Go With the Flow

May 2, 1775: Benjamin Franklin completes the first scientific study of the Gulf Stream and gives it its name. Six years earlier, while deputy postmaster of the Colonies, he had wondered why it took ships two weeks longer to bring mail from England than to send it there. To speed things up, he charts the "river in the ocean." See a letter from Franklin describing his discovery. And see one of the first charts of the Gulf Stream.