Nine Ingenious Inventions by Benjamin Franklin

 

Nine Ingenious Inventions by Benjamin Franklin 

 One of the Founding Fathers of the USA

Source:

Jonny Wilkes

Author's Title, BBC History Extra Magazine

May 11, 2024

If you ask a group of people today what the 18th-century polymath Benjamin Franklin should be most remembered for, chances are a variety of answers will emerge.

 

Was he primarily a man of letters, who became a successful printer, publisher, journalist, and author, with a unique wit and philosophical perspective?

Or perhaps he should be more celebrated as a revered statesman, for having served as a Founding Father and the first ambassador to France, a role that led to the Franco-American alliance, which proved integral to the American Revolution (1763–1783).

Such is his reputation that some people still (erroneously) refer to him as the president of the United States.

 

However, there will always be those who consider this titan of U.S. history first and foremost to be one of the leading scientists and inventors of his time.

Franklin's contributions were not only numerous and life changing, but he offered them as a gift.

 

He never patented anything, stating in his autobiography: "While we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad to have an opportunity of serving others by any invention of our own; and this we should do freely and generously."

 

Having retired from his business interests as an extremely wealthy man in his early 40s, Franklin began experimenting with electricity in 1746.

 

He altered our understanding of how it works; challenging the theory, that electricity should be treated as two fluids by proposing that it behaves as a single fluid that could be positively or negatively charged.

 

It was Franklin who first used the terms "positive," "negative," and "charge" in relation to electricity.

 

He pioneered the language itself surrounding the study, also establishing the electrical basis for terms like "battery" and "conductor."

The Kite

Of course, what truly made Franklin a world-famous scientist was his legendary kite experiment, despite the continuing uncertainty about whether it actually took place.

 

If we believe the accounts (including a letter from Franklin in the Pennsylvania Gazette), in June 1752 he set out to prove his theory that lightning was electrical in nature.

 

His method involved flying a kite in a thunderstorm, with a metal key attached.

 

This collected charge from the atmosphere, which was then conducted into a Leyden jar (discovered in the 1740s, a device for storing static electricity), thus confirming that Franklin was right.

 

While another scientist, the French physicist Thomas-François Dalibard, had conducted a similar test a month earlier, this one was based on Franklin's published notes.

 

Therefore, the American took the credit.

 

His ingenuity was not limited to devising scientific experiments, but also to creating solutions to mundane problems and improving existing technologies. Among his many passions and pursuits, Franklin also found time to develop a vast collection of new devices. Here are some of the most ingenious. Franklin's contributions were not only numerous and life changing, but he offered them as a gift. He never patented anything, stating in his autobiography: "While we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad to have an opportunity of serving others by any invention of our own; and this we should do freely and generously." Having retired from his business interests as an extremely wealthy man in his early 40s, Franklin began experimenting with electricity in 1746. He altered our understanding of how electricity works; challenging the theory, that electricity should be treated as two fluids by proposing that it behaves as a single fluid that could have a positive or negative charge.

 

It was Franklin who first used the terms "positive," "negative," and "charge" in relation to electricity. He promoted the very language surrounding the study, also establishing the electrical basis for terms like "battery" and "conductor."

 

The Kite

Of course, what truly made Franklin a world-famous scientist was his legendary kite experiment, despite the continuing uncertainty about whether it actually took place.

 

If accounts (including a letter from Franklin in the Pennsylvania Gazette) are to be believed, in June 1752 he set out to prove his theory that lightning was electrical in nature.

 

His method involved flying a kite in a thunderstorm, with a metal key attached.

 

This collected charge from the atmosphere, which was conducted into a Leyden jar (discovered in the 1740s, a device for storing static electricity), thus confirming that Franklin was right. Although another scientist, French physicist Thomas-François Dalibard, had conducted a similar test a month earlier, this one was based on Franklin's published notes.

 

Therefore, the American took the credit.

 

Ingenious Inventions

His ingenuity was not limited to devising scientific experiments, but also to creating solutions to mundane problems and improving existing technologies.

 

Among his many passions and occupations, Franklin also found time to develop a vast collection of new devices.

 

Here are some of the most ingenious.

1. Patios 

Franklin's experiments with electricity had a clear practical purpose: to prevent the fires and destruction that lightning could cause when striking wooden buildings.

 

His solution was a metal pole that could be fixed to the top of the building with a wire running to the ground to safely conduct electricity.

 

The usefulness of the lightning rod was immediately apparent, and it remains a vital addition to structures today.

 

Even King George III of the United Kingdom, who cursed Franklin's name when the American Revolutionary War broke out, had them installed at Buckingham

Palace. That said, he made the political decision to choose rounded lightning rods, as suggested by British scientists, instead of Franklin's pointed ones.

2. Swimming paddles, designed by Franklin, displayed at the Benjamin Franklin Museum

 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Franklin's inventive mind began working at an early age.

 

By age 11, he was a strong swimmer and designed portable aids to help him go faster in the water.

 

They resembled an artist's paint palette and were oval-shaped pieces of wood with holes for his thumbs to increase the surface area of ​​his strokes.

 

He also experimented with flippers for his feet, though with less success.

Beyond his invention, Franklin did his best to popularize the pastime of swimming, championing its health benefits and genuinely considering becoming a swimming teacher.

 

3. Stove 

Produced according to Franklin's design. While traditional fireplaces consumed a lot of fuel and posed a risk of fire, the Franklin stove was more efficient, producing less smoke and fewer stray sparks. It consisted of a cast iron box set back from the chimney, with a hollow space at the back to allow more heat to circulate more quickly. Since its commercial release in 1742 and its refinement by fellow American David Rittenhouse in the 1780s, it set a new benchmark for indoor heating.

 

 

While living in London before the War of Independence, he bathed daily in the Thames.

 

He is now honoured in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

4.Urinary catheter

 

Franklin did not invent the original catheter (medically, a tube inserted into the urethra to allow urine to drain), but he did develop a much less painful version.

 

That in itself has earned him praise over the years for many sufferers.

 

It all began around 1752, when his older brother, John, developed kidney stones and needed regular catheter insertions.

At the time, these were solid tubes that caused significant pain.

 

Franklin set to work making something more flexible, resulting in a tube made of hinged sections joined by a local silversmith.

 

He hurriedly sent it to his brother with instructions on how to use it much less painfully.

5. Bifocals

Franklin-style glasses, 1720-1820.

Being nearsighted and farsighted in his old age, Franklin concluded that constantly changing his different pairs of glasses was a nuisance he could do without.

 

By cutting both types of lenses in half, he created a pair of glasses with the top half ideal for long-distance vision and the bottom half better suited for near reading.

 

In recent years, there has been some question as to whether he was the true inventor of bifocals or simply an early adopter, but he certainly made them a striking invention.

6. Long Arm

The device is similar to those used today to pick up trash without having to bend down.

Along with bifocals, the long arm helped Franklin indulge his love of reading in old age, when his health deteriorated in the 1780s.

 

The clue is in the name: it was a grasping device, made of a piece of wood with claw-like fingers at the end that could be manipulated by pulling a cord, making it easier to grab a book from the top shelf without having to climb a ladder.

7. To Keep Your Soup From Spilling.

This one, however, was one in which the soup couldn't be spilled.

Franklin wanted to put an end to accidents while sailing at sea, when the ship pitched in all directions, so he devised a simple yet elegant solution.

His design had the usual bowl in the center, but it was surrounded by smaller containers around the rim.

When something caused the soup to spill, it would end up in one of those mini bowls instead of falling onto the table.

8. Musician Dean Shostak during one of his Crystal Concerts, playing a glass harmonica, invented by Franklin in 1761.

Have you heard that unearthly sound made by rubbing a moistened finger over the rim of a wine glass?

 

That inspired Franklin's musical instrument, the harmonica.

Manufactured around 1761, it consisted of 37 glass bowls aligned on a rotating axis, which the player turned using a pedal while keeping their fingers lubricated for playing.

 

Each bowl was crafted to exact specifications by London-based glassblower Charles James to produce different notes without the need for liquid inside.

 

The instrument caused a stir on the European music scene, with names like Mozart and Beethoven composing pieces to take full advantage of its ethereal sound.

 

Franklin would later say, "Of all my inventions, the glass armonica is the one that has given me the greatest personal satisfaction."

With affection,

Ruben

 

 

 

 

Benjamin Franklin Quotes

 

Benjamin Franklin Quotes

1.We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.

2.Common sense without education is better than education without common sense.

3.The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all others, charity.

 

Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you.

4.This [the U.S. Constitution] is likely to be administered for a course of years and then end in despotism... when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.

 

5. It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.

6. There are many roads to success, but only one sure road to failure; and that is to try to please everyone else.

 

7. When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, until it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

8. When you are down to nothing, God is up to something. The faithful see the invisible, believe the incredible and then receive the impossible.

Where liberty dwells there is my country.

9. Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.

10. Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.

11. Take the money in your wallet and invest it in your mind. And in return, your mind will fill up your wallet!

12. Little minds think and talk about people.

Average minds think and talk about things and actions.

Great minds think and talk about ideas.

13. Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do.

14Life's Tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

15. Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who kept their swords.

16. The only thing that is more expensive than education is ignorance.

17. Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.ecurity without liberty is called prison.

18. The world is run by the people who show up.

19. I never knew a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything

else.

2o. Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

21. The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

22. Be civil to all; serviceable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.

23. I believe there is one Supreme most perfect being. [...] I believe He is pleased and delights in the happiness of those He has created; and since without virtue man can have no happiness in this world, I firmly believe He delights to see me virtuous.

24. Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

With affection,

Ruben

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Benjamin Franklin

 

Benjamin Franklin

(Boston, 1706 - Philadelphia, 1790) American politician, scientist, and inventor.

 A scholar of electricity and everything that caught his interest, inventor of the lightning rod and other useful devices, an honest and efficient public figure, and a prominent architect of American independence, Benjamin Franklin was perhaps the most beloved figure of his time in his country and the only American from the British colonial era to achieve fame and notoriety in Europe.

 

 

Only through admiration is it possible to approach his figure, and at the same time, it is difficult to think of Franklin without experiencing a sense of human warmth. His appearance was so unassuming, his personality so pleasant, and his sense of humor sprang so spontaneously that people found it easy to love and respect him. Large gray eyes and a smile-prone mouth adorned the face of this paragon of virtue, who was able to excel in every field he pursued.

"Will, talent, genius, and grace were united in him, as if nature had been both wasteful and happy in forming him," stated one of his biographers. Beyond these gifts, Franklin always firmly believed that it was possible to modify the negative aspects of character through discipline that was both gentle and constant. In his youth, he always carried a list of admirable qualities, which later became a small book with each page dedicated to a virtue. Franklin would devote a week of attention to each one, rereading it as soon as he had the opportunity, and starting over when he reached the end.

 

Biography

The fifteenth of seventeen children, Benjamin Franklin only completed elementary school, which he abandoned at the age of ten. The vast encyclopedic erudition he would display in later life was the result of an insatiable curiosity and a self-taught effort that he always combined with his professional activities. At the age of twelve, he began working as a printer in a company owned by John Franklin, one of his brothers.

 

In 1723, after a dispute with his brother, he fled to Philadelphia, where, penniless, he found work in a printing house. After two years of similar employment in England, where he had been sent with worthless recommendations, he returned to Philadelphia and worked independently as a printer and publisher. In 1727, he was responsible for the issuance of paper money in the British colonies in America. He later founded the newspaper The Pennsylvania Gazette, which he published between 1728 and 1748, and in 1732, he undertook the edition of Poor Richard's Almanac (1732-1757).

Benjamin Franklin

 

With the publication of the Almanac, a common miscellaneous yearbook of the time that included saints' days, horoscopes, medical advice, and weather forecasts, a period of prosperity began in his life. Franklin himself served as editor, publisher, and director, although he attributed the authorship to a fictional character who would eventually become extremely famous: the extravagant Richard Saunders, from whom the title "Poor Richard's Almanac" comes.

 

This Richard is an old provincial "Yankee" of variable humor, a rustic philosopher with hints of misogynism, who, to the great despair of his wife, Bridget, spends his time among dusty books and astrological calculations, instead of earning money to support his family. He decides to publish the almanac precisely to reconcile his hobbies with that need.

 

Along with the usual sections, Franklin also had the good sense to include all sorts of maxims, proverbs, sayings, and famous quotes, taken from a variety of sources; sometimes, applying his genius and experience to human behavior, he even invented them himself, so successfully that they eventually became popular. After twenty-five years of uninterrupted publication, with print runs reaching ten thousand copies (an impressive figure for the time), Benjamin Franklin had amassed a considerable fortune that allowed him to abandon printing.

The Statesman

 

Benjamin Franklin's period of intense political activity began in 1757, after completing his long tenure as a printer. The most important aspect of this period was his work as an inspirer and active factotum of independence. He can be credited with the original idea of ​​the United States as a single nation, rather than a group of separate colonies, since two decades before the American Revolutionary War, he conceived a system of state governments united under a single federal authority.

 

Having already become one of Philadelphia's most important public figures, he had been elected to the Legislative Assembly; he successfully completed the treaty with the rebel Indians, found a rational system for street cleaning, and promoted numerous initiatives and improvements. His active and multifaceted nature led him to participate in local affairs, for example, in the creation of institutions such as the Philadelphia Fire Department, the Public Library and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the American Philosophical Society. As Postmaster General of Philadelphia, the first of many important public offices he would hold with brilliant efficiency, Franklin achieved a series of dazzling successes in improving service, greatly expanding the frequency of mail deliveries and improving mail routes.

When he was sent to London in 1757 to defend the interests of the American colonies before the mother country, Benjamin Franklin began an intense political effort that would ultimately bear the desired fruits. On one famous occasion, he spent the entire day in the House of Commons, skilfully answering questions posed to him by members of that honorable institution regarding the colonies' resistance to the much-hated English tax law, which was detrimental to the interests of the American colonists. The result was that Parliament repealed the law (1766), and the war was delayed for ten years, giving the independence fighters ample time to prepare.

 

Faced with the new fiscal and political pressures exerted by the mother country, Benjamin Franklin left London; he returned to Philadelphia in 1775 and firmly joined the independence movement. That same year, he was appointed representative of Pennsylvania to the Second Continental Congress, where representatives of the thirteen North American colonies decided to form an army to fight against England. The following year, he drafted the historic Declaration of Independence (1776) with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

 

Due to his prestige, he was chosen in December of that year to undertake a tour of Europe (1776-1785) in search of support for the independence cause. It was essential to secure French aid, without which the war could drag on indefinitely or even be lost. George Washington had dedicated himself to organizing an American army, but the mother country possessed all the power, weapons, and important allies. It was necessary to counter this power by enlisting French aid. Franklin not only convinced the reluctant French monarch, Louis XVI, to secretly send supplies to General Washington, but a year later (1778) succeeded in persuading Washington to openly enter the war as an ally after signing a treaty of friendship.

Benjamin Franklin (portrait by David Martin, 1767)

 

After the war was over and independence was effectively achieved, Benjamin Franklin participated in the negotiations to conclude the peace treaty that would end the conflict (1783). After his return to Philadelphia, he was appointed to the convention charged with drafting the American Constitution (1787). Franklin also managed to resolve a problem that threatened to seriously hamper the formation of the new country: the small states wanted equal representation in Congress with the larger states, and the larger states, in turn, wanted the number of delegates chosen based on each state's population.

 

Franklin resolved the difficulty by accepting the first proposal as the basis for the Senate and the second for the House of Representatives. Then, when the Constitution was ready, he personally saw to it that it was ratified by the individual states, a task that required all his powers of persuasion and his abilities as a masterful reasoned: none of his interlocutors resisted his arguments. Returning to Philadelphia, already old and tired, and hoping for a well-earned rest, he found himself immediately burdened with new public responsibilities, once again carrying out in his perfect and admirable style the missions entrusted to him.

The Scientist

 

Benjamin Franklin's interest in scientific matters began in the middle of the 20th century and roughly coincided with this period of intense political activity. During a stay in France in 1752, he conducted the famous kite experiment, which allowed him to demonstrate that clouds are electrically charged and that, therefore, lightning is essentially an electrical discharge.

 

To carry out this experiment, which was not without risk, he used a kite equipped with a metal wire attached to a silk thread, which, according to his assumption, would be charged with the electricity captured by the wire. During the storm, he placed his hand near a key hanging from the silk thread and observed that, as in the Leyden jar experiments he had previously conducted; sparks flew, demonstrating the presence of electricity.

The Kite Experiment

(oil painting by B. West)

 

This discovery led him to invent the lightning rod, whose effectiveness led to the installation of 400 of these devices in Philadelphia by 1782. His work on electricity led him to formulate concepts such as negative and positive electricity (based on the observation of the behavior of amber rods) and the electrical conductor, among others. He also expounded a theory about electricity in which he considered it to be a subtle fluid that could present an excess or a defect. He discovered the power of metal points by observing that an electrically charged body discharges much more quickly if it ends in a point. He also enunciated the principle of conservation of electrical charge.

 

Benjamin Franklin also invented the so-called Franklin stove (1742), an iron stove with greater efficiency and lower consumption, and bifocal lenses. His great curiosity about natural phenomena led him to study, among other things, the course of storms that form on the American continent. He was the first to analyze the warm current that flows through the North Atlantic and is now known as the Gulf Stream.

 

An expert musician and instrumentalist, he also wrote about the problems of musical composition, particularly those related to adapting music to lyrics so that the latter could be intelligible. A detailed account of his discoveries would be endless and exhausting, as his creative capacity and sense of anticipation were absolutely extraordinary.

 

Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia at the age of 84. He had remained active practically his entire life; only two years earlier, he had decided to retire from public life and complete his Autobiography (begun around 1771), which would be published posthumously. One of the reasons for his longevity was his profound knowledge of health-related topics. He took long walks whenever he could, was an example of moderation at the table, and, contrary to many prejudices accepted by his contemporaries, had habits that were unusual for the average American, such as the custom, considered extravagant and pernicious, of sleeping with the windows wide open.

 

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How to cite this article: Tomás Fernández and Elena Tamaro. "Biography of Benjamin Franklin" [Internet]. Barcelona, ​​Spain: Editorial Biografías y Vidas, 2004. Available at https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/f/franklin.htm [accessed August 30, 2025].

With affection, Ruben