Ronit+M.

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Ronit Merchant

Social Studies 5-G

January 13, 2015

Benjamin Franklin as an Inventor

Benjamin Franklin was the first person to discover electricity. Benjamin Franklin, also known as Ben Franklin, discovered the concept of cooling. And he made the first bifocal glasses.

June 10 was a cloudy day. He looked out his window. He saw that a storm was coming. He was very happy that a storm came. He was waiting for countless days. He lived in Philadelphia, a major city in the colony of Pennsylvania. A lot of intelligent minds thou ght that lightning was electricity, but they had no p roof! Ben thought of a way to prove it. He, and his son, William, went outside to a shed. He flew a kite into the harsh winds. After a while, the storm clouds came into the way of Ben’s kite. Lightning, or electric charges, travelled down the kite and charged up the key that Ben tied around the kite. Then, when he touched the key with his knuckle, he saw a spark. By doing this, he had proven that lightning was electricity!

The concept of cooling was also invented by Ben. Remember, the concept of cooling, not the cooler. He did an experiment, that on a hot summer day, if he wore a wet shirt in a breeze, he would feel cool er than if he had on a dry shirt. To better understand this idea, he did some experiments. On a hot summer day, in 1758, he, and a fellow scientist, John Hadley, took a ball of mercury, and constantly wetted it with ether, and using bellows to evaporate the ether. They got it so that the ball would be 7℉, while another thermometer showed that the entire room is 67℉, and this is how the concept of cooling was made.

Ben Franklin made the first Bifocal glasses, yet others believe that it was thought up 50 years before. But, he gets the credit because he as the one who made it popular, and he thought it and made it. Bifocals are made when you take two lenses and cut them in half and put them together in one frame where the lower half is for far viewing, and the top is for the shorter viewing. Bifocals are good but they do have some side effects. One of the side effects is that you can have a headache. And dizziness, and it is also really hard to use.

Electricity, The Concept of Cooling, and Bifocals are all really great inventions made by the one and only Benjamin Franklin. He was the greatest inventor known to me, and I respect him.

Works Cited

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.

"Benjamin Franklin." - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.

Burke, Rick. Benjamin Franklin. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2003. Print.

Ronit Merchant S.S. 5-G

Robert De La Salle By: Ronit Merchant = = = Introduction = == R obert La Salle, or Rene-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle was a French Explorer known for leading the expedition down the Mississippi, and claiming that land for France. He was born on November 22, 1643 in Rouen, France. All the French wanted was to find a NW passage to the Spice Islands. ==


 * Father Jacques Marquette **


 * F ather Jacques Marquette went to America to teach Christianity to the Natives. He was a missionary. La Salle was with him, and so was Louis Joilet. While he was there, the Natives were all talking a “Great Water” that led them to an even “Greater Water”. Marquette thought that they were talking about the NW passage. **


 * Louis Joilet **


 * L ouis Joilet, a French Fur Trader, went to go find this “Great Water,” and the even “Greater Water” to go find this “Great Water” and the “Greater Water” He sent La Salle with him. He actually found a “Great Water.” But he actually found the Mississippi River. But when they found that it flowed from North to South, they realized that it is not the NW passage. So Joilet went back. **


 * Robert De La Salle **


 * His career first started in 1666 when he travelled as a French Colonist. He was given a seigneury, or a large piece of land. He sold it 2 years later for funds to start his career as an explorer. He travelled in 1669, from Montreal, Quebec. He had 9 canoes to travel on. His crew was not well prepared for the long journey, so they turned back 2 months into the expedition never reaching Lake Ontario. He built Fort Prud'homme in Memphis, Tennessee and a settlement in Texas. In Canada, he built a fort and built a ship called Griffin between Ontario and New York. He sailed on August 7, 1679 across Lake Erie and Lake Huron, and came back. They saw that the fort was destroyed, and their robbed the supply shops. La Salle claimed from the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico for France. He called it Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV. Many French Fur Trade posts were set up by Robert in these areas. He also wanted to set up many fur trading posts along the Mississippi. Later, he also explored Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and lake Ontario. **** They reached the Mississippi River on February 6, 1682. Louis Joilet went back because they realized that it went North to South. It was not the Northwest Passage. **** But, La Salle went all the way down. Forty men, Henry de Tonti, and La Salle went all the way down the Mississippi. He also reached the Gulf of Mexico on April 9, 1682 and built a cross. His last mission was to conquer part of the Spanish Land. He tried, but he died. **


 * Conclusion **


 * I n the end, By 1682, France claimed the Mississippi River valley and the Great Lakes. He travelled for claiming land for France. He also wanted to find the Northwest Passage. As more and more explorers come to the Americas, France takes more and more control of the land. Control of these lands gave France natural water routes through all of North America, but never the Northwest Passage that led to the Spice Islands. Robert La Salle is very impactful on the French World, and still remains an important figure today. **




 * For the links, I used **
 * ** Biography.com on Robert La Salle **
 * ** Enchanted Learning on Robert La Salle **
 * **Wikipedia on Robert La Salle**
 * **Mrnussbaum on Robert La Salle**