The Breakdown

An epic clash between two Founding Fathers! Both were prolific writers, Jefferson of the Declaration of Independence and his own version of the Bible, Franklin of Poor Richard’s Almanack and countless newspapers and pamphlets. Franklin invented the lightning rod, bifocals, and a carriage odometer, but Jefferson was no scientific slouch himself and filled Monticello, which he also designed, with a number of little inventions of his own, including a gadget that made copies of letters as he wrote them. Jefferson also carried out a number of early archeological studies. Both men had a key hand in establishing elite universities, with Franklin’s work at Penn matched by Jefferson’s efforts to start the University of Virginia. It’s hard to imagine the founding of the United States without these two titans, and this race is definitely a dead heat. Who’s the bigger genius, though, the declarer of independence or the discoverer of electricity?

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[See the whole bracket here.]