simply a rod attached to the top of a building, connected to the ground with a wire. The electric charge from the lightning strikes the rod. The charge is conducted into the ground without any harm. This prevents houses from burning down and people from getting electrocuted.

Of course, Benjamin Franklin was one of the greatest inventors in the history of the United States. He had invented many more inventions, but I think The Lighting Rod, The Franklin Stove, and The Bifocals are the most important and most useful. There are other inventions he made including the Swim Fins, the Odometer, as well as many others.

Sites:

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[| http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/inventions.htm]

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book: Benjamin Franklin and Electricity By: Steve Parker