Some of Ben Franklin's Quirkiest Ideas - Yahoo! News
Some of Ben Franklin's Quirkiest Ideas - Yahoo! News: "The following is just a sample of Franklin's quirkier brainstorms. Perhaps not as famous as his theories on electricity or the Gulf Stream, their purpose was to add some enjoyment to life.The glass armonica
Franklin loved music, playing and composing it himself. On one of many trips he would take to England he saw a performer play a tune by stroking the rims of water glasses, each a different size and filled with varying amounts of liquid. Intrigued by the concept, Franklin set about creating a more structured version of the rim trick. With a glassmaker's help, the armonica was born. A wooden stand propped up 37 glass hemispheres on a rotating rod, which Franklin ran moistened fingers along to produce a variety of notes depending on the thickness of the glass. Both Mozart and Beethoven would eventually compose classical pieces specifically intended for the instrument.
Swim fins
An avid swimmer, Franklin was drawn to water at a young age and consistently promoted the healthy benefits of the exercise in his later writings. At the ripe old age of 11 he invented a pair of fins that, unlike today's modern flippers, were strapped to the swimmer's hands to help make each stroke more efficient. His contributions to the sport led to his posthumous induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
The library chair & extension arm
Spending an inordinate amount of time among the stacks at the library he founded in Philadelphia, Franklin was inclined to improve the simple devices he used while enjoying his books. First, he converted a regular library chair into a multi-functional appliance that could be sat on or used as a small ladder. For those books still out of reach, Franklin devised an extendable 'arm' with fingers that opened and closed by pull cord."
posted by Matthew O. Smith @ 10:55 AM
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