mportant meteorological discoveries,
including the fact that the Gulf Stream is warmer than the surrounding
ocean; proved, by experiment with colored cloths on snow, that different
colors absorb the heat of the sun in different quantities.

These are among his scientific achievements. From each he drew some
practical inference. He invented the lightning-rod; devised systems of
ventilation for buildings, and suggested that white, since it absorbs the
least heat, is the best color to wear in summer.

IN LITERATURE AND PUBLIC LIFE.

His reputation as a man of letters rests upon his journalistic work,
essays, and correspondence, and his unique autobiography. He founded the
first literary newspaper in America, thus becoming the first editor as
distinguished from the mere news-gatherer. He founded the first literary
club in America--the famous Junto. He was the first to illustrate a
newspaper, and to point out the advantages of illustrated advertisements.

Though his claim to eminence as a man of letters is not to be gainsaid, he
was not, in the finer distinction, a literary man. He represented no
literary tradition, nor did he establish one. His practical genius
confined the elements of his literary manner to lucidity, simplicity, and
directness. There was no really idealistic touch in his writing. But his
frankness and his genial humor kept him from ever becoming dull. His
autobiography is one of the most interesting personal narratives ever
written.

But Franklin's greatest work was his work as a statesman and diplomat.
Between 1757 and 1775 he represented in England first his own colony of
Pennsylvania and later the group of colonies. His zeal got him into
trouble, for he made public, though by permission, some letters written
by Governor Hutchison, of Massachusetts, in which the English government
was advised to use harsh measures with the colony.

Attacked in the Privy Council for his "bad faith," Franklin stood silent
until the vituperation ended, and then quietly withdrew. His demeanor
inspired Horace Walpole's famous epigram:

The calm philosopher, without reply,
Withdrew, and gave his country liberty.

On that fateful day Franklin was dressed in "a new suit of spotted
Manchester velvet." The man's sense of humor appears in the fact that he
deliberately laid that suit aside and did not put it on again until the
day when he signed the treaty of alliance between France and the American
colonies.

H