I read Ben Franklin had it wrong by stating "current is the flow of positive charge". Right from the start Ben Franklin could have easily decided to say that current is the flow of negative charge.
So why is it that when J.J Thompson discovered the electron the physics community decided the correct elementary particle that moves is negative? Why could they not have said it was just positive and be consistant with what Ben Franklin said?
Today we compensate by having the positive move in reverse so the negative turns out to be moving in the "forward" direction. Is there something really fundamental about the electron that it must be called negative instead of positive perhaps?
