...ied forms is still in use. He was also the inventor of the lightning-rod. Franklin left two children, a son, William, and a daughter. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., April 17, 1790. In 1752 the Pennsylvania Assembly, yielding to the urgency of public affairs in the midst of war, voted a levy of $500,000 without insisting upon their claim to tax the proprietary estates. They protested that they did it ...