Introduces Suzy Wright, a Quaker who helped settle the Pennsylvania frontier, defended the rights of Native Americans, and provided legal counsel to her neighbors.

"Even by 1800s standards, Ada Byron Lovelace had an unusual upbringing. Her narcissistic mother worked hard at cultivating her own role as martyred ex-wife of bad-boy poet Lord Byron and had Ada tutored at home by some of the brightest minds. Ada developed a hunger for mental puzzles, mathematical conundrums, and scientific discovery that kept pace with the breathtaking advances of the industrial and social revolutions taking place in Europe. At seventeen,...

At the time of his famous kite experiment, Benjamin Franklin was unaware that his theories about electricity had already made him a celebrity all over Europe, especially in France, where fashionable circles loved to discuss scientific discovery. Admired by the French court and beloved by French citizens, Franklin effectively became America's first foreign diplomat, later helping to enlist France's military and financial support for the American Revolution....