Fun Facts
Amazing Ben Franklin Inventions You Can Build Yourself

Ben earned lots of money, but he could have earned a lot more if he had patented his inventions. He never once patented any of his inventions.

Ben Franklin was the first American to invent an instrument, the armonica.

Ben Franklin was bad at math!

Ben Franklin taught himself how to swim when he was eight, and often taught his friends how to swim. At one time he considered opening up a swim school.

At the age of 16 Ben Franklin read a book about vegetable diets and decided to become a vegetarian.

While working in London, Ben got the nickname “Water-American,” because he drank water instead of beer like almost everyone else.

Ben Franklin convinced the Pennsylvania Assembly to switch from coins to paper currency because coins were hard to come by and cumbersome.

Ben wrote a letter that convinced Congress to publicly debate slavery for the first time.

After writing and publishing Poor Richard’s Almanac and The Way to Wealth, Ben Franklin became so wealthy that he was able to retire from printing in his early forties.

Ben liked to take “air baths.” He would sit naked in his bathtub and let the cold air from an open window clean away any germs!

Ben Franklin founded the prestigious Ivy League school, the University of Pennsylvania.

Ben nearly electrocuted himself to death while trying to cook a turkey with electricity!

Ben helped Thomas Jefferson revise the Declaration of Independence.