Ben Franklin’s Fame by Stacia Deutsch & Rhody Cohon

Author:Stacia Deutsch & Rhody Cohon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

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There’s so much that happened next.

We were jumping in and out of history at the speed of light. One minute here. Two minutes there. Since the kite experiment in 1752, we’d been to 1751 and witnessed Babs Magee design the first public hospital. Instead of medical care being only for the rich who could afford it, this hospital was for everyone. One more good idea stolen from Ben Franklin.

From there we went to 1750 and saw Babs Magee invent the lightning rod, another of Ben’s famous experiments involving electricity and lightning. Babs hoisted a long rod to the roof of her Philadelphia home. A crowd had gathered to see what she’d created.

Babs told everyone, including Jacob, Zack, Bo, and me, that the rod was made of iron. It attracted lightning and, when struck, the electric charge would travel directly to the ground and fizzle out instead of hit the roof and start a big fire.

The crowd cheered for Babs’s invention, and we left 1750 feeling totally bummed.

In 1741 Babs invented a stove called the Pennsylvania Fire-Place. Old stoves did nothing to heat the room. Most of the warmth from a small fire escaped up the chimney. The Pennsylvania Fire-Place solved that problem, making the room nice and toasty. This new invention immediately became a bestseller, especially during the winter, when Philadelphia was freezing cold and covered with snow.

When Babs first lit a fire in the new stove, I hoped the whole thing would blow up in her face, but it turned out that Babs had studied history and knew not just when but how things were done. The stove worked perfectly.

Bo told us that the invention should have been called the “Franklin Stove,” but the people we heard out on the street were cheering the greatness of the “Magee Stove.” At that, Zack complained he was going to throw up.

After we saw Babs become the first postmaster of Philadelphia, set up the first fire department, and establish the first public library, we finally stopped for a short break. Time travel can make you really tired.

Besides, there were only forty-six minutes left on the computer and we needed to ask Bo where to go next.

It was 1729. Babs was about to buy the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper, just like Ben Franklin had done. We were across the street from a small print shop. The sign said: MAGEE PRINTING OFFICE.

Babs was standing outside the office, entertaining people of the town and telling them about her grand plans for the paper. She was talking so loudly, we could hear every word. We tried to block out her voice while we talked.

“I’m starting to think we might never find Ben Franklin,” Zack commented as he plopped down on a patch of grass and put his head in his hands. “How can I convince him to get back on track like Mr. C said if we can’t find him? We don’t even know what track it is that he needs to get back on.” Zack huffed a bunch of short sighs.

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