{"product_id":"2940013673571","title":"THE AGE OF INVENTION, A CHRONICLE OF MECHANICAL CONQUEST","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     I. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND HIS TIMES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     II. ELI WHITNEY AND THE COTTON GIN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     III. STEAM IN CAPTIVITY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     IV. SPINDLE, LOOM, AND NEEDLE IN NEW ENGLAND\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     V. THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     VI. AGENTS OF COMMUNICATION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     VII. THE STORY OF RUBBER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     VIII. PIONEERS OF THE MACHINE SHOP\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     IX. THE FATHERS OF ELECTRICITY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     X. THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE AGE OF INVENTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND HIS TIMES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn Milk Street, in Boston, opposite the Old South Church, lived Josiah\u003cbr\u003eFranklin, a maker of soap and candles. He had come to Boston with his\u003cbr\u003ewife about the year 1682 from the parish of Ecton, Northamptonshire,\u003cbr\u003eEngland, where his family had lived on a small freehold for about three\u003cbr\u003ehundred years. His English wife had died, leaving him seven children,\u003cbr\u003eand he had married a colonial girl, Abiah Folger, whose father, Peter\u003cbr\u003eFolger, was a man of some note in early Massachusetts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJosiah Franklin was fifty-one and his wife Abiah thirty-nine, when the\u003cbr\u003efirst illustrious American inventor was born in their house on Milk\u003cbr\u003eStreet, January 17, 1706. He was their eighth child and Josiah's\u003cbr\u003etenth son and was baptized Benjamin. What little we know of Benjamin's\u003cbr\u003echildhood is contained in his \"Autobiography\", which the world has\u003cbr\u003eaccepted as one of its best books and which was the first American book\u003cbr\u003eto be so accepted. In the crowded household, where thirteen children\u003cbr\u003egrew to manhood and womanhood, there were no luxuries. Benjamin's period\u003cbr\u003eof formal schooling was less than two years, though he could never\u003cbr\u003eremember the time when he could not read, and at the age of ten he was\u003cbr\u003eput to work in his father's shop.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBenjamin was restless and unhappy in the shop. He appeared to have no\u003cbr\u003eaptitude at all for the business of soap making. His parents debated\u003cbr\u003ewhether they might not educate him for the ministry, and his father took\u003cbr\u003ehim into various shops in Boston, where he might see artisans at work,\u003cbr\u003ein the hope that he would be attracted to some trade. But Benjamin saw\u003cbr\u003enothing there that he wished to engage in. He was inclined to follow the\u003cbr\u003esea, as one of his older brothers had done.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis fondness for books finally determined his career. His older brother\u003cbr\u003eJames was a printer, and in those days a printer was a literary man as\u003cbr\u003ewell as a mechanic. The editor of a newspaper was always a printer and\u003cbr\u003eoften composed his articles as he set them in type; so \"composing\" came\u003cbr\u003eto mean typesetting, and one who sets type is a compositor. Now James\u003cbr\u003eneeded an apprentice. It happened then that young Benjamin, at the age\u003cbr\u003eof thirteen, was bound over by law to serve his brother.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070173987056,"sku":"2940013673571","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013673571_p0.jpg?v=1763596925","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013673571","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}