Benjamin Franklin was many things. A printer, a politician, a diplomat, a scientist and inventor, a polymath, and a Founding Father
Bifocals
Franklin developed bifocals so people could use one pair of glasses for both long distance and reading rather than switching back and forth between two pairs of glasses.
The Franklin stove
His first invention, The Franklin Stove, was made around 1740 and used less fuel to create more heat.
The Albany Plan
Franklin called on the colonies to band together at the start of the French and Indian War in 1754. To dramatize their need for common defense he published a cartoon of a snake cut into parts with the caption "Join or Die." However his "Plan of Union" failed to be ratified by the colonies.
Gulf Stream Map
After his return trip across the Atlantic Ocean from London in 1775, Franklin discovered the Gulf Stream.
The Fighting Temeraire
The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838 is an oil painting by the English artist J. M. W. Turner. HMS Temeraire was one of the last second-rate ships of the line to have played a distinguished role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. [more]
Liberty Leading the People
Liberty Leading the People is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X of France. [more]
Ophelia
Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais, completed between 1851 and 1852. It depicts Ophelia, a character from Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark. [more]
The Music Lesson
The Music Lesson or Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman by Jan Vermeer, is a painting of young female pupil receiving the titular music lesson. [more]
