benjamin franklin what did he invent
Top 10 Ben Franklin Inventions. Although Franklin was a bit soft around the middle in his later years, in his youth he was a strapping, broad-shouldered specimen of a man. Well, at least that's what he claims in his autobiography. Either way, Franklin credited his physique to being a vigorous swimmer. When he was posted to London in the 1750s, he was known to take daily dips in the Thames. When he was an 11-year-old in Boston, Franklin's first invention was a pair of oval planks with holes through their centres. Grasping the two planks with his hands, Franklin used the fins to give him a bit of extra thrust underwater.