Benjamin Franklin: Biography and 12 Major Accomplishments
Scientific Accomplishments and Inventions made by Benjamin Franklin
After establishing a very successful printing business all across the American colonies, Benjamin Franklin retired at the age of 42 years with a sizable amount of money. It has been estimated that as at 1740, Franklin was the wealthiest Northern Colonists in America. He continued investing in the printing business, and even became a silent partner with David Hall in 1742. For 18 years, Franklin enjoyed half of the profits that was made by the business.
The Lightning Rod and his famous kite experiment
Now a “gentleman of leisure”, Franklin had enough time to pursue other things that were of interest to him. He ventured into areas of science and technology. The 42-year-old Franklin started researching and studying electricity as well as its various applications. After years of work, he invented the lightning rod to shield buildings from lightning strikes that could cause fires and destruction.
In a very brave and remarkable experiment, Benjamin Franklin famously conducted the “kite experiment” during a thunderstorm in order to prove that lightning was a form of electricity. His work in electricity was ground breaking. The findings earned him immense praise from the scientific community in Europe. In addition to this, Benjamin has been credited with the coinage of the following electricity-related words: battery, conductor and charge. In 1748, Franklin built the plate capacitor and named it “electrical battery”. He is regarded as the first scientist to come up with the principle of conservation of charge.
Ocean and Weather Studies
Benjamin’s experiments were not solely bound to electricity. He conducted studies into ocean currents, refrigeration, the weather and common cold. Along with his cousin Timothy Folger, Franklin explored the impact ocean currents had on travelling speeds from Britain to America. They charted the ocean currents and coined the name Gulf Stream for the currents. Using this chart, the voyage on the Atlantic could be reduced by a couple weeks. Franklin was the first to discover that storms in some cases did not follow the path of the wind.
Other famous inventions of Benjamin include: the wooden flippers, the Franklin stove and the bifocal lenses. With regard to his stove, Benjamin devised a mechanism that allowed less usage of fuel in order to heat people’s homes.
Invented by Benjamin Franklin, the Franklin Stove was a relatively energy efficient means of heating homes in both America and Europe.
In 1761, Franklin also invented a special type of musical instrument called the glass harmonica. The instrument was so good that it received the attention of composers such as Beethoven and Wolfgang Mozart.
As a result of his tireless works and inventions in science, he earned a call up into the Royal Society in 1756. Back then, the society was known as the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce. In 1753, the society awarded him the Royal Society’s Copley Medal for his groundbreaking working in electricity.
