Benjamin Franklin Cartoon

Benjamin Franklin, printer by trade, newspaper and book publisher by profession, civic leader (he organized Philadelphia's first fire department and founded the first public postal service, becoming the first Postmaster General of the United States), revolutionary and one of America's Founding Fathers was also an amateur scientist and inventor. Two hundred sixty two years ago, on June 10th, 1752, he performed an experiment which brought him international fame; "capturing" electricity from a bolt of lightning in a key suspended from a kite flown during a thunderstorm, thereby verifying the electrical nature of lightning. The cartoon below, originally drawn with the National Enquirer in mind, shows that behind every successful man, there is likely a woman...telling him exactly what he should do.