Benjamin Franklin
本杰明·富兰克林
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts in the USA on 17 January 1706.
本杰明·富兰克林于1706年1月17日出生于美国的马萨诸塞州的波士顿。
He had a very big family—his parents had seventeen children.
他有个大家庭——他的父母有17个孩子。
He was a man of many talents and interests.
他是个极具天赋、兴趣诸多的人。
Among other things, he was a scientist and an inventor.
尤其，他是个科学家及发明家。
He was naturally curious about how things worked
他天生就对事物是如何运作的非常感兴趣，
and was always searching for ways to make them better.
总是寻求让其更好的办法。
In 1747, Benjamin began his experiments on electricity with some very simple equipment.
1747年，本杰明开始利用一些非常简单的设备进行关于电流的实验。
Although these equipments led to the discovry of some very important findings on electricity,
尽管这些设备导致了一些关于电的重要发现，
Benjamin did not actually invent it.
实际上，本杰明并没有发现。
However, he did invent the lightning conductor,
然而，他确实发现了避雷针，
which protects buildings and ships from damage caused by lightning.
保护建筑和船只免于雷电的破坏。
Benjamin had poor vision and needed glasses.
本杰明的视力很差，需要眼镜。
He was tired of always taking them on and off,
他对总是戴、摘眼镜感到厌烦，
so he decided to invent a pair of glasses that would let him see both near and far things at the same time.
于是，他决定发明一副眼镜，可以让他同时看到近处和远处的事物。
He took the two different types of glasses, cut each lens in half,
他用了两种不同的眼镜，把每个镜片分割成两半，
and then put half of each lens into another frame.
然后，把每个镜片的一半放入另一个框架。
Nowadays, this type of glasses is known as bifocals.
今日，这种眼镜就是众所周知的双光眼镜。
During his life, he travelled across the Atlantic Ocean eight times.
在他的一生中，他八次旅行穿越了大西洋。
These long journeys gave him a lot of time to learn about how ships worked.
这些长长的旅行让他有充足的时间学习了船是如何运转的。
He developed a way to make them safer and more efficient by inventing watertight bulkheads.
他研究了一种方法，让它们更加安全、有效，他发明了密封舱。
Other developments in safety that he made included establishing the first fire company in Philadelphia, USA,
他做的其他关于安全方面的发展包括在美国费城建立了第一支消防队，
and improving the paving and lighting of the city's streets.
以及改进城市街道的路面和照明措施。
