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The Fare Well

http://www.beninvented.com/invention.php?inv=20 http://www.beninvented.com/invention.php?inv=20 By the early 1770s the taxation on the American Colonists by the loathsome British Empire had become unbearable. In 1771 a consortium of colonial leaders came to the conclusion that the only way to bring an end to the taxation was to hit the British where it hurts - in the money pouch! After the failure of the Boston 'Tea Party' to elicit any response from the British Oppressors, Ben Franklin and his cronies in Philadelphia hatched a new plan. It centered around the British and their monopoly on toll roads. In Colonial America, between New York, Boston and Philadelphia there was only one available route for a carriage to travel and along the way the British troops had stationed their relentless toll collectors, demanding every last farthings from the hapless patriots. In March of 1772 Benjamin Franklin and his 'Franklin Construction Company' began a major construction project, constructing the 'Franklin Highway' - an alternate route to travel all the way from Boston down the eastern coast to Savannah Georgia (bypassing every British toll station, of course). By 1773 the roadway was complete but the mounting maintenance costs demanded a financial solution. Being the brilliant thinker that he was, Ben Franklin built numerous wells along the road in between state borders, where the loyal patriotic traveler would deposit a fixed low fare. These 'Fare-wells' as they came to be called came to be well known as a symbol of America"s rebellion against the British Tyranny. In fact, the Revolutionary Army had a small image of the Fare Well embroidered on their flags and uniforms they proudly wore into battle.

The Roller-skate

http://www.beninvented.com/invention.php?inv=19 http://www.beninvented.com/invention.php?inv=19 One of the byproducts of Ben"s invention of the pulley was his obsession with wheels. In a manner of speaking, Ben Franklin reinvented the wheel - literally - in 1731 with the invention of the roller-skate. The original roller-skate was much less versatile and much more dangerous than the modern variety, but the basic principles were the same. Ben affixed two axles to the soles of standard buckled shoes and installed wheels he removed from a toy carriage. The wheels were reinforced with copper for increased durability (John Adams tells an amusing story of Ben Franklin demonstrating his original prototype only to have the wheels break off under his cumbersome mass). Over the years, Ben only made a handful of pairs, mostly as gifts for the children of his friends. But roller-skating in the 1730s was nothing like it is today; it essentially consisted of rolling downhill.

The Sundial

http://www.beninvented.com/invention.php?inv=18 http://www.beninvented.com/invention.php?inv=18 In the 1750s the American Colonies were in a terrible state. Great Britain, the 'Serpent from the East' continually created obscene taxes on some of the most arbitrary yet wholly necessary items required for orderly life. One of the most notable taxes was on clock gears. In fact, you may remember the popular patriotic slogan of the time, 'They Tax Our Gears, We"ll Box Their Ears!' England, however, was unimpressed by the complaints from the Colonies. The taxes were so unbearable that in the late 1750s most clock-makers in the Colonies had gone bankrupt. The clock, what had once been so commonplace now became a plaything of the wealthy. Ben Franklin, not one to stand idly by as an injustice ravaged the land, put his mind to work. Using complex measurements of the sun and shadow he devised a device that would give the precise time of day without a single gear - the sun dial. He oversaw the establishment of a small factory in Western Philadelphia to mass-produce the invention which made the timekeeping device both plentiful and affordable. Today many variants on the sundial still exist, but they all function on those same principles which Ben used to create the original.

The Feather Boa

http://www.beninvented.com/invention.php?inv=17 http://www.beninvented.com/invention.php?inv=17 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.

The Bird Bath

http://www.beninvented.com/invention.php?inv=16 http://www.beninvented.com/invention.php?inv=16 Large cities have always had their problems - Whether it be traffic, pollution, sanitation or gangs - and Philadelphia in 1772 was no exception. In April the Philadelphia Gazette ran its first headline concerning the Pigeon Flu. Historical details are scant, but it seems that a terrible illness was spreading through the colonies and the suspected vector was the common city pigeon. Great minds met and discussed possible solutions but the fact is medical science had not developed well enough to even begin discussions of vaccines. Meanwhile Ben Franklin had been experimenting with a very primitive version of the hubcap - some sort of wooden concave disc that was meant to fit over the carriage wheel providing added support and protection. However the process of warping and curving the wood proved difficult. His front lawn was a mess of upturned prototypes filled with water. But Ben realized a quite startling discovery - the pigeons in his neighborhood didn"t seem to get anybody sick. He theorized that the pigeons were able to bathe themselves in his carriage hubcaps. When news of these 'bird baths' spread, everyone in the Colonies wanted one. And people have kept these disease-fighting bird baths in their gardens and yards ever since.