Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), US scientist, inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin, working as a printer. Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He proposed and may have conducted experiments with a kite in a thunderstorm to show that lightning is electricity. This led to his invention of the lightning rod to protect buildings from lightning strikes. He also invented fins for swimming, bifocal glasses, a urinary catheter and showed that evaporation cooled objects. He helped shape the American Revolution and was a signatory of the US Declaration of Independence.