Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), US scientist and states-man. Franklin began his career as a printer and journalist, from which he made sufficient money to devote the latter part of his life to science. In 1746 he per-formed an experiment in which lightning struck a kite and an electrical spark was discharged through a key attached on the end of the line. This showed that lightning was an electrical phenomenon and led to the invention of the lightning conductor. Franklin also discovered the course of the Gulf Stream, a warm ocean current in the Atlantic. He became involved in politics first as the representative for Pennsylvania in England and subsequently in France as spokesman for the Thirteen Colonies during the American War of In-dependence. He contributed to the drafting of both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. His autobiography was first published in 1781.
