Portrait of Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), American experimenter and statesman. Franklin was the fifteenth child in a family of 17, and had only two yea

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Portrait of Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), American experimenter and statesman. Franklin was the fifteenth child in a family of 17, and had only two years of formal schooling. Despite this, he was a remarkable scientist, making major discoveries in physics. In a classic experiment into the nature of lightning, he flew a kite in a thunderstorm, collecting the static electricity formed in a Leyden Jar (condenser). He also postulated the theory of electic currents as a motion of a charged fluid, and invented bifocal spectacle lenses. He is also famous as one of the founding fathers of the United States of America during the revolution of 1776.

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Photo credit: © Science Photo Library / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: benjamin, electricity, franklin, lightning, portraits, static, surname