Talk:Benjamin Franklin/Archive 1

message: If its undocumented, how do you know about it? ChessPlayer 02:18, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  First Postmaster General? 

message: The honored Americans section of Talk:George Washington says that Thomas Jefferson has an honor rank of #2 and Benjamin Franklin has an honor rank of #3. However, something began to make me think that it is also possible that Franklin is #2 and Jefferson is #3. Which is correct?? (Go to the Talk:George Washington page to find out how an honor rank is defined.) 66.32.94.195 00:34, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jefferson #2 and Franklin #3 or Franklin #2 and Jefferson #3?? 

message: On this page , they also list "Armonica", a musical instrument invented by Franklin. They also credit him for first mapping the Gulf Stream. Samohyl Jan 11:36, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  other inventions? 

message: Can't we use Duplessis' painting itself? Greuze is greuzy.
WB2 07:34, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  picture 

message: Franklin's birthdate is given first as January 17, 1706, and a few paragraphs down in the article as January 6 of the same year.  Presumably these are new style and old style, respectively, but that isn't specified and there are numerous other unspecified dates also.  Shouldn't the dates should be made consistent and specified n.s. or o.s.? -EDM 21:43, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Birthdate 

message: Does anyone know why the article Silence Dogood was erased from Wikipedia? I can't seem to find a vfd on it. It was a complete article, and there should have been no reason for its deletion.
Edit: Never mind, I found the deletion log for it, I'll create a re-direct to this article, as I'm not qualified to expand that article. Autopilots 20:17, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Silence Dogood]] 

message: Has anybody noticed that this 'site hasn't got any bibliographies? 
SR
Problem solved: I added bibliographies & links Rjensen 02:19, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  bibliographies 

message: Apparently Mr. Franklin is a great amateur mathematician as well, especially on the area of magic squares and circles:
I am no mathematician, however; anyone up to write something on this? - Jeekc 04:19, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Franklin in Mathematics 

message: I briefly explain BF's world historical importance in the opening papragraph, and cleaned up the bibliography some. Rjensen 04:26, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why is Ben Great? 

message: As Kzollman pointed out in his last edit summary, the Boston Latin School website claims Franklin as a graduate.   But the article says he left school at 10 and at 12 apprenticed to his brother. Can those both be correct? -EDM 19:47, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: You're right. Boston Latin's own site claims  Franklin only as a "pupil", not a grad.  And it's a very common mistake to jump from "alum" to "graduate"; Syracuse University claims Stephen Crane as an alum even though he attended only a single semester, and admitted that he came just to play baseball. Incidentally, the site shown in the edit summary is a "Boston Public Schools" site, not Boston Latin's site. -- Mwanner | Talk 20:28, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay, my mistake.  This site says that BF was taking out of Boston Latin (then called something else) because it was too expensive.   He attended another school for a year and then never attended school again.  Sorry folks! --best, kevin [kzollman][talk] 20:51, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Boston Latin School graduate? 

message: * I see in other sources that Franklin stayed in London from 1757-1775.  This wikipedia article has him criss-crossing several times during those years.  Could someone please look into this and get it straight?  Thanks ፈቃደ (ውይይት) 04:23, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dates lived in London 

message: Theo, I backed out your change because:
* you backed out WilliamKF's change
* you added something about astrology in a sentence which is mostly about science and technology.  all I did was move it to the end of the paragraph.
* I moved your reference to "Poor Richard Improved" to after "Poor Richard's Almanack", to which it is related.
Your comment in the history makes no sence.  I know Franklin wrote Poor Richard's; that's why I added to reference to it.  Did you even look at my change?  I didn't take out any of your astrology stuff; I even added to it.  All I did was move it around.  Pfalstad 03:21, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Benjamin Franklin Practiced Astrology as a Science 

message: I was surprised that there has been no mention in the article of Franklin's view on religion. May be interesting to note, esp. since there's a perception that every white person had to be Christian in those days.
I am using the Perhaps a single sentence would be acceptable editing guideline for the fabricated quote. Ancheta Wis 08:00, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Franklin and Deism 

message: Although the article says he freed slaves and joined an abolitionist organization after 1780 (when Pennsylvania implemented a gradual emancipation law), the article does not detail how many slaves he owned during his lifetime and how deeply he was involved in the slave trade. I recently heard David Waldstreicher (Waldstreicher, David. Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution. Hill and Wang, 2004. 315 pp.)say that Franklin never freed a single one of his slaves and that he accepted advertising for the sale of slaves. How the founders viewed slavery is a subject of interest so this should be handled with more detail. Nitpyck (talk) 07:59, 10 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Slavery 

message: The article says "In 1730, at the age of 24, Franklin publicly acknowledged an illegitimate son named William ..." but the caption under his picture says William was born in 1731. Dan Sachs (talk) 15:51, 4 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I removed the caption under his name since it is unclear which is the correct birth year. I hope someone with access to the cited texts can clarify this.--JayJasper (talk) 15:27, 26 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Question About William Franklin 

message: I would like to add the following external link in the Benjamin Franklin article to a paper I have written:
* The Bailout Debate of 1722 / Monetary Conditions around Franklin's Grave
There is a photograph of Franklin's grave in the paper. The article is not about Franklin, but of the economic conditions
of Pennsylvania just before Franklin set up shop.  The paper discusses monetary conditions around Franklin's grave in 2009
and what hints these conditions offer for the future.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chiefoperator (talk • contribs) 23:51, 16 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Request to add external link : Monetary Conditions around Franklin's Grave 

message: I am sorry that I must piggyback this onto this part of the page, but I am writting a report on Benjermin Franklin and I would like to point somthing out. We state 
"England on December 23, 1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith and farmer, and"
that Franklins father is a blacksmith and farmer, and then state
"Josiah Franklin, a tallow chandler and soap- and candle-maker"
he is a soap and candle maker.
I think we should figure out which one is true and fix it or if both are true state them in both places. 
This is sort of thing that makes my teachers act like Wikipedia is the antichrist. 
I hope this helps. If I don't get a reply I will do some research on my own and post the answer. 
Forteto (talk) 23:59, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Contradicting Information. 

message: Link in the Biographical and guides section is not from a reliable source and is being used as a link to bolster search engine results on a for-profit website that has nothing to do with history. Visiting the main site www.gigmasters.com will reveal the irrelevance of this domain to the topic of Ben Franklin.
*Benjamin Franklin: The Musician and Inventor Cecilia Brauer
Speede06 (talk) 18:24, 3 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit request from Speede06, 3 June 2010 

message: In the water spout illustration, does anyone know what the number grid means?  24.24.232.140 (talk) 02:53, 29 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Wow, it is.  A Franklin square,   75.84.101.178 (talk) 02:34, 30 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Water spout illustration 

message: The entry discussing Franklin's work with the gulf stream says it was "completely ignored" in england, which seems a little bit too conversational. Shortly afterwards it uses the term ignored once again saying that his work on the wave theory of light was "basically ignored".
I'll fix it in the morning if it's still there.
75.208.66.24 (talk) 06:37, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Redundant ignorage 

message: This article has been reverted by a bot to  as part of a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. (See the investigation subpage) This has been done to remove User:Accotink2's contributions as they have a history of extensive copyright violation and so it is assumed that all of their major contributions are copyright violations. Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. VWBot (talk) 13:14, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I fixed the article and restored lost legit edits. No plagiarism by Accotink2 remains. Rjensen (talk) 17:30, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Copyright problem 

message: The section labelled "Coming of Revolution" deals with events of 1763, but it is placed between Franklin's departure from London in 1775 and his selection as delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1776. I suggest that it be moved to the first section under "Public Life" and placed just before the last paragraph there (which begins "At this time, many members..."
It might help to combat confusion over his multiple trips to Britain if a subhead ("First Trip to Britain") were placed just before "In 1757, he was sent to England..." and "Europe Years" were replaced with "Second Trip to Britain". "Europe Years" is itself misleading, as it could equally describe the period a decade later when he served as US envoy (*NOT* ambassador) to France.
Winterbadger (talk) 18:24, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  timeline discrepancy 

message: Some people assert that Ben's accent made him sound like a Scotsman.  Yet it is clear that he grew up in New England.  Did people in Massachusetts speak a dialect most closely resembling present-day Scottish?  Or did the contemporaries which described his dialect as Scottish-like have the wrong idea of how Scottish sounds?
2010-05-04  Lena Synnerholm, Märsta, Sweden. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.247.167.71 (talk) 13:01, 13 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dialect 

message: Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that :File:Benjamin Franklin 1767.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on January 17, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-01-17. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng  {chat} 22:16, 29 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[:File:Benjamin Franklin 1767.jpg]] to appear as POTD soon 

message: "By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail." Benjamin Fanklin  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.184.26 (talk) 21:15, 3 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Quotes, unless extremely notable, should be hosted at Wikiquote. This one does seem to have been fairly-well used, however, so might merit an inclusion, if courced. Rodhullandemu 21:21, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

text: Please see Rodhullandemu's comments above. Also note that this page is for discussing improvements to the article, not for listing quotes. Thank you.JayJasper (talk) 22:32, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  quote 

message: Presumably, because he was born British, into a British colony in the United States, he was British-American?
Co8kie (talk) 19:24, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Although he was born British, it is usual practice to refer to people from this time period as strictly Americans, unless they were actually born in Britain.--Jojhutton (talk) 19:32, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nationality 

message: How often was Ben in Paris. And it was not just for business, I have heard. Why isn't somebody making a movie about this? Osterluzei (talk) 06:00, 14 February 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Benjamin in Paris 

message: As somebody saw fit to challenge my substitution of "as a minister" for "in the church," I will explain why I think my choice of words is more appropriate.
First of all, "in the church" suggests a unified entity such as the Catholic Church, as opposed to the colonial collection of autonomous Congregational churches (plural) to which the Franklin family belonged during Benjamin's childhood.  
Secondly, using the word "ministry" or "minister" is consistent with common usage.  An example from a review of Walter Isaacson's biography of Franklin:  "Franklin received some formal education at Boston Latin School, to prepare him for the ministry."
Finally, to quote from James Srodes' Franklin: The Essential Founding Father (p. 17) explaining why Franklin's father took him out of Latin School: "Franklin later told his own son, William, that he suspected his father had changed his mind after taking a hard look at the clergyman's penurious life." --Other Choices (talk) 02:52, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The fact that we disagree is moot.  "The church" can have many suggested meanings, not necessarily a unified entity such as the Catholic C., the Romanized C., the Christian C., etc.  When one says, "I went to church today," a stranger has no way of knowing which church is meant.  And "minister" is but one of many jobs in the church.  I suppose that "minister" or even "senior minister" might be what Ben's parents had in mind, but we have no way of knowing.  We only know what the cited references tell us.  For example, in the Early life section there is a cited reference for the quote, "his parents talked of the church as a career", which is here.  The quote is found on page vi.  In light of this, and of the fact that I abhor edit wars, it is sincerely hoped that you will self-revert as soon as practicable.  — Paine Ellsworth ( CLIMAX )  05:33, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Fair enough, you have an indisputable source for your point of view; so I self-reverted to keep the peace.  I still think that "as a minister" is more precise, but it's a minor point, definitely not worth fighting over.--Other Choices (talk) 06:41, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you, and sincerely, no "fight" was intended.  Cite a reliable source, and a claim is then justified.  Best to you!  — Paine Ellsworth ( CLIMAX )  08:25, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  "in the church"  or "as a minister" 

message: I can't believe he invented the violin and the harp, as the article says now. That must come from Sarah Palin, but is not referenced. I can't fix it because I will not bother to register.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.41.142.219 (talk) 22:11, 26 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Prank 

message: you have hackers trying to say his name is george
Stupidfixer2000 (talk) 23:48, 1 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done: please be more specific about what needs to be changed. — Abhishek  Talk  17:43, 2 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit request from Stupidfixer2000, 1 October 2011 

message: Article intends to show change of calendar by 11 days. However, it shows January 1705 and January 1706. Don't know which is correct, but at least one is not. JL28552855 (talk) 05:34, 4 July 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, this is formally correct. He was born in what we now refer to as 1706, but in the British use of the Old Style calendar, the new year didn't begin on January 1, but on March 25. So, the date known as January 13, 1706 in the New Style was January 6 in the Old Style and since in that calendar, the year had a different start date, 1705 would go on til March 24. However, what I want to know is this: if Franklin was born in Boston, which was then a town in the British North American colonies, why is the New Style date given first, with the Old Style date in parenthesies? The UK and its colonies made the change of calendars in September 1752, so at the time of Franklin's birth, the Old Style would have been applied in Boston. Thus, his birth date was must've counted as January 6 in Boston, in the colonies and in the UK itself. So, shouldn't his birth date be given as January 6, with a note in parenthesies that this date corresponds to January 13 in the New Style calendar? /Ludde23 Talk Contrib 17:29, 25 August 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: His death date is given in New Style - as that was THE style then and now. To determine how long people lived, it is easier to use the same style for both dates. People alive at the time of the switch made decisions on which date to celebrate their birthday. I suspect many just celebrated twice. Different conventions apply for people who died before New Style came in, such as Franklin's father.--JimWae (talk) 01:47, 29 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Birth date for Benjamin Franklin 

message: I think some mention should be made of Ben Franklin appearing on currency, such as the $100 bill and Franklin half-dollar.
71.82.165.174 (talk) 00:44, 11 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Please note the pic, "Franklin on the Series 1996 hundred dollar bill", and the info in the article about it. Thanks,  Chzz  ►  01:29, 14 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit request from , 11 October 2011 

message: The article as it now stands is something of a hagiography. It states on the one hand that, "Franklin retained a lifelong commitment to the Puritan virtues and political values he had grown up with," with no apparent attempt reconcile this with other statements in the same article, namely that Franklin had an illegitimate son and lived common law with Deborah Read. Neither does the article refer to Franklin's fondness for prostitutes nor his letter in which he offered advice on choosing a mistress. As major and as admirable a figure as Franklin can take the whole truth. There is no need to whitewash him. Msfeatherstone (talk) 14:33, 16 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Puritan values? 

message: The Benjamin Franklin Wikipedia page says 1733, but the Poor Richard's Almanack page says 1732, and the SparkNotes for The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/franklinautobio/section5.rhtml) says 1732.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.166.114.24 (talk) 11:33, 4 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Poor Richard's Almanack publication date" 

message: Okay, I realise that a lot of people (especially those crazy French) had a tendency to refer to Franklin as "Doctor," but I feel as though it's a bit misleading to refer to him that way on a page intended to be purely factual in nature.  I would point out that Franklin never achieved anything above what we would now call a high school education, and certainly was never a postgraduate student.  I won't change the reference now, because I do realise that this was a way that a lot of people referred to him, but I'd like to (tentatively!) suggest that that reference be either omitted or changed to be listed after his proper name.  In my humble opinion, it should not be listed at the beginning of his article, though I do feel it is important to note.  Thoughts?
Sherlockian87 (talk) 08:40, 4 December 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Agree. Prefixes should not be in wikipedia articles anyway. Hamsterlopithecus (talk) 20:30, 9 January 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. I added a paragraph on his grandson William Temple Franklin, somebody reworded it a bit and added the honorific "Dr". I've been an American for a long time now an I love Benjamin Franklin-$100 bills are my favorite, and that was the first time I head him referred to as Dr. Franklin. A Google search shows only a few references to him as Dr. Franklin. The honorific is misleading, especially for younger people or foreigners. He was unpretentius in life, and everybody knows him as "Ben". 7mike5000 (talk) 02:22, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

text: Agreed. "Doctor" is misleading & unencyclopedic.--JayJasper (talk) 06:25, 10 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Doctor" Franklin 

message: Under Places and Things named after Franklin, could you please add Franklinia alatamaha, commonly called the Franklin tree.  It was named after him by his friends and fellow Philadephians, botanists James and William Bartram.  Add link to the Franklin tree in Wiki.
JimSchutzbach (talk) 03:20, 16 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit request on 16 December 2011 

message: Substituted at 20:28, 2 May 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment comment