Franklin Peale (1795–1870) was an employee and officer of the
Philadelphia Mint from 1833 to 1854. He was the son of painter Charles
Willson Peale, and was born in the museum of curiosities that his father
ran in Philadelphia. For the most part, Franklin Peale's education was
informal, though he took some classes at the University of Pennsylvania.
He became adept in machine making. In 1820, he became an assistant to
his father at the museum, and managed it after Charles Peale's death in
1827. In 1833, Peale was hired by the Mint of the United States
("Mint"), and was sent for two years to Europe to study and report back
on coining techniques. He returned with plans for improvement, and
designed the first steam-powered coinage press in the United States,
installed in 1836. Peale was made Melter and Refiner of the Philadelphia
Mint that year, and Chief Coiner three years later upon the retirement
of the incumbent, Adam Eckfeldt, who continued in his work without pay.
Eckfeldt's labor allowed Peale to run a medal business using Mint
property. This sideline eventually caused Peale's downfall: conflicts
with Engraver James B. Longacre and Melter and Refiner Richard Sears
McCulloh led to Peale being accused of misconduct, and he was dismissed
by President Franklin Pierce in 1854. In retirement, Peale continued his
involvement in and leadership of many civic organizations; he died in
1870.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Peale>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
966:
After his marriage to the Christian Dobrawa of Bohemia, the
pagan ruler of the Polans, Mieszko I, converted to Christianity, an
event considered to be the founding of the Polish state.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_during_the_Piast_dynasty>
1471:
Wars of the Roses: The Yorkists under Edward IV defeated the
Lancastrians near the town of Barnet, killing Richard Neville, Earl of
Warwick.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Barnet>
1944:
The freighter SS Fort Stikine carrying a mixed cargo of cotton
bales, gold, and ammunition exploded in the harbour in Bombay, India,
sinking surrounding ships and killing about 800 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombay_Explosion_(1944)>
1967:
After leading a military coup three months earlier, Gnassingbé
Eyadéma installed himself as President of Togo, a post which he held
until 2005.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnassingb%C3%A9_Eyad%C3%A9ma>
1994:
In a friendly fire incident during Operation Provide Comfort in
northern Iraq, two US Air Force aircraft mistakenly shot down two US
Army helicopters, killing 26 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Black_Hawk_shootdown_incident>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
hapax legomenon:
A word occurring only once in a given corpus.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hapax_legomenon>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that
it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a
dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious
useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in
its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a
tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith.
--James Branch Cabell
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Branch_Cabell>