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Benjamin Franklin Inventors and Inventions

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Benjamin Franklin
Print Benjamin Franklin Reading Comprehension


Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 7 to 8
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.19

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		better, radiate, self-taught, bifocal, reading, nuisance, employ, stoves, improvement, musical, foreign, lifetime, invention, tale, ability, throughout
	content words:		Ben Franklin, Benjamin Franklin, David Rittenhouse

Other Languages
     Spanish: Benjamín Franklin

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Benjamin Franklin By Sharon Fabian

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¹     What makes a person famous -- great looks, athletic ability, musical talent, star quality?
 
²     Ben Franklin has been famous for a long time. Maybe he had all of those qualities, or maybe he didn't. Either way, that's not what he is remembered for. Ben Franklin is remembered for his many great achievements, including some great inventions. None of those "star qualities" would have helped him invent the Franklin stove, but another great quality did - curiosity. Franklin was curious about how things worked. When something didn't work very well, he liked to go to his workshop and see what he could come up with. He liked to experiment to see if his ideas were right. His curiosity led to some more inventions, too, including bifocal glasses and the lightning rod.
 
³     In 1742, he invented the Franklin stove. This time, the problem that he had been thinking about was fireplaces. Fireplaces used lots of wood, wasted lots of heat, made lots of smoke, and could be dangerous. Franklin's idea for an improvement was an iron stove that would take in cool air through the bottom and radiate heat from all sides. There was one problem with Franklin's design, and that had to do with the chimney. Another inventor, David Rittenhouse, improved Franklin's stove with a better chimney in 1772. Franklin stoves have been around ever since.

Paragraphs 4 to 7:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

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