Benjamin Franklin, American theorist on static electricity, c 1740s.

Lithograph by Ardell after Wilson showing Franklin holding a book while in the background a bolt of lightning is striking a small town. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) trained as a printer, first in his family's firm in Boston, and later in England. He became a notable publisher but is now better known as one of the founders of the science of electricity. He became interested in the principles of electricity in 1747 and published 'Experiments and Observations on Electricity' in London in 1751.