As it turns out, today is Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday. Writer, typographer, printer-publisher-politician, inventor, statesman, gentleman scientist, lover, linguist, librarian and the first Postmaster General of the United States, Franklin was the consummate networker — distributing his ideas far and wide through a dizzying range of practices. He established a network of printing franchises by sending former apprentices fo set up shop in a new town and collecting his dues, he traveled extensively to London and the Courts of France fostering relationships and helping to form a nation, he wrote incisive arguments and entertainments under a constellation of pseudonyms to suit the purpose-at-hand including The Causist, Silence Dogood, Busy-Body, Poor Richard, and J.T. ; he advocated a paper currency fo facilitate liberal distribution of goods and services, he (reportedly) spread his affections among any number of womenin in the Colonies ond beyond ; and he published a weekly newspaper, an occasional magazine and the annual Poor Richard's Almanack. Along the way, Franklin pursued his polymathic interests while inventing
(a partial list) : the medical catheter, the Armonica (a musical instrument) the first public lending library, a phoneticalphabet, volunteer fire department, the American Philosophical Society, the circulating stove, swimfins, a university, bifocals, the lightning rod, and the United States Postal Service.
– “ Post-Master, ”DavidReinfurt,Dot Dot Dot #12, 2006
Portrait of Benjamin Franklin / Trying to find flaws, if any, in an enlargement of a superdollar, 2006, Photographic print of c.1770 etching, photographic it of Tony Law's photograph for The New York Times, July 23, 48 x 69.5 cm