an American printer, writer, politician, diplomat, and scientist, is famous for his invention of bifocals and the Franklin stove as well as for his experiments with electricity. In 1733, he started publishing Poor Richard's Almanack, which contained many of the famous phrases associated with Franklin, such as, "A penny saved is a penny earned.” In 1752, he flew a kite attached to a silk string in a thunderstorm and proved that a metal key tied to the thread would charge a Leyden jar (a glass jar coated with metal). These experiments led to the use of lightning rods. Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress and worked on a committee of five that helped to draft the Declaration of Independence. Though much of the writing is Thomas Jefferson's, much of the contribution is Franklin's. In 1776, Franklin signed the Declaration and was named ambassador to the Court of Louis XVI in France. While living in Philadelphia he helped develop the nation’s first subscription library, the American Philosophical Society, the first learned society in America, and the city’s first fire department. Many Americans consider Ben Franklin as one of the nation’s Founding Fathers and as one of its greatest citizens.