The Five-Hour Workday

摘要

In Boston 300 years ago, a soap- and candle-maker named Josiah Franklin became the proud father of his fifteenth child, Ben. Although this child was schooled for only two years, he learned to read on his own; mastered several languages; studied mathematics, navigation, and science; and read the great classics of his time. As a truly self-made and incredibly productive man, Benjamin Franklin became a printer, author, scientist, public servant, inventor, diplomat, and philosopher. At the young age of 16, he started his own weekly newspaper; and at 22 years of age, he moved to Philadelphia, started a print shop, and published The Pennsylvania Gazette, which helped him to raise money and establish the first hospital in our country. At 25, he started thefirst circulating library in America. He was made the official printer for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland; formed the first volunteer fire company in the nation; started a debating club, which ultimately became the American Philosophical Society; and in 1753, was made deputy postmaster general for all of the colonies. Mail, at that time, was transported by stagecoach, and postage was based upon weight and distance. To accurately measure distance, he invented a machine that attached to the hub of a wagon wheel.