He directed saboteurs and advocated reviving the use of an obsolete weapon. As the colonies were preparing to fight England, Franklin, as head of Pennsylvania’s defense committee, presided over development of secret underwater barriers for denying enemy warships use of the Delaware River. He fine-tuned gunpowder manufacturing and championed use in combat of the outdated but still deadly bow and arrow. “A man may shoot as truly with a bow as with a common musket,” Franklin wrote to General Charles Lee. “He can discharge four arrows in the same time of charging and discharging one bullet…A flight of arrows, seen coming upon them, terrifies and disturbs the enemies’ attention to their business…An arrow striking any part of a man puts him outside of combat till it is extracted.” (British Library/Granger, NYC)