What would Ben Franklin do with balloons? [Article]

Everything, discovers Robert Krulwich of NPR, from a reading of the very practical-minded Franklin's letters.

He was one of those guys that if you gave him a problem, he'd think it over, and out would pour a crazy stream of stories, get-rich-quick schemes, fairy tales, adventures and solutions to problems you'd never known you had. He had what you might call "a mind wide-open" ready, like those balloons, to fly anywhere ...