Benjamin Franklin wanted to be a sailor when he grew up. But his father had lost an older son of his at sea, so he sent him off to learn from his older brother, who was in the printing business. After learning the craft, he left Boston for Philadelphia at age 17 where he became a well-known printer of newspapers and an almanac full of wit and wisdom called Poor Richard’s Almanac, still in print to this day.

Franklin was a prolific author who wrote under several pseudonyms, including Silence Dogood, Polly Baker, and Richard Saunders.

Image: Denny Müller

A well-known fact about Franklin is his role in the Nation’s foundation. He is the only person in history to have signed all four documents that helped to create the U.S.: the Declaration of Independence, The Treaty of Alliance, Amity, and Commerce with France, the Treaty of Peace between England, France, and the U.S., and the U.S. Constitution.

He famously quipped after signing the Constitution to the people that they had created a republic but warned it would only be one "if you can keep it."

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A major player abroad, Benjamin Franklin spent years representing the colony of Pennsylvania in England and then later representing the U. S. in France. For his actions abroad, he became universally admired and renowned, playing an important role in securing a French alliance during the Revolutionary War. He also helped to negotiate the Treaty of Paris that officially ended the Revolutionary War.

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His restless mind urged Franklin to be on the constant lookout for ways to improve the world through new inventions. His most famous creations were the bifocal glasses and the Franklin stove, but he also invented a pair of swim fins for his hands at age 11, and he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968 for his many contributions to the sport.

As for the bifocals, when his vision worsened as he got older, he cut lenses from a pair of glasses that allowed him to see things close up and lenses from another pair of glasses that allowed him to see things far away. He put half of each lens in a single frame to invent bifocals.

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The immortal image of Franklin pulling a kite with a key attached to it, while in the middle of a thunderstorm brings us to probably the most famous of all his scientific discoveries: the realization that lightning was an electrical phenomenon. Benjamin Franklin didn’t discover electricity, as some people think, but proved the connection between electricity and lightning.

The whole key-kite-thunderstorm experiment led to his invention of lightning rods for buildings.

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Few people know that Benjamin Franklin played several instruments, including the violin, harp, and guitar. He invented the glass armonica after seeing performers make music with glasses of water, which he played by touching the edge of the spinning glass with damp fingers.

In his letters, Franklin recounts many happy evenings playing the armonica alongside his daughter, Sally. "Of all my inventions," Franklin wrote, "the glass armonica has given me the most personal satisfaction."

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Worried by the fires that broke out constantly in the area, Franklin founded the Union Fire Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1736. This fire company was the first volunteer fire company of its kind in the U.S.

Soon after this volunteer fire company appeared, more and more fire companies spread across the city and soon all over the country, leading to a safer environment in relation to fires.

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Franklin was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737, holding the office until 1753, when he was named deputy postmaster–general of British North America, the first to hold the office. Franklin reorganized the service's accounting system and improved the speed of delivery between Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.

On July 26, 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the United States Post Office and named Franklin as the first United States postmaster general. He had been a postmaster for decades and was a natural choice for the position.

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Although it was first observed in 1513 by Ponce de Leon, the Gulf Stream was not charted until 1769 by our friend, Benjamin Franklin. Alexander Agassiz, a preeminent oceanographer of the 19th century, attributed the first scientific basis for exploring this stream to Franklin, who had published a map of the Gulf Stream in the previously mentioned year, 200 years before a submersible named after him drifted below the surface to study this river in the ocean.

Image: Max Okhrimenko

The final entry on this list is dedicated to a psychological phenomenon known as the Ben Franklin effect. The basic concept behind this phenomenon is that people like someone more after doing a favor for them, and the reasoning is that people believe that they help others because they like them, even if they do not because their minds struggle to maintain logical consistency between their actions and perceptions.

Benjamin quoted what he described as an "old maxim" in his autobiography: "He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged."

Image: Chris Liverani