Benjamin Franklin is a famous American figure and has left many works in his life. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, January 17, 1706, died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, April 17, 1790 at the age of 84 years.
Franklin was a man of many kinds and skills. He is a journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, abolitionist, public servant (official), scientist, diplomat, and inventor all at once! Franklin was also one of the leaders of the American Revolution, and a signatory to the American Declaration of Independence.
Many of his words are famous and quoted by people. For example "time is money" most likely came from him. Because he is also a publisher and owner of a printing press, many of his words can still be read today because he also writes a lot and is diligent.
He is also famous for his experiments on electricity (lightning rods). He was America's first Postmaster, creator of the first "public library," and the first to organize a city fire department.
Benjamin Franklin's 8 Scientific Inventions and Achievements
1. Lightning Rod
Many people think that Ben Franklin is the inventor of electricity. He was the first to divide the labels of electricity as positive and negative, and he was the first to discover the principle of conservation of charge. In 1740, electricity was a novelty.
Benjamin Franklin and his friends began to investigate the electrical phenomenon. In 1750 he published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning was electricity, then he used a kite to collect some electrical charge from storm clouds.
In his experiments with electricity Franklin discovered the invention for lightning rods, which is the reason why buildings are not struck by lightning every time there is a frightening storm.
He wrote that a conductor (conductor of electricity) with sharp ends has the ability to attract electric charge and has a longer range of attraction than conductors with blunt ends.
He concluded that this knowledge of this could be used to protect homes from the danger of being struck by lightning, by attaching a needle-pointed iron rod and anti-rust coating, which was pointed at the sky, and to the iron legs, tied with wires leading to the ground.
This lightning rod will attract the electric charge in the cloud towards the ground so that the charge on the cloud is not enough to cause lightning and lightning.
In honor of Benjamin Franklin's services in the field of electricity, his name is immortalized as the physics unit franklin (Fr) or statcoulomb (statC) or electrostatic unit of charge (esu). Fr is the unit of electric charge in centimeters-gram-seconds (cgs). The SI system as we use it uses the Coulomb unit.
2. Odometer
Some of his most famous inventions besides lightning rods are the odometer (a vehicle mileage meter). We must thank Ben Franklin for this discovery. When Franklin was in charge of the postal service, he put an odometer on trains as a way to calculate mileage for his postal routes.
3. City Fire Department
The first fire service was formed in the modern world or to be precise in the United States in 1736 around the 18th century, as its founder, namely Benjamin Franklin. Then in the end this fire service developed into an important organization in a country.
When Ben Franklin was visiting England, he noticed a building that was burning down. It made people panic and say “this fire is too bad”. But an organized group came together to put out the fire together. This moved Ben Franklin to organize the city's fire department.
4. Bifocals (Glasses)
Franklin is generally credited with making ingenious contributions to his highly practical inventions. He has a knack for interest and a natural curiosity to find ways to make something innovative. One of his greatest innovations was glasses and Franklin has been quite rightly recognized and admired as its inventor.
Glasses are one of Ben Franklin's inventions. After some thorough research, the glasses made by Ben have two different optical powers in one lens.
The distance lens is placed at the top and the lens cover is placed at the bottom. Glasses are the modern day product of the extraordinary evolution of Benjamin Franklin's simple and practical original creation.
5. Clamping Hands
One can be sure that Ben Franklin's heart is always in the right place. Evidenced by the invention of the clamp hand, which we can find in stores today. But back in Franklin's time about 200 years ago, wasn't that an amazing innovation?
This discovery was made by Franklin as someone who likes to read. He will feel disturbed by his old age. He began to find it difficult to reach books on the high shelves.
This inspired him to create a long rod with a pin at the end, which he could pull down the knuckles he wanted. This is considered lazy, but in reality this invention is a genius innovation.
6. Stove
Seeing that firewood was of little use efficiently in colonial fireplaces, he designed the stove known as the Franklin Stove, which used an iron body to store more heat. The stove helps poor families save and is warmer in winter.
7. Tube Catheter
To allow patients with kidney stones to urinate, Franklin invented the first flexible urinary catheter used in North America.
8. Gulf Stream
He named and described the term “Gulf Stream” – the Gulf Stream. The giant Atlantic current that circulates between the Gulf of Mexico and the west coast of Ireland, and correctly identifies it as the reason why the journey from England to America takes longer on certain routes. The British admiral rejected this discovery and came up with the same answer decades later.
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