Inventions

Without Benjamin Franklin many of the modern world comforts we have today, would not exist!  He paved the way for the "Discovery" mind set in the 1800s. Although, Frankling  is well known for his scientific findings regarding electricity, the modern adaptations of these three inventions live on as useful tools in our modern world.

Franklin invented the original Odometer around 1763.

He created it while developing a US postal system to measure distance between cities and post offices.

The odometere was first used in the summer of 1763, while on tour to inspect post offices.

How it works is that the odometer is wired to the front axle and correlates to the number of turns the wheel makes for a given distance.

 

 

Bifocals were the preamble to glasses

Benjamin Franklin suffered from bad eyesight, called presbyopia. He could not see near nor far and had to use two pairs of glasses which neither worked very well.

Luckily, in August 1784, wrote to friend George Whatley describing the happiness he had over his new invention to remedy his eyesight. He placed lenses in the glasses to accomodate both distances!