Caitlin

=Caitlin J.= Benjamin Franklin The Inventor = = =Their where many great people that made this country what it is today. But one person who invented many things was a man named Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin or Ben Franklin was a great man. He invented so many things such as bifocal glasses, the lightning rod, and the odometer and much more.= = = = = =Bifocals are eyeglasses often prescribed for people with presbyopia. Presbyopia is an age related eye condition that makes it more difficult to see very close which is something Franklin suffered. Bifocals have an upper half and a lower half. The upper half for distance and the lower half for reading. Franklin created these so he wouldn't have to switch from his reading glasses to his distance glasses all the time and could simply just look down when he needed to read and look up when he needed his distance glasses.=

= = = = = = =Another invention that we still use today is the lightning rod. The lightning rod ,simply, is a rod attached to the top of a house or a building, connected to the ground through a wire. When lightning strikes the rod, the electric charge is sent to the ground. This prevents houses and buildings from burning down and people from electrocution.=

= = = = = = =Ben was always curious as to how far he was traveling by carriage, in his role, as postmaster, for his travels between Philidelphia and Boston. While the concept of the odometer dates back to ancient times which was many years back, Ben decided to create his own version. The concept was to attach the device near the wheels of the carriage, Determine the circumference of the wheel and the number of revolutions required to travel a mile, and have the device calculate the distance traveled.=

= = = = =As you can see, Benjamin Franklin was a great inventor. He invented and discovered many things that we still use every day. Their are many more things that Ben Franklin invented but, these are some of the important things that Ben invented for us.=

=My internet resource was http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/inventions.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Caitlin J. Louis Joliet was born on September 21, 1645 in a French settlement near Quebec City,Canada. When he was seven years old his father died and his mother remarried a successful merchant. Joliet's stepfather owned land on IIe d' Orleans which means Island of Orleans. In his childhood he was the center of French fur trade. He grew up knowing a lot about the near natives. He went to a Jesuit School and focused on philosophical and religious studies. He spoke French, Spanish, and English. On May 17, 1673 Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette departed from St. Ingance, Michigan with two canoes and five voyagers with French-Indian ancestry. The group followed Lake Michigan down to Green Bay. Then they paddled southward to what is now Portage, Wisconsin. There they carried there canoes and gear slightly less then 2 miles in the marsh and oak forest to the Wisconsin River. The Europeans built a trading post at the shortest convenient portage between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins. The Joliet-Marquette expedition traveled down the Mississippi 435 miles of the Gulf of Mexico. They turned back north at the mouth of the Arkansas River. By this point, they had encountered native carrying European goods. The voyagers then followed the Mississippi back to the mouth of the Illinois River, which friendly natives told them was a shorter route back to the Great Lakes. Following the Illinois river upstream, they then turned up its tributary the Des Plaines River near modern day Joliet, Illinois. They then continued up the Des Plaines River, and portaged their canoes and gear at the Chicago Portage. They then followed the Chicago River downstream until they reached Lake Michigan near the modern-day Chicago. Father Marquette stayed at St. Francis Xavier at the southern end of Green Bay, were they reached in August. Joliet returned back to Quebec to tell about his discoveries. He returned to fur trading in 1676, setting up a business in the northern region of the St. Lawrence and also working as a merchant in the Mingan Archipelago. He took on another exploratory mission in 1679, at the behest of French colonists, to survey English and Native American trading relations in the Hudson Bay area. In 1693, he was appointed "Royal Hydrographer", and on April 30, 1697, he was granted a seigneury southwest of Quebec City which he named Jolliest. In 1694, he sailed north from the Gulf of St. Lawrence north along the coast of Labrador as far north as Zoar, a voyage of five and a half months. He recorded details of the country, navigation, the Inuit and their customs. His journal ("Journal de Louis Jolliet allant à la descouverte de Labrador, 1694,") is the earliest known detailed survey of the Labrador coast from the Strait of Belle Isle to Zoar. Joliet went on another trip in 1694 to make detailed observations of the Labrador Coast, and in 1697, became a hydrography professor at the University of Quebec. I n May 1700, Louis Jolliet left for Anticosti Island and was presumed to have died. A mass for his soul was said on September 15, 1700. His body was never found, and the place and date of his death remain unknown. Jolliet was one of the first people of European descent born in North America to be remembered for significant discoveries. Louis' main legacy is most tangible in the Midwestern United States and Quebec, mostly through geographical names, including the cities of Joliet, Illinois; Joliet, Montana; and Joliette, Quebec (founded by one of Jolliet's descendants, Barthélemy Joliette. The several variations in the spelling of the name "Jolliet" reflect spelling that occurred at times when illiteracy or poor literacy was common, and spelling was still highly unstandardized. Jolliet's descendants live throughout eastern Canada and the United States.The Louis Jolliet rose, developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, was named in his honor, the Jolliet Squadron of cadets at the Royal Military College Saint-Jean in the Province of Quebec was named in his honor. Joliet Junior College in Joliet, Illinois is named after the explorer, as are numerous high schools in North America.A cruise ship sailing out of Quebec City is also named in his honor.

Links: [|http://www.biography.com/people/louis-joliet-20973103#early-lifeThe] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Jolliet