Benjamin Franklin Inventions

One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a politician, satirist, inventor, publisher, and author, Benjamin Franklin was a polymath par excellence. Many of his inventions are today an important part of our daily life. Born on the 17th of January 1706, Benjamin Franklin's inventions timeline will showcase a number of inventions that are prime examples of Plato's belief, necessity is the mother of all inventions."

While many people wrongly attribute the 'invention' of electricity to Franklin, the truth is that all he proved was that lightning is electricity. The famous kite incident is recounted in many textbooks although many theorists believe that the experiment may have never happened. The experiment in question was laden with dangers and could have been fatal if he had performed the same. He may have not been flying the kite awaiting a lightning strike but instead may have used the kite to collect the charge from a storm cloud. Franklin's experiments with the conduction of electricity led to one of his most famous inventions. This particular invention and other inventions of Benjamin Franklin have been discussed in this article.

List of Inventions by Benjamin Franklin

As seen in the earlier section of the article, Benjamin Franklin was not only an inventor but a discoverer as well but out of all the inventions and discoveries he made, we discuss six of his most famous inventions.

Bifocals
Benjamin Franklin invented bifocal glasses out of necessity. He suffered from both myopia and hyperopia and constantly needed to switch glasses in order to be able to see properly. This constant switching led to frustration and the resultant invention of bifocal glasses. One of Benjamin Franklin's inventions that millions of people use on an everyday basis, he made the spectacles by cutting the lenses of two pairs of spectacles and using half of each kind of lens in one frame.

Lightning Rod
The lightning rod was a resultant invention idea of many years of experiments that Franklin conducted with electricity. A lightning rod is basically a metal rod that can be mounted on top of a building, connected to the ground with an electric wire. This rod gives the building protection against lightning. In order for the lightning rod to work, the cable connected needs to be buried deep inside the ground so that it transfers the charge into the ground. This helps in reducing the possibility of a building catching fire.

Glass Armonica
One of the inventions of Benjamin Franklin which was very important to him was his invention of the glass armonica or harmonica. He very famously said about the armonica, "Of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction." The creation of the armonica in 1761 was a result of the inspiration from Handel playing Water Music on wine glasses. His original design did not have a need for tuning and was a compact instrument in which the glasses rested inside each other.

Franklin Stove
The Franklin stove is an example of the altruistic nature of the inventor. He refused a patent for the design because he had made the stove to benefit people and not for personal profit. The fireplaces that were being used at that point of time were extremely inefficient producing more smoke than heat and also making the house susceptible to fires. With his invention of the Franklin stove, he create a stove that had a hood in the front and airbox in the rear which used less wood and generated more heat.

Simple Odometer
An odometer is a device that helps measure the distance traveled by a vehicle. Benjamin Franklin invented the simple odometer to measure the distance that his carriage covered while working as the Postmaster General. This verification of distance enabled him to figure the best routes that he could use in order to minimize the distances he needed to travel in order to deliver mail.

Urinary Catheter
The urinary catheter was invented by Franklin to help his brother John who was ill. It was a much less refined version of the catheters we use today but it was an extremely important and useful invention. The device he invented was a modification on the European catheter that was a thin tube that allowed the passage of bodily fluids.

An important creation of his which cannot be classified under inventions of Benjamin Franklin and is not a discovery either is the mapping of the Gulf stream for which he studied wind speeds, depth of the sea, speed and temperature of the water. This reduced the sailing time when traveling from America to Europe, which reduced the shipment time on many deliveries. There is confusion about whether or not the credit that Franklin is given for putting forward the theory of daylight saving time is correct. While many people give him the credit for this time saving technique, this may be a result of a satirical piece that he is credited with, in which he claims that he discovered the phenomenon of the sun shining at sunrise and that because everyone is too busy sleeping to know that it does not start shining only at noon. This witty piece may have probably led to the longstanding view that Franklin put forward the theory of daylight saving time.

Benjamin Franklin was also a voracious reader who, in his old age, to be able to reach books that were on a higher shelf, invented the long arm with a hook. This was probably one of his last inventions in a lifetime full of discoveries and creations for the convenience of humanity at large.