Benjamin Franklin was introduced to the art of printing and journalism by his brother James. He started working with him as an apprentice when he was 12, Benjamin signed an indenture for his apprenticeship which bounded him until he turned 21 and only then he could earn wages. In 1721 James Franklin founded the New England Courant; the second newspaper in America, the first one was the Boston Newsletter.

Franklin and his partner’s first coup was securing the printing of Pennsylvania’s paper currency. Franklin helped get this business by writing A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency (1729), and later he also became public printer of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Other moneymaking ventures included the Pennsylvania Gazette, published by Franklin from 1729 and generally acknowledged as among the best of the colonial newspapers, and Poor Richard’s almanac, printed annually from 1732 to 1757. Despite some failures, Franklin prospered. Indeed, he made enough to lend money with interest and to invest in rental properties in Philadelphia and many coastal towns. He had franchises or partnerships with printers in the Carolinas, New York, and the British West Indies. By the late 1740s he had become one of the wealthiest colonists in the northern part of the North American continent.

Franklin is known for his experiments with electricity (most notably the kite experiment), a fascination that began in earnest after he accidentally shocked himself in 1746. By 1749, he had turned his attention to the possibility of protecting buildings—and the people inside—from lightning strikes. Having noticed that a sharp iron needle conducted electricity away from a charged metal sphere, he theorized that such a design could be useful:

Ben Franklin loved the water. Growing up in Boston, he was drawn to the sea and often dreamed of becoming a sailor. Ben learned to swim and became an expert swimmer. Wanting to increase his speed in the water, Franklin devised fins that he wore on his hands. The fins were shaped like lily pads or an artist's paint pallet and helped the swimmer attain greater speed with each stroke.

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726, and over the next few years he held varied jobs including bookkeeper, shopkeeper and currency cutter. In 1728 he returned to a familiar trade printing paper currency in New Jersey before partnering with a friend to open his own print shop in Philadelphia that published government pamphlets and books.

As a politician he was the first one to propose the union of the colonies for common defense. He was accused as a royalist but when the time came he stood up for freedom becoming one of the Founding Fathers. Franklin negotiated the end of the war with England and was one of the signers of the Treaty of Paris. He was chosen to represent the Union as the first minister plenipotentiary to France, the equivalent of today’s ambassador.