This 2024/2025 season marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the EST/Sloan Project, the joint initiative between the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Ensemble Studio Theatre “designed to stimulate artists to create credible and compelling work exploring the worlds of science and technology and to challenge the existing stereotypes of scientists and engineers in the popular imagination.” In that spirit, we offer this second essay on the historical and scientific context of FRANKLINLAND, the Fall 2024 Mainstage Production of the EST/Sloan Project. FRANKLINLAND, written by Lloyd Suh and directed by Chika Ike, began previews at EST on October 9 and runs through November 3. You can purchase tickets here.
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing.”
By Rich Kelley
Over the 84 years of his life (1706–1790), Benjamin Franklin achieved renown in many diverse fields: diplomacy, engineering, journalism, politics, public works, science. Collected here are fifteen facts about some of his lesser-known achievements.
Swim fins (1717). Courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania
Invented Swim Fins: Franklin was an avid swimmer in his youth. Swim fins, or paddles, were his first invention at age 11. He wore them on his hands to help him move faster in water, earning him a place in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
"Nature-printed" paper money produced by Franklin, incorporating leaf images. From Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame and doi:10.1073/pnas.230185612
Printed Beautiful and Hard to Counterfeit Money: In 1731, Franklin won a contract to print £40,000 for the Pennsylvania colony. To foil counterfeiters, Franklin experimented with various papers and inks and even created a cast of a sage leaf to print on his money. The leaf’s complex veins could not be easily imitated. Learn more from “What Benjamin Franklin Learned from Fighting Counnterfeiters.”
Compiled a “Drinker’s Dictionary”: In 1737, Franklin compiled a dictionary of over 200 terms for drunkenness, showcasing his linguistic creativity and providing a satirical look at the drinking habits of colonial America. Here are the entries under “D”:
He’s Disguis’d
He’s got a Dish
He’s kill’d his Dog
He’s took his Drops
It’s a Dark Day with him
He’s a Dead man
He’s Dipped his bill
He’s Dagged
He’s seen the Devil
For the complete list, see “The Drinker’s Dictionary”
Hoffman, Bernard - Artist. Ben Franklin, Citizen. 1952. Watercolors (Paintings). Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphia, PA. https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/55467.
Founded the First Volunteer Fire Department: Franklin started the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia in 1736, the first volunteer fire department in America. He served as the first volunteer fire chief of what was sometimes called “Franklin’s Bucket Brigade.”
Wrote a Popular Pamphlet on Choosing a Mistress: Franklin authored a satirical (and often censored) pamphlet in 1745 titled “Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress,” which included the provocative advice “in all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones.”.
D'Aulaire, Edgar Parin, 1898-1986, and D'Aulaire, Ingri, 1904-1980 - Artist. D'Aulaire - Final Art for "Benjamin Franklin". ca. 1949. Illustrations. Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphia, PA. https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/51969.
Invented “Electric Party Games”: After his famous work with electricity, Franklin entertained guests with electric parlor tricks. One such game was to pass an electric shock through a line of people holding hands, providing a thrill and a laugh—an unusual precursor to today’s party games.
Tenderized Turkey by Electrocution and Electrocuted Himself: In several experiments Franklin electrocuted turkeys usind two Leyden jars and found that made the meat “uncommonly tender.” But these experiments had their hazards. In one, Franklin electrocuted himself. His friend Peter Collinson recounted Franklin’s experience. “It was some minutes before he could recollect his thoughts so as to know what was the matter . . . His arms and the back of the neck felt somewhat numbed the remainder of the evening, and his breast was sore for a week after, as if it has been bruised.”
Hosted an Electrical Picnic on the Schuylkill: In one letter to the Royal Academy in 1749 Franklin described a picnic on the banks of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia: “a turkey is to be killed for our dinners by the electrical shock, and roasted by the electrical jack, before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle, when the healths of all the famous electricians in England, France and Germany, are to be drank in electrified bumpers, under the discharge of guns from the electrical battery.”
A fanciful recreation of Franklin’s electrical picnic courtesy of Dall-e with prompts from Rich Kelley
Invented a Flexible Urinary Catheter: In 1752, Franklin invented a flexible urinary catheter for his brother John, who suffered from bladder stones. His catheter was more comfortable than the rigid devices used at the time.
Flexible catheter (1752) Courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania
Organized a Militia and Built Stockades: In 1756, Colonel Franklin organized a militia and built a line of stockades to defend Pennsylvania’s western frontier. To get the 500 men under his command to attend worship services, he had the military chaplain dole out the daily allotment of rum right after services. “Never were prayers more generally and punctually attended.”
Franklin with son William directing the building of the stockade at Fort Allen (1911) by Charles Mills Library of Congress / Public Domain
Whale oil street lamp (American), Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection, Photo Credit: Peter Harholdt
Improved Street Lighting Designs: Colonists first used the glass globes common in London for streetlights. They tended to darken with soot as the oil inside burned and required near daily cleaning. Franklin’s improved design, introduced around 1757, used a four-sided glass globe to prevent the wind from blowing out the flame, and included a long funnel above to draw up the smoke, and crevices admitting air below, to facilitate the ascent of smoke. His design also gave off more light.
Took Daily Air Baths: Franklin had a unique health regimen that included “air baths,” which involved sitting naked in front of an open window for 30 minutes to an hour. Franklin believed in “dry bathing,” which involved rubbing himself down with a dry towel to exfoliate and invigorate his skin. He claimed it kept him in good health.
Invented the Glass Armonica: In 1761, Franklin invented a musical instrument called the glass armonica, which used spinning glass bowls to produce sounds. Mozart, Beethoven, Donizetti, and Saint-Saens wrote music for it. In the video excerpt from the Ken Burns documentary about Franklin, historian Ellen Conn explains what inspired Franklin’s invention.
Promoted Farting: In a jocular letter to the Royal Academy in 1781, Franklin proposed that it engage in a study of farts “To discover some Drug wholesome & not disagreable, to be mix’d with our common Food, or Sauces, that shall render the natural Discharges of Wind from our Bodies, not only inoffensive, but agreable as Perfumes.”
Used the Scientific Method to Prove Anton Mesmer a Fraud: In 1784 while Franklin was ambassador to France, King Louis XVI charged him to lead a commission to investigate the claims of Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer that he was able to cure innumerable ailments by rearranging a person’s “animal magnetism.” Franklin’s commission, including the chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, the astronomer Jean-Sylvain Bally, and doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the inventor of the guillotine, invented science’s first blind test to prove Mesmer’s techniques a fraud. (For more details, see “Mesmerising Science: The Franklin Commission and the Modern Clinical Trial.”)
Magnetism Unveiled, anonymous engraving showing Benjamin Franklin brandishing his commission’s exposé of animal magnetism, while a half-animal Mesmer flees on a witch’s broom, in his hand a bag of money From Bibliotheque nationale de France