Benjamin Franklin's Inventions Quiz

Franklin's main goal with the device was to be able to grab his library books.

The Long Arm is still in use today all over the world, sometimes known as the Nifty Nabber.

Franklin discovered that his carriage wheels went around 400 times per mile.

Franklin was the first postmaster general of the Colonies, and he used the odometer to develop efficient postal routes.

Franklin invented hand-held wooden swim paddles.

Franklin had a hunch that lightning was a form of electricity, and he was able to prove it.

The enduring image of Franklin is with a kite and key in hand.

Lightning rods made life drastically safer.

Franklin's lightning rods were pointed, as opposed to the blunt-tip rods used in England.

Franklin invented bifocals.

Franklin had presbyopia, meaning he was both near- and far-sighted.

Franklin considered C, J, W, Y, Q and X to be redundant letters.

Franklin swam a lot when he was a boy. To help him swim faster, he created oval-shaped wooden paddles with a hole in the center.

He was only 11 when he made his first swim paddles.

Franklin grew up in Boston near the Charles River. Later in life he'd regularly swim in the Thames in London.

After a while, Franklin discovered that the paddles hurt his wrists.

The Pennsylvania fireplace (or at least the underlying idea of it) revolutionized the way people heated their homes.

Franklin stoves are enclosed iron boxes that heat homes much more efficiently and with less smoke than drafty fireplaces.

David Rittenhouse solved the problem of Franklin's faulty inverted siphon, but the Franklin name was there to stay.

The "Join, Or Die" cartoon was a cry for colonial unity that depicted a snake cut into several sections.

Franklin was the founder of the Pennsylvania Gazette.

The glass armonica is long out of vogue, but Franklin was very proud of it.

Playing music on wine glasses was all the rage in England, and Franklin's glass armonica consolidated the practice into a single instrument.

Franklin's brother, John, had kidney stones and had to use an inflexible catheter every day.

A silversmith assisted in Franklin's development of the catheter.

Eighteenth-century street lamps got dirty quickly and thus dimmed quickly. Franklin invented a new, brighter street lamp with better air flow.

"Amperes" is not a Franklin term, but the rest are.

Franklin never patented any of his inventions. He thought "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."

Franklin was most proud of his invention of the lightning rod.

"Of all my inventions," Franklin said, "the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction."