If any historical figure deserves his reputation as a “Renaissance Man,” it’s Benjamin Franklin. He is known as the author of the hilarious Autobiography; he is known as the diplomat who advanced the cause of American independence throughout Continental Europe; and he is known as the gentleman-naturalist who made a few original discoveries in the study of electricity.

Actually, that last bit isn’t quite accurate.

A better example of the gentleman-naturalist would be Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita and Pale Fire. Besides writing literary masterpieces in Russian and English, Nabokov produced original research in lepidoptery (the study of butterflies). Franklin did much more. His work on electricity is not only notable because of his achievements in other fields. It is notable because it ranks with the world-changing discoveries of Galileo and Copernicus, of Newton and Einstein.

The phenomenon of electricity was very poorly understood in Franklin’s time. For one thing, researchers thought electricity was a liquid. In fact, what we now know as “positive” and “negative” charges were thought to be two different “electrical fluids.” Moreover, nobody before Franklin made the connection between static electricity and bolts of lightning. We owe all of these discoveries to Franklin, the Founding Father who was also one of the founders of modern science. Franklin wasn’t a statesman who dabbled in the laboratory. He was a scientist who dabbled in diplomacy.

Want to learn more about Franklin’s scientific achievements? Read a fascinating introduction to “The Scientific Mind of Benjamin Franklin” by Jerry Weinberger here.

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