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printing shop in order to find work in other printing shops in Boston, but no one would hire him.

Franklin decided to go to Philadesphia. He was seventeen years of age. When he arrived in the strange city, he had very little money. He finally found work in a printing shop in Philadelphia. The governor of the province advised him to start his own business and promised to lend him the money. He then sailed to England to buy printing presses and other machines. But, the money the governor had promised never arrived, so again Franklin was penniless in a strange place. When he returned to Philadelphia, he took a job as a clerk. With the little money that he earned, he opened his own printing shop and started a newspaper. He named it the Pennshylvania Gazette. He also printed an almanac which he called Poor Richard's Almanac.

At the age of forty-two, Franklin left business and spent the rest of his life working for his country until he was elected to the Continental Congress. In 1776, after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, he went to France on a government mission. He entered into an agreement with the French to send their fleet to help Americans fight England for the freedom of the United States. The French liked him and thought he was very wise and humorous. He became so popular that his picture was put on pieces of jewelry and snuffboxes.

When he returned to Philadelphia, after the American Colonies won their freedom from England, he helped write the Constitution of the United States. After some disagreement, the Constitution was ratified and contained many of Franklin's ideas.

Franklin was also an inventor. He got the idea for the lightning rod that helped protect houses from lightning. He also invented a kind of stove for heating a room. Bifocal glasses are also one of Franklin's inventions. He founded the first library that would lend books for people to take home, organized the first city fire department and the first city street-cleaning department. He thought education was important and established the first academy in Philadelphia. Franklin died in 1790 at the age of eighty-four, a year after the Constitution was confirmed.

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