Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin
Species:	Human
Place of origin:	18th century Earth
Children:	William Franklin
First mentioned in:	Seasons of Fear
First appearance:	The Many Hands
Appearances:	AUDIO: The Founding Fathers COMIC: The Long Con

Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States who was also a pioneering scientist and innovator. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac) He discovered static electricity and proved that lightning had electrical nature rather than being a fire in the sky. (AUDIO: The Founding Fathers) He had a son named William Franklin. (AUDIO: The Founding Fathers)

Biography

Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)

In 1750, Franklin theorised that lightning was a form of electricity and proposed to prove this by flying a kite in a storm. He conducted this experiment two years later, on 15 June 1752, during which he magaed to extract sparks from a cloud. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac) The Tenth Doctor once claimed to have worked with Franklin on the night he discovered static electricity. He also claimed that he got rope burns from Franklin's kite, soaked and then electrocuted. (TV: Smith and Jones)

The theory led Franklin to invent the lightning rod, a conductor placed on the roofs of tall buildings to attract lightning and divert it from striking other targets. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)

The First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Vicki Pallister met Franklin in 1762. They were frequent guests at his lodgings at Mrs Stevenson's. After opening the TARDIS by means of lightning, the Doctor failed to prevent Franklin from entering. The Doctor then pretended not to know how the ship operated and, when Franklin insisted on operating the controls at random, made the console live. The electric shock rendered Franklin unconscious. The Doctor expected that Franklin's memory of the TARDIS would be attributed to shock. (AUDIO: The Founding Fathers)

The Doctor met Franklin and fellow American founding father Alexander Hamilton on 1 July 1789. (COMIC: The Long Con)

For a while, Franklin was the owner of a mysterious living hand. It was later reacquired by Alexander Monro to create a clone of himself: Alexander Monro III. (PROSE: The Many Hands)

Franklin died in 1790. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac) The Third Doctor considered him to have been a "splendid chap, for [a human]". (AUDIO: Landbound)

Alternate timeline

In a timeline created when the Web of Time was broken, Franklin served as President of the United States. This version of Franklin was a member of the Hellfire Club. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear, Neverland)

Behind the scenes

• The comic story Who Was 'Ere!, from The Doctor Who Fun Book, which is not considered a valid source on this Wiki due to its parodical nature, provided an alternate version of the Doctor's involvement in the night of Ben Franklin's experiments with kites and electricity. In this version, it was the Third Doctor who accompanied his friend Ben, and he lent him some rubber-soled shoes after the first electrocution-causing mishap.
• He was played by Howard Da Silva in the film 1776.