Download or read book Bolt Of Fate written by Tom Tucker and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2009-04-24 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every schoolchild in America knows that Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm in the summer of 1752. Electricity from the clouds above traveled down the kite's twine and threw a spark from a key that Franklin had attached to the string. He thereby proved that lightning and electricity were one. What many of us do not realize is that Franklin used this breakthrough in his day's intensely competitive field of electrical science to embarrass his French and English rivals. His kite experiment was an international event and the Franklin that it presented to the world -- a homespun, rural philosopher-scientist performing an immensely important and dangerous experiment with a child's toy -- became the Franklin of myth. In fact, this sly presentation on Franklin's part so charmed the French that he became an irresistible celebrity when he traveled there during the American Revolution. The crowds and the journalists, and the ladies, cajoled the French powers into joining us in our fight against the British. What no one has successfully proven until now -- and what few have suggested -- is that Franklin never flew the kite at all. Benjamin Franklin was an enthusiastic hoaxer. And with the electric kite, he performed his greatest hoax. As Tucker shows, it was this trick that may have won the American Revolution.
Download or read book Frozen in Time written by John Geiger and published by Greystone Books Ltd. This book was released on 2014-09-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The amazing true story of a doomed Arctic voyage-- and the secrets preserved in ice"--Cover.
Download or read book Ice Blink written by Scott Cookman and published by Wiley. This book was released on 2001-02-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Finding Franklin written by Russell A. Potter and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2014 media around the world buzzed with news that an archaeological team from Parks Canada had located and identified the wreck of HMS Erebus, the flagship of Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Finding Franklin outlines the larger story and the cast of detectives from every walk of life that led to the discovery, solving one of the Arctic’s greatest mysteries. In compelling and accessible prose, Russell Potter details his decades of work alongside key figures in the era of modern searches for the expedition and elucidates how shared research and ideas have led to a fuller understanding of the Franklin crew’s final months. Illustrated with numerous images and maps from the last two centuries, Finding Franklin recounts the more than fifty searches for traces of his ships and crew, and the dedicated, often obsessive, men and women who embarked on them. Potter discusses the crucial role that Inuit oral accounts, often cited but rarely understood, played in all of these searches, and continue to play to this day, and offers historical and cultural context to the contemporary debates over the significance of Franklin’s achievement. While examination of HMS Erebus will undoubtedly reveal further details of this mystery, Finding Franklin assembles the stories behind the myth and illuminates what is ultimately a remarkable decades-long discovery.
Download or read book Frozen in Time written by Owen Beattie and published by Saskatoon : Western Producer Prairie Books. This book was released on 1988 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Account of a series of expeditions (1981-6) which examined the graves and bodies on Beechey Island of three members of the 1845-48 Franklin expedition. Illustrated with colour photographs and maps.
Download or read book The Journey to the Polar Sea written by John Franklin and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bulletin written by Boston Public Library and published by . This book was released on 1895 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Quarterly accession lists; beginning with Apr. 1893, the bulletin is limited to "subject lists, special bibliographies, and reprints or facsimiles of original documents, prints and manuscripts in the Library," the accessions being recorded in a separate classified list, Jan.-Apr. 1893, a weekly bulletin Apr. 1893-Apr. 1894, as well as a classified list of later accessions in the last number published of the bulletin itself (Jan. 1896)
Download or read book Unravelling the Franklin Mystery written by David C. Woodman and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 1992-06 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Woodman's reconstruction of the mysterious events surrounding the disappearance of two British exploration vessels in 1845, under the command of Sir John Franklin, challenges standard interpretations and promises to replace them. Among the many who have tried to discover the truth behind the Franklin disaster, Woodman recognizes the profound importance of the Inuit testimony and analyzes it in depth. He concludes from his investigations that the Inuit probably did visit Franklin's ships while the crew was still on board and that there were some Inuit who actually saw the sinking of one of the ships. He maintains that fewer than ten bodies were found at Starvation Cove and that the last survivors left the cove in 1851, three years after the standard account assumes them to be dead. Woodman also disputes the conclusion of Owen Beattie and John Geiger's book Frozen in Time that lead-poisoning was a major contributing cause of the disaster.
Download or read book The American Cyclop dia written by George Ripley and published by . This book was released on 1874 with total page 872 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Great Improvisation written by Stacy Schiff and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2006-01-10 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon to be a streaming series ● In this dazzling work of history, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author follows Benjamin Franklin to France for the crowning achievement of his career In December of 1776 a small boat delivered an old man to France." So begins an enthralling narrative account of how Benjamin Franklin--seventy years old, without any diplomatic training, and possessed of the most rudimentary French--convinced France, an absolute monarchy, to underwrite America's experiment in democracy. When Franklin stepped onto French soil, he well understood he was embarking on the greatest gamble of his career. By virtue of fame, charisma, and ingenuity, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers, and hostile colleagues; engineered the Franco-American alliance of 1778; and helped to negotiate the peace of 1783. The eight-year French mission stands not only as Franklin's most vital service to his country but as the most revealing of the man. In A Great Improvisation, Stacy Schiff draws from new and little-known sources to illuminate the least-explored part of Franklin's life. Here is an unfamiliar, unforgettable chapter of the Revolution, a rousing tale of American infighting, and the treacherous backroom dealings at Versailles that would propel George Washington from near decimation at Valley Forge to victory at Yorktown. From these pages emerge a particularly human and yet fiercely determined Founding Father, as well as a profound sense of how fragile, improvisational, and international was our country's bid for independence.
Download or read book The American Cyclopaedia written by George Ripley and published by . This book was released on 1883 with total page 904 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Polar Pioneers written by M. Ross and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 1994-11-16 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1818 John Ross led an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage. He got as far as Baffin Bay, but when he reached the only practicable entrance to the passage he declared it to be no more than a bay enclosed by mountains. In subsequent years he was widely derided for that error and carried the scars of public and professional humiliation for the rest of his life. In 1829 he mounted a private expedition to search for the passage, during which he became trapped in the Canadian Arctic and survived a four-year ordeal of isolation and hardship. He proved that whatever his shortcomings as an explorer, he could never be accused of lacking courage. James Clark Ross was one of the most experienced and respected explorers of his day. He led or took part in eight expeditions to the Arctic, including John Ross' 1818 and 1829 expeditions and three with the great explorer William Edward Parry. He also led a highly successful scientific expedition to the Antarctic in 1839-43. His many important discoveries included locating the North Magnetic Pole, and he ensured the presence of the Ross family name throughout both polar regions: Ross Island, Ross Ice Shelf, and Ross Sea in the Antarctic; James Ross Strait, Ross Bay, Ross Point, and Rossøya in the Arctic. Drawing on family papers and extensive research, M.J. Ross traces the careers of these two very different men, highlighting their achievements and defeats, and presents a detailed picture of their private lives.
Download or read book Benjamin Franklin and the Politics of Improvement written by Alan Craig Houston and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-11-18 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating book explores Benjamin Franklin’s social and political thought. Although Franklin is often considered “the first American,” his intellectual world was cosmopolitan. An active participant in eighteenth-century Atlantic debates over the modern commercial republic, Franklin combined abstract analyses with practical proposals. Houston treats Franklin as shrewd, creative, and engaged—a lively thinker who joined both learned controversies and political conflicts at home and abroad. Drawing on meticulous archival research, Houston examines such tantalizing themes as trade and commerce, voluntary associations and civic militias, population growth and immigration policy, political union and electoral institutions, freedom and slavery. In each case, he shows how Franklin urged the improvement of self and society. Engagingly written and richly illustrated, this book provides a compelling portrait of Franklin, a fresh perspective on American identity, and a vital account of what it means to be practical.
Download or read book Franklin s Fate written by Barry Deane Stewart and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2019-08-25 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sir John Franklin was a famous British explorer of the 19th Century. His expedition to the Canadian High Arctic, involving two ships and 128 navy men, went missing in 1848. It took ten more years to discover their tragic fate, with many details still not known. The two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, disappeared under the Arctic ice. They were not discovered until 2014 and 2016 respectively. Against a background of political and public celebration of the ship’s discovery, an antiquarian book fair and auction takes place, focusing on the many interesting and valuable journals that were published about the search for the lost Franklin expedition. Authorities have determined that hundreds of valuable rare books worth millions of dollars have been stolen from many famous libraries and institutions. They suspect that some of those stolen books might appear at the Franklin book fair. A game of cat and mouse unfolds as they try to determine who stole the books and how to recover them. The trail leads them to the world of organized criminals and large-scale money laundering.
Download or read book The Encyclop dia Britannica written by and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 992 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fatal Passage written by Ken McGoogan and published by HarperCollins Canada. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not long after he began reading the handwritten, 820-page diary of Scottish explorer John Rae, Ken McGoogan realized that here was an astonishing story, hidden from the world for almost 150 years. McGoogan, who was originally conducting research for a novel, recognized the injustice committed against Rae. He was determined to restore the adventurer’s rightful place in history as the man who discovered not only the grisly truth about the lost Franklin expedition, but also the final link in the elusive Northwest Passage. Fatal Passage is McGoogan’s completely absorbing account of John Rae’s incredible accomplishments and his undeserved and wholesale discreditation at the hands of polite Victorian society. After sifting through thousands of pages of research, maps and charts, and traveling to England, Scotland and the Arctic to visit the places Rae knew, McGoogan has produced a book that reads like a fast-paced novel—a smooth synthesis of adventure story, travelogue and historical biography. Fatal Passage is a richly detailed portrait of a time when the ambitions of the Empire knew no bounds. John Rae was an adventurous young medical doctor from Orkney who signed on with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1833. He lived in the Canadian wilds for more than two decades, becoming legendary as a hunter and snowshoer, before he turned to exploration. Famous for what was then a unique attitude—a willingness to learn from and use the knowledge and skills of aboriginal peoples—Rae became the first European to survive an Arctic winter while living solely off the land. One of dozens of explorers and naval men commissioned by the British Admiralty to find out what became of Sir John Franklin and his two ships, Rae returned from the Arctic to report that the most glorious expedition ever launched had ended with no survivors—and worse, that it had degenerated into cannibalism. Unwilling to accept that verdict, Victorian England not only ostracized Rae, but ignored his achievements, and credited Franklin with the discovery of the Passage. Fatal Passage is Ken McGoogan’s brilliant vindication of John Rae’s life and rightful place in history, a book for armchair adventurers, Arctic enthusiasts, lovers of Canadian history, and all those who revel in a story of physical courage and moral integrity.
Download or read book The Encyclop dia Britannica written by Hugh Chisholm and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 990 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
