Benjamin Franklin Invented...

The Feather Boa

Added Thursday, August 20, 2009
In the warm spring of 1750 a storage ship full of peacocks from the Old World had docked in Boston on its way to New York for the second half of it's run. It would seem that Thomas Pheiffel, one of the wealthier land owners in New York had ordered 20 peacocks and 4 heifers from Great Britain. Unfortunately five of the animals had died of avian dysentery during the course of the voyage and the crew was concerned about 4 of the birds making it on the final leg of the journey to New York. Thus Captain Heartwell decided to leave the sickest few behind and continued from Boston. The birds were taken in at the Franklin Estate in Cambridge, Ben's childhood home which also operated as a bird sanctuary. Ben happened to be taking tea with the family (despite the outrageous taxes on tea!) when he spotted the feathers on the animal during molting season. Not one to leave a potential invention idea alone, he strung together the feathers so they all faced outwardly on the string - thus the feather boa was born! Incidentally, there are still peacocks left in some places in Cambridge as a result of the bird's arrival and they have become quite a nuisance, nesting in old chimneys of the charming Cambridge brownstones.
UwU, 2 years ago
WOW