Tomorrow, March 28, is the last day for the Ben Franklin exhibit. On Saturday morning, we box it back up and prepare it to be shipped to its next location in Providence, Rhode Island.

So, take advantage of this last opportunity to see this special exhibit. You’ll be glad you did.

“He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.”

Thursday night we had our last Ben Franklin program–a discussion of journalistic ethics as practiced by Franklin and by today’s journalists. Our panelists all had thoughtful and interesting ideas backed up by examples gleaned from their own experience in newspaper and television journalism. A good-sized crowd made up mostly of adults and a few students listened carefully as Ted Vaden, Frank Fee, and Julia Lewis talked about using anonymous sources, trying to stay objective, and policies about printing sensational news.

“Love your Neighbor yet don’t pull down your Hedge.”

Did you know that Franklin published the first non-English language newspaper in colonial America? In 1732, he started the German language Philadelphische Zeitung, which soon failed. Franklin taught himself five languages – French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and German – which he spoke with varying degrees of fluency. For example, he told Italian physicist Giambatista Beccaria, in 1766, that, “I am pleased to hear that you read English, although you do not write it. I am in the same case with Italian.”

( from http://www.benjaminfranklin300.org)

Did you know that in 1783 Franklin witnessed the first manned balloon flight, and was among the scientists who signed an official certification of this historic achievement for the Montgolfier brothers? Although initially he could see no practical use for balloon flight, his curiosity was piqued by the strange new phenomenon, and he financed another balloonist, Jacques Charles, who championed hydrogen over the Montgolfier’s hot air. By January the next year, Franklin was writing to his friend Jan Ingenhousz suggesting that balloons “may possibly give a new Turn to human Affairs.” He argued that no ground army would ever be able to mount a sufficient defense against an onslaught of “Five thousand Balloons capable of raising two Men each” and hoped that this would ultimately convince “Sovereigns of the Folly of Wars.” On a more practical level, Franklin’s grandson, Temple, received history’s first airmail letter, carried across the English Channel by balloon in December 1784.

( from http://www.benjaminfranklin300.org)

“He that riseth late must trot all day.”

Did you know that Franklin was the first to propose daylight saving time, in a 1784 letter to the editors of the Journal of Paris. His suggestion was not particularly serious, however – the purpose of his article was to poke fun at Parisian high-society for staying up all night and sleeping in till past noon. Nonetheless, he calculated that Parisian families could save 96 million pre-revolutionary French pounds in candle wax and tallow from rising earlier in the summer. When Daylight Saving Time was first formally introduced, first by Germany and then by Britain and the USA, during World War I, it was for the same reasons of fuel conservation and economy first noted by Franklin.

( from http://www.benjaminfranklin300.org)

“There would be very little printed if publishers produced only things that offended nobody…Printers are educated in the belief that when men differ in opinion., both sides ought equally to have the advantage of being heard by the public, and that when Truth and Error have fair play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter.”

Next Thursday night, March 29, at 7 pm we’ll be presenting our last Ben Franklin program. It’s a panel discussion about journalism and a free press. We’ll be using quotes from Franklin as jumping-off points for a discussion about journalistic ethics. Our panel will include Ted Vaden from the News and Observer, Frank Fee from the UNC School of Journalism, and Julia Lewis from WRAL TV News.

So, this week we’ve been getting in touch with all our panelists to confirm their participation and to send them the list of quotes we’ll be using for the program. We’re hoping for a lively discussion of contemporary applications of Franklin’s principles.