Benjamin Franklin dabbled in science and tinkering for many years as a young man.  He was fascinated by scientific research, and he studied it closely.  He invented a stove (called the "Franklin stove"), which had a unique design to use heat more efficiently.  Franklin studied the research of other inventors who had studied efficiently produced heat.  He used his findings to develop his stove.

In the late 1740s, Benjamin Franklin began to focus more on inventions and his studies of science.  To study electricity, he conducted experiments using a Leydon jar.  This tool had been given to him by a friend.  It was in the 1750s that Franklin began to shift most of his focus to the study of electricity.  He conducted many experiments, which eventually led him to his most famous one involving a key on a kite string during a thunderstorm.  This led him to develop the lightning rod.

He continued to be an inventor throughout the rest of his life.  He invented bifocals, swimming flippers, and a version of an odometer.

Franklin never applied for patents on any of his inventions.  He believed that his inventions were created to help people, and that inventors should be generous with their discoveries.