After George Washington, Benjamin Franklin is considered one of the most important figures during the early days of the United States of America. He was a scholar, a writer, an inventor and a statesman. But did you know that he also tried to invent a new alphabet that eliminated "useless letters" and added new ones? And he also famously wrote an essay about flatulence...among many essays that he wrote - both under his own name and under pseudonyms.Ben Franklin is often called "the first Ameri...