science · 05 February 1824 · 200 years ago
In 1824, Samuel Vaughan Merrick and William H. Keating founded "The Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts" to honor Ben Franklin and advance the usefulness of his inventions. First located in the Philadelphia County Court House (known today as Independence Hall), it soon was moved in a new location where it remained for its first century. In 1930, funds were raised ($5.1 million in just 12 days) to move again into a new building which opened to the public on 1 Jan 1934. There it is complemented by the Fels Planetarium, the second planetarium in the U.S. Its construction began in 1933, the donation of Samuel S. Fels.
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