Honestly, if you ask most people what did Benjamin Franklin create, they usually mention a kite and a key. Maybe they'll throw in the $100 bill. But there is a massive gap between the "schoolbook" version of Ben and the guy who was actually running around Philadelphia 300 years ago. He wasn't just some dusty Founding Father. He was a tinkerer. A bit of a prankster. A man who refused to patent a single thing because he thought ideas should be free.
Imagine 1752 Philadelphia. It’s humid. People are terrified of their houses burning down because lightning is seen as a literal bolt of divine wrath. Then comes Franklin. He doesn't just watch the sky; he decides to "tame" it. He creates a pointed iron rod. Simple, right? But that little rod changed the world by proving we could manipulate the forces of nature.
The Lightning Rod: More Than Just a Metal Stick
The lightning rod is arguably the most important thing Benjamin Franklin created. Before this, a lightning strike was basically a death sentence for a wooden house. People used to ring church bells to "scare away" the lightning, which, as you can guess, just led to a lot of dead bell-ringers getting zapped in high towers.
Franklin’s "Franklin Rod" wasn't just about protection. It was a political statement. In England, King George III insisted on blunt-tipped rods. Franklin, being the stubborn guy he was, insisted on sharp points. Having a pointed rod on your roof in the colonies became a subtle way of saying, "I’m with Ben, not the King."
He didn't stop at the sky, though. He looked at the floor, the fireplace, and even his own face.
Bifocals and the Struggle of Getting Old
Ever get frustrated because you have to switch between "driving glasses" and "reading glasses"? Franklin had it way worse in the 1780s. He was getting older, and his eyes were failing him. He was tired of carrying two pairs of spectacles and constantly swapping them out to see his food and then see who was talking across the table.
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So, what did he do? He took a pair of scissors.
He literally cut two different lenses in half and stuck them into one frame. Distance on top, reading on the bottom. He called them "double spectacles." It was a "kinda" DIY project that ended up becoming a multi-billion dollar industry centuries later.
The Franklin Stove: Solving the "Cold Back" Problem
Fireplaces in the 1700s were terrible. They were drafty, they smoked up the room, and most of the heat just went straight up the chimney. You’d be roasting your face while your back was literally freezing.
Franklin created the Pennsylvania Fireplace (we call it the Franklin Stove now) in 1742. It was a cast-iron box that stood out from the chimney. It used a "baffle" system to circulate heat longer. It used less wood and produced way more warmth.
Funny enough, he offered the governor of Pennsylvania the chance to make a lot of money off of it. He turned it down. He said, "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." He just wanted people to be warm.
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The Weird and Wonderful: Glass Armonicas and Swim Fins
When you look into what did Benjamin Franklin create, you find some stuff that is just plain weird.
- Swim Fins: When he was just 11, he made wooden paddles for his hands to help him swim faster. He's actually in the International Swimming Hall of Fame for this.
- The Glass Armonica: He saw a guy playing "musical glasses" (rubbing fingers on the rims of wine glasses) and thought it was too much work. He created a series of spinning glass bowls on a spindle controlled by a foot pedal. Mozart and Beethoven actually wrote music for this thing.
- The Flexible Catheter: His brother had kidney stones. The medical tools back then were stiff, painful metal tubes. Franklin worked with a silversmith to create a flexible, hinged version. It was a literal lifesaver for his brother.
Social "Inventions": Creating the Modern City
Franklin didn't just build gadgets. He built the "operating system" for Philadelphia. He looked at a messy, unorganized city and started inventing institutions.
He created the Union Fire Company in 1736. This was America's first volunteer fire department. He noticed that people were just throwing buckets of water randomly at fires, so he organized them into a "Bucket Brigade."
He also created:
- The Library Company of Philadelphia: The first lending library. Books were expensive back then. Most people couldn't afford them. Ben figured if 50 people chipped in, they could all share a massive collection.
- The University of Pennsylvania: He wanted a school that taught "useful" things like business and science, not just Latin and Greek.
- The First Public Hospital: Pennsylvania Hospital.
- The Post Office: He was the first Postmaster General. He basically invented the rate charts and delivery routes that made the mail actually show up on time.
Misconceptions: What He Didn't Do
We have to be honest here. There's a lot of "Ben-lore" that isn't quite true.
He didn't "discover" electricity. People already knew it existed. What he did was prove that lightning and electricity were the same thing.
He also didn't get struck by lightning during the kite experiment. If he had, he would have died. He just felt the "static" on the hemp string and saw the hair on the string stand up.
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He also didn't invent Daylight Savings Time. He wrote a satirical letter to a French newspaper suggesting people should get up earlier to save money on candles. It was a joke that people took way too seriously a hundred years later.
Why it Matters Today
Everything Benjamin Franklin created was born out of a desire to solve a specific, annoying problem. He didn't invent for fame or money. He invented because he was annoyed that his eyes hurt, or his house was cold, or his brother was in pain.
If you want to apply "Franklin-style" thinking to your own life, start looking at the small frictions in your day. Don't look for the "next big app." Look for the thing that's "kinda" broken and figure out a way to make it 10% better. That's how he ended up on the $100 bill—not by being a genius, but by being the guy who never stopped asking "Why does it have to be this way?"
To truly follow in his footsteps, focus on these three things:
- Identify the Friction: Notice when you are frustrated by a repetitive task or a physical limitation.
- Collaborate Freely: Franklin shared his designs with everyone. Don't be afraid to bounce ideas off people; the feedback usually makes the invention better.
- Think Publicly: Ask yourself how your solution can help your neighborhood or community, not just yourself.