CHAPTER SIX: Scientist and Inventor: Philadelphia, 1744–1751

In this chapter covering 1726–1732, Franklin establishes himself as a printer and publisher in Philadelphia, forms the Junto club for mutual improvement, and launches Poor Richard's Almanack while clarifying his pragmatic religious beliefs and moral philosophy.

After returning to Philadelphia in 1726, Franklin apprentices under the eccentric Keimer, becomes the first person in America to manufacture printing type, and eventually partners with Hugh Meredith to open a competing print shop funded by Meredith's father. When Meredith returns to drinking and farming, Franklin buys him out and gains sole ownership. To build his reputation, Franklin works visibly late into the night, performing manual labor like carting paper through streets to demonstrate industriousness. In fall 1727, Franklin founds the Junto, a club of young tradesmen including Thomas Godfrey, Joseph Breintnall, Robert Grace, and William Coleman, where members discuss civic improvement and debate philosophical topics using Socratic dialogue. He establishes conversational rules emphasizing indirect persuasion and gentle questioning. Franklin then launches a newspaper war against Keimer using anonymous essays signed "Busy-Body" and "Martha Careful," published in Bradford's Mercury, which ridicule Keimer's paper and elevate Bradford's. This success leads Franklin to acquire The Pennsylvania Gazette in 1729, where he pioneers gossip columns, publishes his "Apology for Printers" defending free expression, and fills the paper with essays on morality, crime, and sex under pseudonyms like "The Casuist" and "Anthony Afterwit." Franklin courts a niece of his landlord Thomas Godfrey but breaks off the engagement when her family refuses an adequate dowry. He then renews his connection with Deborah Read, the girl who initially laughed at him upon his arrival in Philadelphia. After her first husband, John Rogers, abandons her and likely dies, Franklin and Deborah enter a common-law marriage in September 1730 to protect her from bigamy charges. Their union is pragmatic rather than romantic, based on shared frugality and industry. Around this time, Franklin fathers an illegitimate son, William, whose mother's identity remains a historical mystery; the most likely scenario, based on a 1763 letter, is that she was a woman of modest means to whom Franklin provides support. In October 1732, Deborah gives birth to Francis Folger Franklin (Franky), whom Franklin dotes on until the boy dies of smallpox just after his fourth birthday—a tragedy intensified by Franklin's earlier advocacy for inoculations, which he had delayed administering. Spiritually, Franklin abandons the strict Calvinist Protestantism of his childhood and develops a pragmatic deism. He writes "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion" (1728) affirming belief in a supreme God while allowing for lesser, more personal gods suited to different worshippers' needs. He attends Presbyterian services briefly but finds them doctrinally focused rather than virtue-focused, so he returns to private religious study. Franklin settles on a creed combining deism with belief in divine providence, viewing God as infinitely powerful yet granting humans free will, and emphasizing that "the most acceptable service of God was doing good to man." Around 1729, he launches his famous moral perfection project, creating a list of thirteen virtues—Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity, and Humility—and tracking his weekly progress on charts. He struggles most with Order and Humility, eventually accepting his imperfections with wry self-awareness. At the end of 1732, Franklin publishes the first Poor Richard's Almanack, creating a fictional author, Poor Richard Saunders, whose nagging wife Bridget mirrors Franklin's real household. The almanac combines practical weather forecasts with pithy maxims promoting industry and frugality, many adapted from older proverbs but polished for wit. Franklin engages in a humorous feud with rival almanac publisher Titan Leeds, repeatedly "predicting" and later fabricating his death. The almanac becomes wildly successful, selling ten thousand copies annually and making Franklin wealthy.