Biography of Benjamin Banniker

He also learned to play the violin and the flute. He had an eighth grade education by the time he turned 15 and took over the operations of the family farm. From working on the farm he came up with several ideas to improve the operations of the family business and those ideas came to help many other farmers as well.
             First of all, let's look at the periods of his life, (November 9, 1731 – October 9, 1806). Primarily, he was a farmer and as a farmer he enlightened the New World by introducing them to the 17 year cycle of locust. This revelation to farmers was invaluable, because it prepared them for the coming of locust swarms that could destroy their crops. He also was a tobacco farmer and as a result of his discovery, many tobacco farmers in the United States benefited, politically, socially and economically. The crop rotation and water irrigation techniques he created were something that he, as a tobacco farmer and scientist benefited from greatly. These benefits to tobacco farming were especially important in as much as they were crucial in supplying the funding that built Duke University, who instructs some of the most renowned Doctors today, and socially we as a country have accepted the use of tobacco products that helped boost the economy and as a nation we have adapted to it.
             In 1753, Benjamin Banneker was very instrumental in engineering the first striking clock that was made from indigenous wood from American forests and hand carved the moving parts. This invention catapulted his rise to fame as people would travel long distances just to witness this invention. He hand carved it out of wood and pinion (gear), like Rodin carves sculptures, (The Thinker). This first clock struck on the half hour for 50 years without missing a beat. As an amateur astronomer and mathematician, he contradicted the forecasts of prominent mathematicians and astronomers of the day by successfully predicted the solar eclipse that occurred on April 14, 1789.