Benjamin Franklin: Scientist, Statesman, Scholar & Sage

Duration: 12:00

Year Published: 1970

Creator: Handel Film Corp. (HFC)

Complete Record: Shows historic sites, documents, paintings, portraits, models, artifacts, inventions, buildings, liberty bell, wax figures in Philadelphia that have to do with Benjamin Franklin (no live people appear in this film). Leaflet in box states: Subjective camera techniques at the authentic sites trace the amazingly varied careers of Benjamin Franklin: ... his childhood and self-education in Boston, learning the printer’s trade, the 17-year-old runaway to Philadelphia and London to become a master printer, the fame throughout the Colonies that came with his publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard’s Almanac, formation of the American Philosophical Society and the first subscription library in America, his work in fire fighting and fire insurance, the founding of the first charity hospital in America and the University of Pennsylvania, military and defense work during the French and Indian Wars. ... Franklin’s development of America’s postal system, his studies of electricity and other aspects of science, his varied inventions including the lightning rod and bifocal eyeglasses, his 2 decades as unofficial ambassador to England from the 13 colonies, the Second Continental Congress and the Declaration of Independence, the years in France to help finance the Revolution, his guiding work on the Constitution and his death at 85, mourned by all the world.