The Pulley

In 1730 Benjamin Franklin established his own printing house in Philadelphia. A young man at the time, the only space he could afford at the time was on the third floor of the Gerard Lloyd building in downtown Philadelphia. Ben had a printing press delivered but unfortunately it turned out the stairwell was too narrow for the machine to be carried up. A disheartened Franklin had the printing press loaded back onto the delivery truck to be taken away. But just as the horses began their trot and Ben watched the wheels turn on the carriage, he had a thought, like a bolt of lightning hitting a kite; Ben ordered the carriage to stop as he devised a rudimentary rope-pulley system to lift the printing press up to the third floor. Afterward, Ben shared his design with his fellow patriots and the technology was applied to all manner of contraptions, from ship sails to theater curtains.