7 The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time 7young to assume the persona of a middle-aged woman was
a remarkable feat, and Franklin took “exquisite Pleasure”
in the fact that his brother and others became convinced
that only a learned and ingenious wit could have written
these essays.
Late in 1722 James Franklin got into trouble with the
provincial authorities and was forbidden to print or publish
the Courant. To keep the paper going, he discharged his
younger brother from his original apprenticeship and
made him the paper’s nominal publisher. New indentures
were drawn up but not made public. Some months later,
after a bitter quarrel, Benjamin secretly left home, sure
that James would not “go to law” and reveal the subterfuge
he had devised.
Youthful Adventures
Failing to find work in New York City, Franklin at age 17
went on to Quaker-dominated Philadelphia, a much more
open and religiously tolerant place than Puritan Boston.
One of the most memorable scenes of the Autobiography is
the description of his arrival on a Sunday morning, tired
and hungry. Finding a bakery, he asked for three pennies’
worth of bread and got “three great Puffy Rolls.” Carrying
one under each arm and munching on the third, he walked
up Market Street past the door of the Read family, where
stood Deborah, his future wife. She saw him and “thought
I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward ridiculous
Appearance.”
A few weeks later he was rooming at the Reads’ and
employed as a printer. By the spring of 1724 he was
enjoying the companionship of other young men with a
taste for reading, and he was also being urged to set up in
business for himself by the governor of Pennsylvania, Sir