 The Cavalcade of America presented by DuFont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. The lions and industry who have created a civilization enriched with a thousand and one comforts of daily living and to their spirit that we shall lead in the march of human progress, this performance of the Cavalcade of America is dedicated. Since an original radio comedy, Dr. Franklin takes it easy, written by Eric Barnall. A story of some of the amazing inventions of America's genius philosopher and beloved patriot, Benjamin Franklin, starring John McIntyre of the Cavalcade Players. Our Cavalcade Orchestra and the original musical score are under the direction of Don Buries. DuFont, maker of better things for better living through chemistry, presents John McIntyre as Benjamin Franklin on the Cavalcade of America. Benjamin Franklin, one of the best known men in the world, was living quietly in Philadelphia. He was over 80, happy in the midst of his family and writing long letters to his friends. Every afternoon his little granddaughter Deborah came into his study, for he would help her with her lessons. Is it an invention? Well, I suppose so. Oh, aren't you wonderful, Grandpa. Museum? Yes. Well, that is a secret. What are they for? You see that book way up there on the top shelf? With a gold letter? Now, suppose I want that book. Shall I get you your chair that unfolds into a stepladder? Oh, no. We won't need that, not now. But I like to see that work. That's a good invention. Yeah, but look, we hold the stick with the prongs right in front of the book. And then we go snapped. I just reach up the mechanical arm and grab a book, if you like it. I think I will. It'd be just what shopkeepers need. I'm sure they'll all want one. Then they can reach things from high shelves, without any trouble. Yes. That's an idea, Debbie. We'll offer it to them. Oh, my. All the neighbors are using the chair that unfolds into a stepladder. Every house on the street has one. Indeed. And I think you invented that only a few months ago. You're the most wonderful inventor. I'm not. You are, too. Everyone says you're so industrious. I'm not a bit industrious. I'm just plain lazy. You are not. Yes, I am. I'm lazy. The laziest man you know. Why do you suppose I thought up this new invention? Other people don't mind walking up a stepladder six or eight times a day to get something off a shelf, because I hate it. Why, I'm so lazy. I invented the way of getting around it. Grandpa, how can you be so lazy if you work so hard? Why, just think of all those things you've made. All right now. Think of them. I'll tell you a secret. I don't tell anyone, Debbie. I invented them all for the same reason. All to save me a little bit of energy. Boy, I'm probably just about the laziest man in the world. Grandpa, I won't let you say such things. The very idea. Can I ever tell you about my very first invention? Now, there's a good example. Was it your Franklin Stove? No, no, no. That came years later. This is when I was just a lad up in Boston. Did you invent something there? Well, sort of. One day another boy and I had gone swimming in a pond, big pond, about a mile wide, on the edge of the top. Well, we'd been at it all day, and we were plain tired up. Then came time to start home back in Boston. Well, we were walking along the edge of the pond, and I got to wondering how long it ought to take us to get home, so we'd be in time for the software and what would happen. You have to walk all the way home. I'm stiff all over. Well, maybe a wagon will come along. Aren't you tired too? Sure, Henry. I ain't all over. We're not a wagon in sight anywhere. Wait a minute, Henry. What's the matter? I have an idea about something. What? I want to find my kite again. Fly your kite? Oh, what for? Come on, Ben, let's get on. No, I want to find my kite. Look at that breeze. But let's get back to Boston. Oh, I'm tired out. You can wait a moment. Look at the kite shoot up. Look at it go. Oh, I don't care about that kite. Henry, hold it for a minute, will you? Now what? Just hold it. No, all right. That's it. I'll only be a second. What are you getting undressed for, Ben? Going to take another swim. A swim? We've been swimming all day and it's late. Oh, come on. We better be getting back or we'll get a caning. Here, Henry. Hold my coat, will you? I'm going into the pond. What are you doing with the kite? You'll see. As soon as I tie it around my wrist, then I float like this. Howdy, Henry. Well, that's the idea. Say, take my coat with you. I'm riding back. Goodbye, Henry. Meet me on the other side. Well, I'll find a course, too. Only Henry lost one of my stockings on his way back. Now, Grandpa, how can you keep saying you're lazy? Why, you made up so many good models about how people should be industrious all the time. I hope you've learned my motto, Debbie. Oh, yes. We have them on our almanac at school. September was, lost time is never found again. And October was, the sleeping fox catches no coats. Well, now, making up models is the kind of work I like. You don't have to get out of an easy chair for that. You mustn't say things like that. Remember what you did with those musical glasses in London? Oh, my almanaca. Yes, Grandpa, and your stove. And all your other inventions. Well, now, you take that almanaca, Debbie. I'll tell you about that. That's a good point. You see, I was in London once trying to change some laws that weren't fair to the colonies. I wasn't very successful. But I did stay in a nice, cheerful house where an English family and their daughter looked after me. They spoiled me, fed me tremendously. And I became the Lord of the household. Well, one day we were having a jolly dinner. Boys, my mother had sounded right in this room. Shh. Which do you think? It does sound in this room, but where? Maybe ghosts. I'm going to look in that cupboard. My mother, it can't be in there. My mother, what is it? My desk, where it's gone. All my bed, dinner, glasses gone. It's impossible. The ones on the table, they must have been stolen. Let me reassure you. Mr. Franklin. Mr. Franklin, what have you been up to? Let me explain, Mrs. Martin. Do you see this glass on the table? Yes. When the rim of a fine glass is wet and the finger is passed gently around the rim, we get... It's a good one. Notice, it's difficult to tell where the sound comes from. Yes, it seems all around us. And you were doing it under our noses. Notice further that this glass has a slightly higher pitch than the first one. Why? Because it has less water in it. Now, where is all my glassware? Well, a few ladies will step into the next room. Their concert is about to begin. Mother, look at that table. All my 36 glasses in a long row. Now, ladies, you'll notice I have water at various levels in these glasses, enabling me to produce all the tones on the musical scale. Now, what would you like? A Scottish air or a mid-U.S.? What amuses you? Mr. Franklin, are you going to run up and down that long table to play on those glasses? Have I eaten so prodigiously in this house that the very thought of my running is laughable? No, Mr. Franklin. Well, it is a Scottish air. And Mrs. Martin, your glassware is safe. Nothing will be broken. This is a spectacle musical instrument, Mr. Franklin. Let's mount them on spin rules. Better idea. Then all the musician would have to do is to sit in a comfortable chair, operate a foot pedal, and lightly touch his hand to each glass. Now, why didn't I think of that before? Cheezing me. What makes you think so? Debbie, you remember these funny spectacles I invented? Yes. What did they for? Well, I used to have to use two pairs. One for reading and writing and one for distant prospects. But I like to look out of the window now and then while I'm working. And it vexed me dreadfully. I had to change my spectacles all the time. I was always putting on one pair of spectacles and taking off another. I got so exasperated, I invented these. Are those funny ones? They're funny when you have to wear them, Debbie. You see, each lens has two different focuses. The lower part is for reading, upper part for distance. Now I don't have to change spectacles at all. Maya, I just don't understand. Grandpa, you say you're lazy, but I see you working all the time. You're always making something. And Mother says you used to spend just hours and days working on electricity. Well, now, Debbie, that's a long roundabout story. Oh, both electrical bottles and batteries and everything? Well, I can explain that all right. Did anyone ever tell you about the electric Christmas party we had one year? No. Well, that's a good place to begin. One day we invited our neighbors and friends for a demonstration. But it was also a party, an electricity party. Friends, since this is an electrical Christmas party, we shall roast our turkey by an electrical jack. Over a fire, we shall now kindle by the electrical bottle. Afterwards, a plum pudding with a flaming sauce ignited by electricity. Now, here you see our equipment. Doesn't it look dangerous? Well, it is dangerous, Matt. Extremely dangerous. I'd better step back there, young man. I want to be close. Young man, it's a good idea not to be too intimate with this apparatus unless you've had a good deal of experience with it. I caution you all to be very careful not to touch these two knots at the same moment. What would happen if we did? I haven't experimented. It hardly seems wise. Get back, Tom. Let me see, Mamar. All right. We're ready to proceed. Now, the electrical fluid will leap from this knob here across this gap, igniting the tinder for our fire. But we'll be seeing anything. A flash of electrical fire. Now then, we take the other knob and carefully touch... Mr. Franklin. Mr. Franklin. It must have been the electrical fire. Look at him. Look at him. He's all blue. Mr. Franklin. Mr. Franklin. Let him breathe. His heart still beating. I can hear it. Stand back, please. I want to see. Oh, he'd be all right in a moment. I'm quite sure. Mr. Franklin. Mr. Franklin, can you hear me? Mr. Franklin. This is what comes of meddling with supernatural things. Mr. Franklin. Can you hear us, Mr. Franklin? Are you all right? Now, friends, we take the knob. You've already done that, Mr. Franklin. That's why you're down on the floor now. Oh, there it is. Where am I? You're all right. You're just resting a moment. You just had a severe shock. Oh, yes. You're all blue, Mr. Franklin. The blood will come back in a moment, I believe. There was quite a flash, sir. That's such a noise. Don't try to get up, Mr. Franklin. Just that there... Did it hurt? What did it feel like? Oh, like being struck by lightning. I can imagine. Just like I received a blow in every part of my body. Lightning. That's it. Did you say there was a flash? Oh, yes, sir. There you go. There's a noise like thunder. And the smell, that smell. You noticed a sulfurous odor? Did the flash occur? But yes. Thought so. Similar to the one in a thunderstorm. Friends, this supports a notion of mine that's been hounding me for weeks. If electricity and lightning really are the same, then we're on the verge of some knowledge very important. Now, forgive me for interrupting our electric Christmas party with this unseemly performance. Help me up. It was the most vivid demonstration, Mr. Franklin. Oh, it was very exciting. And very... And perhaps not uninstructive. Lightning and electricity is a common connection there. And I'm going to track it down the next thunderstorm. Mr. Franklin. Yes? What are we going to do with the church before we come in? Oh, the church. Cook it in the usual way. Hey, Sergeant, the storm's coming closer. Be careful of the kites. But do we have to bring this? Of course. It's the basis of the whole experiment. I just hope none of the neighbors see us. Why? What's the matter? Flying a kite at your age? They don't think that we're not right in the head. Well, don't worry so much about people's opinions, Sergeant. It may prove something today that philosophers throughout the world are trying to learn. Turn here into this meadow. It's starting to rain. All right, let the kite up now as quickly as you can. There it goes. Flying up fast. All right, we're going to that shed there. I've got the apparatus all ready. I want you to take care of the kite, son. Here, give me the end of the line. I have to attach this key to it. Now, if we get a spark there, does that mean that lightning is electricity? Exactly. Is the kite far up? Yeah. All right. I've got the key attached. There's a large thunder cloud coming over. Good. Anything happening? No. That's a great cloud. No sparks yet. Maybe the deadline isn't wet enough. Well, what would that do? The string is not a conductor, but water is, so the string won't conduct the electricity until it's thoroughly soaked. And look. See? What is it? The strands of hemp are standing on end, bristling up. Look. Fly. The electric fluid's flowing through. We've proved it, son. We've proved it. Yes, you remember the rest, Debbie. Once I'd proved that, I knew how to save thousands of people's homes and churches and public buildings from being stuck by lightning. Lightning rods. Lightning rods to conduct the electric fluid into the ground. Did you invent the lightning rod out of laziness, too, Grandpa? Of course. Of course. You think I'm joking, don't you? I don't know. Well, I'm not. Not exactly. With lightning rods, I made a lot of people's lives safer and more comfortable. Now, there's the fire department here in Philadelphia. Whenever any home was struck by lightning, we'd rush out with our leather buckets to try and save lives and property, often too late. Now, when a thunder gust comes in the middle of the night, you wake up for a moment and think, hmm, doesn't that sound good? And then you go back to sleep again, don't you? I'd like to hear a thunder when I'm in bed. Most people do, nowadays, because now they're safe. And so I did my bit to help everybody be a little lazy. You don't really mean lazy, do you? You understand me. I thought you did. You know, I think people are very important, aren't you? You're important. Everybody's important. What's too important to spend their time climbing up and down ladders all day? Well, that kind of thing makes a man a slave, and he's not a slave, Debbie, because, well, man can invent things to do those jobs for us. You mean you can, Grandpa. Well, Debbie, in all of my inventions, I was trying to make man free of grudgery to give men freedom. That's the important thing. So they could go on and make a better world. Well, Grandpa, if that happened, nobody would have anything to do. They'd all be like the princes in the story books. Be better than princes. They'd be masters of everything in the material world. Yes, I believe that. I believe that. Well, now it's time we got around the old lesson, isn't it? Well, if you like. What do we have to do today? I have to spell words for my New England primer. Let's see that list. All right, let's see. You spell some of these words. Here's one. One of my favorite words. Tomorrow. Tomorrow? That's easy. T-O. A master of all. A brilliant mind that immeasurably enriched our American way of life. An amazing genius for invention dedicated to freedom and to the prosperity and happiness of our nation and its people, for which he labored all his life. The most American of us all, Benjamin Franklin, the many-sided genius in the cavalcade of America. Thanks John McIntyre and the cavalcade players for their performance of Dr. Franklin takes it easy. And now Ray Collins of the cavalcade players to tell you about next week's program. Ladies and gentlemen, next week the cavalcade of America presents a radio play, Henry Clay of Kentucky. The story of the man remembered for his great slogan, no south, no north, no east, no west. And who said I'd rather be right than president. Admiring any man who fought for unity in America as he did, I am happy to play the part of Henry Clay when cavalcade comes to you next week. Thank you. This program was played by Sarah Fussell. On the cavalcade of America, your announcer is Clayton Collier sending best wishes from DuPont.