Biography of benjamin franklins inventions images

Benjamin Franklin was many things in his lifetime: a printer, a postmaster, an ambassador, an author, a scientist, and a Founding Father. Above all, he was an inventor, creating solutions to common problems, innovating new technology, and even making life a little more musical.

Despite creating some of the most successful and popular inventions of the modern world, Franklin never patented a single one, believing that they should be shared freely:

"That as we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of others, we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."

Here are some of Benjamin Franklin’s most significant inventions:

Lightning Rod

Franklin is known for his experiments with electricity - most notably the kite experiment - a fascination that began in earnest after he accidentally shocked himself in 1746. By 1749, he had turned his attention to the possibility of protecting buildings—and the people inside—from lightning strikes. Having noticed that a sharp iron needle conducted electricity away from a charged metal sphere, he theorized that such a design could be useful:

"May not the knowledge of this power of points be of use to mankind, in preserving houses, churches, ships, etc., from the stroke of lightning, by directing us to fix, on the highest parts of those edifices, upright rods of iron made sharp as a needle...Would not these pointed rods probably draw the electrical fire silently out of a cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible mischief!"

Franklin’s pointed lightning rod design proved effective and soon topped buildings throughout the Colonies. Learn more about the lightning rod.

Bifocals

Like most of us, Franklin found that his eyesight was getting worse as he got older, and he grew both near-sighted and far-sighted. Tired of switching betw

In the mid-18th century, many Europeans regarded the colonies as little more than a dangerous frontier — a rough-around-the-edges collection of trading posts where they bought their fur and cotton. Many of the world's most well-known musicians, artists and scientists were headquartered in European capitals.

As a witty Renaissance man who could also chop wood, Franklin slipped easily into their ranks, quickly gaining renown as a superstar from a relatively unknown land. He was to 18th-century North America as Björk is to modern Iceland.

When Franklin came to France as the United States' first ambassador, Parisians snapped up all manner of Franklin kitsch. His image was plastered on snuff boxes and medallions, and engravings of the man adorned the walls of any stylish French apartment. After Franklin died, the first published edition of his autobiography would be a French translation.

Like all good American celebrities, Franklin also had a charitable cause. In the years before his death, Franklin freed his two slaves, George and King, and became a vocal abolitionist.

"Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils," he wrote in 1789 [source: Franklin].

21st Century Franklins

More than 200 years after his death, Ben Franklin impersonators abound in all 50 states. For a fee, they'll show up to your event dressed in period clothing, speaking in 18th-century English, and spouting witty Franklin-isms like "a penny saved is a penny earned."