we are very sorry, but you have reached a page that has moved or no longer exists. please visit our home page to experience our new look and updated navigation. on august 8, 2012, digital history switched to a new interface. We have been restructuring the database and the organization of digital history for the past three years, and we feel this makeover will significantly improve the usability of our materials. In our new interface, materials are organized by era, so users will easily be able to view many different types of resources for a particular era such as the textbook, images, primary sources, multimedia and teacher materials. Please email sara mcneil at [email protected] if you have any questions about digital history. The essay in journal de paris, on april 26, 1784 at the age of 78, in a moment of whimsey, benjamin franklin wrote an economical project. Over two centuries later, nations around the world use a variation of his concept to conserve energy and more fully enjoy the benefits of daylight.

As he neared the end of his long tenure as american delegate in paris, benjamin franklin felt his years. Gout and gallstones hampered his movements and left him virtually confined to his house in the parisian suburb of passy. Such restrictions to a man of franklin's dynamic and social nature would have been vexing indeed had he not the company of close friends, men like antoine alexis francois cadet de vaux, editor of the journal de paris. To show his appreciation to these comrades, franklin penned a series of bagatelles for their amusement. One such piece took the form of a letter to the journal de paris concerning the economy of lighting in the home, which franklin wrote after attending the demonstration of a new oil lamp.

In it, he parodied himself, his love of thrift, his scientific papers and his passion for playing chess until the wee hours of the morning then sleeping until midday. His friend cadet de vaux published the letter in the journal on april 26, 1784, under the english title an economical project. Franklin began the letter by noting that much discussion had followed the demonstration of an oil lamp the previous evening concerning the amount of oil used in relation to the quantity of light produced. This he followed with details of how a great discovery of an avenue of thrift came to him. the parisians never woke before noon franklin had eventually bedded down at three or four hours past midnight but was awakened at six in the morning by a sudden noise. Surprised to find his room filled with light, franklin at first imagined that a number of the new oil lamps were the source, but he soon perceived the light to be originating from the outside.

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Looking out the window, franklin saw the sun rising above the horizon, its rays pouring through the open shutters. I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that it was but six o clock and still thinking it something extraordinary that the sun should rise so early, i looked into the almanac, where i found it to be the hour given for his rising on that day. I looked forward too, and found he was to rise still earlier every day towards the end of june and that no time during the year he retarded his rising so long as till eight o clock. Your readers, who with me have never seen any sign of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanac, will be as much astonished as i was, when they hear of his rising so early and especially when i assure them, that he gives light as soon as he rises. Sly franklin claimed that a noted philosopher assured him that he was most certainly mistaken, for it was well known that there could be no light abroad at that hour.

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this event has given rise in my mind to several serious and important reflections , the letter continued. Had he not been aroused at so early a morning hour, he would have slept until noon through six hours of daylight and therefore, living six hours the following night by candlelight. Realizing the latter was much more expensive than the former, he began calculating, for the sheer love of economy, the utility of his discovery the true test of any invention. On the assumption that 100,0 parisian families burned half a pound of candles per hour for an average of seven hours per day the average time for the summer months between dusk and the supposed bedtime of parisians , the account would stand thus: 183 nights between 20 march and 20 september times 7 hours per night of candle usage equals 1,281 hours for a half year of candle usage.

Each candle requires half a pound of tallow and wax, thus a total of 64,050,0 pounds. At a price of thirty sols per pounds of tallow and wax two hundred sols make one livre tournois , the total sum comes to 96,075,0 livre tournois. An immense sum, the astonished franklin concluded, that the city of paris might save every year. some new regulations to answer skeptics who cried that old habits are hard to change, and it would be difficult to induce the population of paris to rise before noon, franklin proposed the following regulations:

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Oblige a man to rise at four in the morning, and it is probable he will go willingly to bed at eight in the evening.

the great discovery, conceived in humor and reported with all the wit and wisdom of poor richard was not soon forgotten. Messrs quinquet and lange, inventors of the oil lamp that sparked the idea, were so taken by the scheme that they continued corresponding with franklin even after he returned to america. Decades later, church bells and cannon to rouse a sleeping populace were replaced by the simple act of altering the hands on clocks in the spring as the hour of dawning becomes too early for most sleepy eyes. In 1973, for the second time in american history, the congress declared the year round use of daylight saving time to save energy during the oil embargo as a general concern for the nation's good and a love for economy.

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Today as fossil fuel supplies diminish and increase in price and their use damages the environment, we need to heed franklin's advice still again. His father, josiah franklin 1657 1745 , a native of england, was a candle and soap maker who married twice and had 17 children. Benjamin franklin is the only founding father to have signed all four of the key documents establishing the u.s. The declaration of independence 1776 , the treaty of alliance with france 1778 , the treaty of paris establishing peace with great britain 1783 and the u.s. Franklin’s formal education was limited and ended when he was 10 however, he was an avid reader and taught himself to become a skilled writer. In 1718, at age 12, he was apprenticed to his older brother james, a boston printer.

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By age 16, franklin was contributing essays under the pseudonym silence dogood to a newspaper published by his brother. At age 17, franklin ran away from his apprenticeship to philadelphia, where he found work as a printer. In late 1724, he traveled to london, england, and again found employment in the printing business. Benjamin franklin returned to philadelphia in 1726, and two years later opened a printing shop.

The business became highly successful producing a range of materials, including government pamphlets, books and currency. In 1729, franklin became the owner and publisher of a colonial newspaper, the pennsylvania gazette, which proved popular–and to which he contributed much of the content, often using pseudonyms. Franklin achieved fame and further financial success with poor richard’s almanack, which he published every year from 1733 to 1758. The almanac became known for its witty sayings, which often had to do with the importance of diligence and frugality, such as early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

1705 74 , the daughter of his former philadelphia landlady, as his common law wife. Read’s first husband had abandoned her however, due to bigamy laws, she and franklin could not have an official wedding ceremony. Franklin and read had a son, francis 1732 36 , who died of smallpox at age 4, and a daughter, sarah 1743 1808. From 1763 to 1776, and remained loyal to the british during the american revolution. As franklin’s printing business prospered, he became increasingly involved in civic affairs.

Starting in the 1730s, he helped establish a number of community organizations in philadelphia, including a lending library it was founded in 1731, a time when books weren’t widely available in the colonies, and remained the largest u.s. Public library until the 1850s , the city’s first fire company, a police patrol and the american philosophical society, a group devoted to the sciences and other scholarly pursuits. Franklin also organized the pennsylvania militia, raised funds to build a city hospital and spearheaded a program to pave and light city streets.