Of all our nation's Founding Fathers, perhaps none was more a rascal than Ben Franklin.

That goes without saying because, unlike his fellow rebel elite, Franklin stands alone as the scientist of the group. As we all know, from Galileo to Feynman, scientists make the greatest pranksters. Indeed, if Groucho Marx hadn't been born to a vaudevillian family, he, too, might have challenged Einstein at the Pantheon of early twentieth century scientists.

Franklin would become the first notable American to wear the cloak of the rogue scientist. His science is without question, most famously in the episode involving a kite, a key, and a random stroke of lightning. He combined both his scientific method of thinking with his playful mischief-maker attitude when he stunned the Paris court by debunking the popular Franz Mesmer's mysterious cure.