You’ve seen the picture. A middle-aged man standing in a storm, holding a kite string with a key dangling off it, looking remarkably un-electrocuted. It’s the quintessential image of Benjamin Franklin. But here’s the thing: Ben Franklin was way more than just the "electricity guy." Honestly, he was more like a 18th-century startup founder who refused to take VC money or even file a patent.
He had this weird, brilliant obsession with fixing things that annoyed him. If he couldn't see his book and the person across the room, he didn't just complain; he hacked his glasses. If his brother was in pain from a medical procedure, he stayed up all night designing a better tool. This wasn't just about science. It was about making life slightly less miserable for everyone.
Below is the real ben franklin inventions list, stripped of the myths and focused on the actual gear he built.
The Bifocals (1784): A Literal Hack
Imagine being 78 years old and having to carry around two pairs of heavy, expensive spectacles. One for reading. One for walking around without tripping over your own feet. Franklin was "fed up" with the constant switching.
He didn't invent a new type of glass. Instead, he took a pair of scissors (or a glass cutter) and literally sliced his lenses in half. He stuck the distance lens on top and the reading lens on the bottom. "Voila," as he might have said if he were feeling particularly French that day.
- The Nuance: Some historians argue he might have just been an early adopter of an existing English idea, but Franklin’s letters from 1784 describe him using them and finding them "very convenient."
- Why it matters: It’s arguably the most used item on any ben franklin inventions list today.
The Lightning Rod (1750): The First "Smart" Tech
Before Ben, people thought lightning was a literal "bolt from God" intended to punish sinners. When a church steeple got hit and burned down, people just assumed the congregation needed to pray harder. Franklin thought that was nonsense.
He hypothesized that lightning was just big electricity. To prove it, he proposed the "Sentry Box" experiment, where a man would stand on a high tower with an iron rod. When that took too long to build, he did the famous kite experiment in 1752. He didn't get struck by lightning (he would have died); he just collected the ambient charge from the air into a Leyden jar.
Once he proved it, he didn't just walk away. He realized a pointed iron rod on a roof could "draw off" the fire from the clouds.
- The Controversy: King George III actually insisted on blunt rods because he hated Franklin’s "rebel" pointed ones.
- The Result: It saved thousands of homes from burning to the ground.
The Franklin Stove (1742): A Failed Success
We often hear about the Franklin Stove as this massive triumph. Kinda. The truth is more interesting.
In the 1740s, Philadelphia was running out of wood. Open fireplaces were incredibly inefficient; most of the heat went up the chimney, and the room stayed freezing. Franklin designed a "Pennsylvania Fireplace" made of cast iron. It used a "baffle" system and an "inverted siphon" to keep the heat in the room longer.
The catch? It didn't work well at first. The smoke had to go down before it went up, and if the fire wasn't roaring, the stove would just fill the room with smoke. It wasn't until a guy named David Rittenhouse tweaked the design years later that it became the household staple we know today.
The Glass Armonica (1761): His Favorite Child
If you asked Ben which invention he loved most, it wasn't the lightning rod. It was the Armonica.
He saw a guy in London playing "singing glasses" (rubbing wet fingers on the rims of wine glasses). Ben thought it sounded beautiful but looked like a massive pain to set up. So, he worked with a glassblower to create 37 glass bowls of different sizes, nested them on a rotating iron spindle, and connected it to a foot pedal.
You just touched the spinning glass with wet fingers and—boom—ethereal music.
- Famous Fans: Mozart and Beethoven both wrote music specifically for it.
- The Dark Side: By the 1800s, people started claiming the music caused nervous breakdowns and even death. It was basically the "heavy metal" scare of the 18th century.
The Flexible Urinary Catheter (1752)
This one isn't "fun," but it's incredibly human. Franklin’s brother, John, suffered from kidney stones. Back then, doctors used a rigid, heavy lead or silver tube to drain the bladder. It was basically a torture device.
Ben reached out to a silversmith and designed a catheter made of small, jointed links covered in gut skin. It was flexible. It could actually turn corners inside the body. He even included a wire "stiffener" that could be withdrawn once the tube was in place. It was the first of its kind in America and saved his brother from an immense amount of "unnecessary pain."
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Hand Paddles / Swim Fins (1717)
Franklin was an obsessed swimmer. He once performed a "kite-surfing" feat where he let a kite pull him across a pond while he floated on his back. When he was just 11 years old, he made oval wooden palettes with holes for his thumbs.
They worked great for speed, but he noted they "fatigued his wrists." He also tried making fins for his feet, but he didn't like the "flapping" motion. Even as a kid, his brain was wired to optimize everything he touched.
Why You Can’t Buy a "Franklin Brand" Product
You might notice something missing from this ben franklin inventions list: a patent number.
Franklin never patented a single thing. He lived by a very specific philosophy: "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."
He was offered a lucrative patent for the Franklin Stove by the Governor of Pennsylvania. He turned it down. He believed that if an idea could help people, it shouldn't be locked behind a paywall.
What Most People Get Wrong
It's easy to look at a list of inventions and see a series of "Aha!" moments. But Franklin’s process was messy. He was wrong about things. He thought electricity was a fluid (close, but not quite). He thought his stove was perfect (it wasn't).
The real lesson from his work isn't that he was a genius who knew everything. It's that he was a tinkerer. He observed a problem—like a smoky room or a blurry book—and he tried to build a prototype. If it failed, he fixed it. If it worked, he gave it away.
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Take Action: Applying the "Franklin Method"
If you want to think like Franklin today, don't wait for a "billion-dollar idea." Start smaller.
- Identify a Friction Point: What’s a small, daily annoyance you face? Is it a messy desk? A slow process at work?
- Prototype with What’s Available: Franklin didn't wait for "high-tech" glass; he cut his own spectacles. Use the tools you have right now to create a "Minimum Viable Product."
- Iterate Based on Feedback: When his stove smoked, he (and eventually others) tweaked the baffle system. Don't be afraid to let others improve your "failed" ideas.
- Share the Knowledge: Document your process. Whether it's a blog post or a quick tip to a coworker, the "Franklin legacy" is about communal improvement, not just individual profit.
Next Steps:
- Review your own daily "friction points" and see if a low-tech "hack" could solve them.
- Look into the history of the Odometer—another tool Franklin significantly improved while he was Postmaster General.