Jan. 17, 2026

Benjamin Franklin

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Transcript

Benjamin Franklin’s birthday: inventions, printing, science, and diplomacy of the Enlightenment.

You may also like ODD ONE OUT. a new podcast with Mark Ellison! Mark gives you 4 words, you decide which word does not belong. Three rounds daily, quick and fun,

Portions of today's trivia podcast were made with the help of AI.

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Calarogu, Shark Media, hi I Mark Ellison, And today's theme

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is Benjamin Franklin's birthday Inventions, printing, science, and diplomacy of

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the Enlightenment. Question one. On Benjamin Franklin's birthday, we remember

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his musical tinkering. Which ethereal sounding instrument did he invent

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by mounting nested glass bowls on a spinning spindle, an

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instrument that later inspired Mozart to compose for it. Question two.

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Franklin the printer fought counterfeiters with botany. What technique using

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impressions of real leaves on colonial paper money did he

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pioneer to make notes uniquely hard to forge? Question three?

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In his landmark electrical experiments, what two names did Benjamin

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Franklin assign to opposite kinds of electric charts terminology scientists

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still use worldwide today? Question four? As the Revolutionary war raged,

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Franklin brought Enlightenment charm to Parisian diplomacy. What seventeen seventy

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eight agreement did he help secure that brought France openly

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into alliance with the United States. Question five. Before he

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was a founding father, he was a best selling author

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under what title did Benjamin Franklin publish his wildly popular

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almanac as the pseudonymous Richard Saunders, packed with forecasts, puzzles,

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and pithy proverbs. We'll be right back with these answers

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after this break. Welcome back. Question one, what glass bowl

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instrument did Franklin invent? Answer? The glass Armonica. Franklin devised

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the glass armonica around seventeen sixty one, producing tones by

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touching spinning glass bowls with wet fingers. It became a

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sensation in Enlightenment salons. Mozart wrote pieces for it, including

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the Adagio in C Major K dot three five six.

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Question two, what leaf imprint anti counterfeiting method did Franklin pioneer?

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Answer nature printing leaf patterns on currency. He made casts

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of actual leaves and printed their intricate vein patterns on notes,

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exploiting the fact that no two leaves are identical. This

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early security printing innovation helped protect Pennsylvania and other colonial

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issues from forgers. Question three, What two names did Franklin

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give to opposite electric charges? Answer? Positive and negative. Franklin's

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single fluid model led him to label an excess of

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charge positive and a deficit negative vocabulary that stuck. He

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also introduced the term battery for a group of Leyden

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jars used together. Question four. What seventeen seventy eight alliance

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with f France did Franklin help secure? Answer? The Treaty

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of Alliance seventeen seventy eight, signed in Paris alongside the

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Treaty of Amity and Commerce. It committed France to military

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support of the United States. French aid, especially naval power,

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proved decisive at Yorktown in seventeen eighty one. Question five.

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What was Franklin's almanac under the pen name Richard Saunders? Answer?

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Poor Richard's Almanac, published annually from seventeen thirty two to

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seventeen fifty eight. Poor Richard's Almanac blended practical information with

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memorable sayings that shaped American folk wisdom. Franklin used the

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persona of Richard Saunders to deliver advice with humor and flare.

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That concludes today's five daily Trivia questions. I'm Mark Ellison,

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and today's questions were crafted with the help of AI technology.

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See you tomorrow.

Benjamin Franklin

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