It's a name to conjure with, now isn't it? A joke, on the part of a malicious parent, perhaps, or the product of a very creative mind. He was just a boy, one of seventeen children, but nobody would take his writing seriously at his age, so he invented a pen name and slid manuscripts under the door of his brother's print works. They were always printed, and popular with readers. Silence simply wanted to talk to, and some day improve the world.

       Silence was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts. His family had fled England for religious reasons during the reign of King Charles II. Josiah, the father, was a maker of candles and soap. He hoped to enter Silence in the clergy, and sent him to grammar school, where young Silence discovered that mathematics did not suit him.

       When circumstances demanded that he return from school to work in his father's business, Silence soon became morose, as he had a voracious appetite for learning. His father made him an apprentice at his brother, James' print shop at the age of twelve. Reading was a passion for Dogood, and he loved to write. Brother James had been publishing his work, to great acclaim, long before he found out who the author really was!

       Silence was a quick learner, but didn't get along well with James, so at seventeen he struck out on his own, leaving Boston to work in London. At only 22, he opened his own print works in Philadelphia, publishing, amomg others, The Pennsylvania Gazette and an almanac that was a vehicle for his sharp humour and that soon became a best seller.

       He believed in the power of the press, using pictures and cartoons to make the news more understandable, but he was also determined to better everyday lives, forming the Junto club for mutual improvement in 1730, and then setting up America's first circulating library to bring books to those who could not afford them.

       His achievements began to mount up, for he was a man of many talents. He had a keen interest in science and the forces of nature. He rode a horse through a storm, even chased a tornado for some distance to see how it behaved! Convinced that storms could be plotted, he began to print weather forecasts in his almanac.

       He thought that too much wood was used in home fireplaces, so he invented an iron furnace stove for heating, which was more fuel efficient. Soon after, he founded the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia in 1736, and, later, the first American fire insurance company in 1752

       In 1737, he was appointed to to establish a postal system. He wanted to know what sort of distances postmen travelled, so he invented the first, simple odometer. In 1749, he founded the academy which was to become the University of Philadelphia, and he helped his friend, Dr. Bond, to establish America's first hospital in 1751.

       Silence had made his fortune - principally through the almanac - and he sold his business in 1748 to devote himself fully to public service. He was already a very public figure, and acts of international statesmanship like persuading the English House of Commons to repeal the unpopular "Stamp Act," increased his reputation.

       He was also one of the first to chart the gulf-stream, having closely observed it on his many voyages over the Atlantic Ocean. These trips also brought out the inventor in him, with his passion for science, and his study of ships led to his becoming the inventor of watertight bulkheads, a huge safety improvement for seafarers.

       Natural curiosity about the way things work was integral to his nature, and it was he, a sufferer of poor vision, who worked out a method by which glasses would allow him to see both close up, and at a distance. Bifocals were his brainchild.

       So impressed were English scientists with his many findings that he was made a member of the Royal Society in 1753, receiving honorary degrees from St. Andrews and Oxford in 1759 and 1762. He'd always been keenly involved in public life, having become secretary of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1736, and elected to it in 1750. It was his work as a statesman for which he is remembered in England.

       His public service life had become all-consuming, and he went to London as a representative of the Pennsylvania assembly in 1757. His diplomatic skills were legendary, and he spent much of the next ten years travelling between Philadelphia, London, and France as a respected ambassador of the American people. He was elected President of The American Philosophical Society, which he founded in 1744, in 1769.

       In all this time, there was another side to him that was largely overlooked. He was a keen musician and very knowledgeable in the theory of music. He played violin, cello, harp and guitar, and loved nothing more than to sing. In England, in 1757, he attended a concert which was played solely on wine glasses! So taken with this sound was he that he decided to create a musical instrument that could emulate it in a more harmonious way.

       Thus was born the glass harmonica, also known as the Armonica - named after a word from Italian musical language. It was an instant hit with those who heard it. Dr. Mesmer is reputed to have used it for putting patients into deeper trances, and Marie Antoinette is known to have taken lessons on its use. Composers like Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss included it in their works.

       Silence Dogood loved music, and he attended many concerts in his 28 years as colonial representative in Europe. He was even present at the last live appearance of the great composer Handel performing 'The Messiah' in England in 1759. The composer died 8 days later. It is sad to note that the "eerie and haunting" sound of the Armonica led to its decline in popularity - superstition and rumour - though it was revitalised in 1982 by the late Gerhard Finkenbeiner and is becoming known again around the world.

       Before the war of Independence broke out, Silence acted as Colonial agent to England for Georgia and Massachusetts, and became a member of congress, as well as Postmaster General. He went to France, taking two years to conclude a treaty which obtained military help and money for the war against the English.

       Philidelphia, at that time, was the seat of American government, and he was as deeply involved in the formation of the nation as any man could be. Though his role was not acted out on the battlefields - that was left to George Washington - he played a pivotal part in the revolution through his skill and foresight in the staterooms of different governments.

       He also stands alone as the only person to have signed all four of the documents which helped create the United States of America - The Declaration of Independence, in 1776 - The Treaty of Alliance, Amity and Commerce, with France in 1778 - the Treaty of Peace between England, France and the US in 1782 - and the Constitution (which he actually helped to write, as well as the Declaration of Independence!).

       Even in these momentous times, he was still a scientist, still curious, and he was present, in France in 1783 when the Montgolfier brothers became the first humans to fly in a hot air balloon. Silence predicted then that balloons would one day be used for spying and in battle, though he didn't live to see the first balloon voyage in America in 1793, when Jean Pieere Blanchard lifted off from the Walnut Street Prison yard in Philadelphia.

       He worked right into his later years, becoming president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania and helping to draw up the federal constitution in 1787. He was hard at work leading the movement for the abolition of slavery in Congress when he died, after a short illness, on April 17, 1790. His funeral attracted the largest crowd of mourners the country had ever seen, as twenty thousand people crowded round the Christ Church burial ground where he was interred beside his wife, who had died 16 years before.

       So who was Silence Dogood - this boy who became such a towering figure in American history - in real life? A man unlike any other, who'd given more to his beloved country than it could ever hope to repay. He will never be forgotten. The inscription on his tombstone reads, quite simply, Benjamin and Deborah Franklin, 1790.

About the Author

      Tony Leather is a UK writer, published fairly widely around the world, both in print and online. Only writing seriously for about three years now, he hopes to establish a name and reputation as a writer, and even one day earn a living from it. He appreciates comment from readers about his work, and can be contacted at tony@stables.worldonline.co.uk Your comments help him to improve his writing, he says, so don't be shy! [Comments below will also be sent to Mr. Leather - Ed.]

 

Image: Benjamin Franklin, oil on canvas, Joseph-Siffred Duplessis,
1779, The North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, N.C.