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Benjamin Franklin was many things in his lifetime: a printer, a postmaster, an ambassador, an author, a scientist, 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:

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.)

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 between two pairs of eyeglasses, he invented "double spectacles," or what we now call bifocals. He had the lenses from his two pairs of glasses (one for reading and one for distance) sliced in half horizontally and then remade into a single pair-with the lens for distance at the top and the one for reading at the bottom.

Swim Fins

An avid swimmer, Franklin was just 11 years old when he invented swimming fins-two oval pieces of wood that, when grasped in the hands, provided extra thrust through the water. (He also tried out fins for his feet, but they weren't as effective.) He wrote about his childhood invention in 1793 in an essay titled "On the Art of Swimming":
"When I was a boy, I made two oval [palettes] each about 10 inches long and six broad, with a hole for the thumb in order to retain it fast in the palm of my hand. They much resembled a painter's [palettes]. In swimming, I pushed the edges of these forward and I struck the water with their flat surfaces as I drew them back. I remember I swam faster by means of these [palettes], but they fatigued my wrists."
In 1742, Franklin-perhaps fed up with the cold Pennsylvania winters-invented a better way to heat rooms. The Franklin stove, as it came to be called, was a metal-lined fireplace designed to stand a few inches away from the chimney. A hollow baffle at the rear let heat from the fire mix with the air more quickly, and an inverted siphon helped to extract more heat. His invention also produced less smoke than a traditional fireplace, making it that much more desirable.

Urinary Catheter

Franklin was inspired to invent a better catheter in 1752 when he saw what his kidney (or bladder) stone-stricken brother had to go through. Catheters at the time were simply rigid metal tubes-none too pleasant. So Franklin devised a better solution: a flexible catheter made of hinged segments of tubes. He had a silversmith make his design and he promptly mailed it off to his brother with instructions and best wishes.

"Of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction." So wrote Franklin about the musical instrument he designed in 1761. Inspired by English musicians who created sounds by passing their fingers around the brims of glasses filled with water, Franklin worked with a glassblower to re-create the music ("incomparably sweet beyond those of any other") in a less cumbersome way.

The armonica (the name is derived from the Italian for "harmony") was immediately popular, but by the 1820s it had been nearly forgotten. (Get the full story here.)

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Benjamin Franklin was many things in his lifetime: a printer, a postmaster, an ambassador, an author, a scientist, 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.

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On this day in 1754, Benjamin Franklin published one of the most famous cartoons in history: the Join or Die woodcut. Franklin's art carried significant importance at the time and is considered an early masterpiece of political messaging.

At the time, Franklin was the publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette. He also had been chosen as a delegate for an upcoming conference in Albany, New York, to deal with a combined threat to the British from French and Indian forces.

During what later became known as the Albany Congress, representatives from seven colonies - Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island - were going to meet to discuss the French threat and work on a treaty with the Iroquois Confederacy.

As the Albany Congress approached, Franklin was concerned about a recent military loss to the French and he was clearly pondering a colonial alliance to confront more French aggression. A few days after the small military defeat, Franklin published an article about the loss, as reported by a young major in the Virginia Regiment, George Washington.

"The Confidence of the French in this Undertaking seems well-grounded on the present disunited State of the British Colonies, and the extreme Difficulty of bringing so many different Governments and Assemblies to agree in any speedy and effectual Measures for our common Defence and Security," Franklin wrote.

"They presume that they may with Impunity violate the most solemn Treaties subsisting between the two Crowns, kill, seize and imprison our Traders, and confiscate their Effects at Pleasure (as they have done for several Years past) murder and scalp our Farmers, with their Wives and Children, and take an easy Possession of such Parts of the British Territory as they find most convenient for them," Franklin concluded, warning that the British presence in North America was at stake.

Accompanying the article was the "JOIN, OR DIE" cartoon, with a snake cut into eight pieces that symbolized the British colonies. Franklin's message hit home as the cartoon and article started appearing in other colonial newspapers.

In a 1996 article in The British Library Journal, Karen Severud Cook reviewed the brief, but interesting, historical interpretations of the cartoon. Franklin's cartoon, Cook said, was also a symbolic map, with the initials next to the snake's segments in the same order of the colonies and a rough proximity of a coastline.

It is likely that Franklin himself didn't engrave the etching, since he was busy with his political career. The "Join or Die" cartoon also wasn't the first political cartoon he had published; Franklin had done another cartoon for a pamphlet in 1747.

A severed snake image, in two pieces, had first appeared in a 1685 book in France accompanied by the words "se rejoindre ou mourir" (will join or die). And Franklin might also have been inspired by rattlesnake images drawn by nature historian Mark Catesby.

The emblematic image gained considerable attention as the Albany Congress approached. The Congress met in June and July, where Franklin proposed an early version of a unified colonial government. A President General appointed by the crown and a Grand Council of representatives would be appointed by each of the colonies. Franklin's government was limited in scope: It could provide for joint military protection and also levy taxes. The Congress approved the plan, but the British government and the colonies never acted on it.

In later years, the Join or Die cartoon resurfaced on important occasions. The emblem reappeared in colonial newspapers during the Stamp Act crisis. Versions of the snake cartoon appeared in newspapers during the American Revolutionary War, sometimes as part of a masthead. And the snake cartoon was used by both sides during the Civil War.

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The story behind the Join or Die snake cartoon

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On this day in 1754, Benjamin Franklin published one of the most famous cartoons in history: the Join or Die woodcut. Franklin's art carried significant importance at the time and is considered an early masterpiece of political messaging. At the time, Franklin was the publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette .

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Business success

Franklin's greatest business accomplishment came from the publication of Poor Richard's Almanack. On December 19, 1732 Franklin published his first almanac under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders. The almanac was published for the year of 1733 and was published once a year for the next 25 years. It contained all sorts of interesting information such as the calendar, weather predictions, sayings, poems and demographics. It also included recipes, trivia, advice, aphorisms, and proverbs about industry and frugality. Franklin considered it a vehicle of instruction for common people who could not afford books, a literature for the masses. Almanacs were the most read secular books in the colonies.

Almanacs were produced in Britain long before they made their way to North America. The first almanac in North America was published by William Pierce of Harvard College in 1639 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The most important were published in New England by Nathaniel Ames of Dedham, Massachusetts, its publication lasted from 1726 to 1775. Benjamin Franklin's brother, James, also published the Rhode-Island Almanack starting in 1728.

The oldest almanac still in circulation in North America is the Old Farmer's Almanac first published in 1792 by Robert B. Thomas.

According to the Library Company of Philadelphia only three copies of the 1733 original issue exist. The third copy was found in 2009 in the library of the Berwick Historical Society in Pennsylvania. Here in Berwick, an old industrial town, Franklin printed thousands of copies of his calendar from 1733 to 1760. This original issue was sold in auction by Sotheby's fetching $556,500.

Poor Richard and Richard Saunders

The success of Poor Richard's Almanack is due in part to Franklin's ability to adapt bits and pieces of past calendars with his own skills and wit.

Franklin wrote under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders. Richard Saunders was an English physician and astrologist who wrote under the pen name of Cardanus Rider which in rearranged letters is Richard Saunders. Saunders published Rider's British Merlin, a popular almanac published from 1626 until the 1830s. The name Poor Richard was adapted from another British almanac, Poor Robin which was first published in 1664. The pseudonym Richard Saunders was initially distinct from Franklin but throughout the years it became linked with Franklin's character.

Poor Richard's Almanack was not all serious business, it published jokes and hoaxes. It is believed that Richard Saunders' personality was modeled after Isaaq Bickerstaff Esq, a pseudonym used by Jonathan Swift as part of a hoax to predict the death of almanac writer John Partridge. One of Franklin's most famous hoaxes The Death of Titan Leeds (see below) was based on this hoax.

The almanac was a best seller in the American colonies printing up to 10,000 copies a year. Its success brought wealth to Benjamin Franklin. Poor Richard's Almanack was so popular that Napoleon ordered it translated into Italian and later it was also translated into French.

The first issue of Poor Richard's Almanack

Richard Saunders introducing himself in his first 1733 almanac:
The death of Titan Leeds
In his first edition Franklin predicted the death of Titan Leeds, a competitor publisher of another calendar. In replicating Swift-Bickerstaff hoax Franklin predicted Leed's death on Oct. 17, 1733, 3:29 P.M., at the very instant of the conjunction of the Sun and Mercury. He advised his readers to buy the next issue of his calendar to see if his prediction held. When the date of his predicted death arrived and Leeds had not died, Franklin nevertheless published his obituary. When confronted by Leeds Franklin proclaimed that someone had appropriated his name and was being impersonated by an inferior printer.

For the next years he continued to affirm that Leeds had died until 1738 when he actually passed on. Franklin congratulated the person who had usurped Leeds name for finally ending his pretense.

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Business success Franklin's greatest business accomplishment came from the publication of Poor Richard's Almanack. On December 19, 1732 Franklin published his first almanac under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders. The almanac was published for the year of 1733 and was published once a year for the next 25 years.

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Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard's Almanack proverbs and aphorisms

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The idea for PoorRichards.net came from Poor Richard's Almanack (1732-1758), published by Benjamin Franklin.

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Benjamin Franklin. From his Autobiography

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Albany Plan for a Union 1754 < 1751-1775 < Documents < American History From Revolution To Reconstruction and beyond

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It is proposed that humble application be made for an act of Parliament of Great Britain, by virtue of which one general government may be formed in America, including all the said colonies, within and under which government each colony may retain its present constitution, except in the particulars wherein a change may be directed by the said act, as hereafter follows.