Benjamin Franklin was one of the cleverest men ever born in America.

He was born in 1705 in Massachusetts. Is parents had come to America from Northampton shire in England.

When Ben just a boy, he invented swimming flippers. He made oval fins of wood, and he wore them on his hands and feet. They did help him to swim faster.

When Ben was twelve he went to work for hi brother who was a printer. A few years later his brother started a newspaper. Ben wrote for it.

In a few years Ben moved to Philadelphia. There he started a printing works of his own and his own paper too, which he called `poor Richard’s Almanac’.

People all over the world read it.

Among other things Ben invented bifocals. These are glass with one lens on the top for seeing things far away and a on the bottom for seeing close up.

In Ben’s time, not much was known about electricity. He wondered if lighting could be electricity. He made a kite and put some metal wire on a string and then flew it in a thunderstorm.

This was a very dangerous thing to do. The metal caught the electricity from the lightning. Ben had solved one of nature’s oldest mysteries. He also found how to protect buildings from electricity and invented the lightning conductor.

Ben spent much of his life serving the country. He was an officer in the post office and brought about many changes to improve its service. Many of his methods are still used in the US post office.

The American colonies began to have trouble with their mother country Britain. Ben went there and tried to keep peace between the two countries. But when war broke out he was wholeheartedly on the American side. Although he was seventy years old he designed weapons and forts and helped George Washington to raise an army. He helped to write America’s Declaration of independence from Britain.

Ben served as the American ambassador in France. Later Ben helped to write US constitution.