Deputy postmaster-general
In a few years Franklin was made deputy postmaster-general for all the colonies by the king. He surprised the people by declaring that the mail should be carried from Philadelphia to Boston every week! He was postmaster-general for more than twenty years.
Franklin plans a union of the colonies
In 1754 Franklin was sent by the colony of Pennsylvania to Albany, New York, to meet men from other colonies to make a treaty with the Iroquois, and to plan a union of the Thirteen Colonies. While George Washington was still a surveyor, before Wolfe captured Quebec, and when Patrick Henry was yet a boy, Franklin wrote out a plan of union which pointed the way toward that greater Union, the United States of America.
Fame begins to come
Franklin was now becoming famous outside of Pennsylvania. Yale College honored him with the degree of Master of Arts. The old University of Cambridge, England, gave him the same degree.
All the wise men in England and France were excited by news of an experiment made by Benjamin Franklin. He had made electricity by using glass tubes, and he had seen the lightning flash in the storm cloud. He decided to prove, if he could, that lightning and electricity are the same. No one had yet done this.
Proves that lightning and electricity are the same
He made a kite out of silk, to which he fastened a small iron rod. Then he tied a hempen string to the kite and the rod. To the lower end of the string he tied a silken cord to protect his hand from the electricity. On the string he tied a key.
One day when the storm clouds came rolling up, Franklin sent his kite high up among them, while he waited. Soon the loose fibers on the hempen string moved. Franklin placed his knuckles close to the key, and sparks came flying at his hand.