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Benjamin Franklin's Hobby Journey
1706–1790
Founding Father, inventor, diplomat, printer, scientist, and authorHobby Timeline
Childhood
Swimming (lifelong passion from childhood in Boston)Kite flying (used a kite to pull himself across a pond)Reading (couldn't remember a time when he couldn't read)
Young Adult
Writing and publishing (Poor Richard's Almanack)Chess (one of the earliest players in America)Printing
Middle Life (retired at 42)
Electricity experimentsInvention (lightning rod, bifocals, Franklin stove, glass armonica)Number theory and mathematics
Later Life
DiplomacyScienceGlass armonica playingChess
Surprising hobbies
- ✦Invented swimming fins at age 11
- ✦Used a kite to pull himself across a pond as a child — decades before his famous lightning experiment
- ✦Retired at 42 to pursue hobbies full-time — those hobbies became some of history's most important inventions
- ✦Played chess so seriously he wrote an essay about it ('The Morals of Chess')
How hobbies shaped their career
Childhood swimming led to his invention of swim fins. Reading and writing as hobbies became his printing career. His 'retirement hobbies' in science and invention became his greatest legacy. Chess trained his strategic and diplomatic thinking. His kite experiments as a child foreshadowed his lightning research decades later.
"Of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction."
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