Colonial Life-Hacks – Benjamin Franklin’s Innovations That Changed Everyday Life

When most people think of Benjamin Franklin, they picture an old man flying a kite in a thunderstorm. But Franklin was actually the ultimate practical life-hacker of the 18th century.

As he aged, Franklin developed severe presbyopia, meaning he constantly had to switch back and forth between two separate pairs of glasses—one for reading up close and one for seeing long distances. Getting tired of the constant hassle, he took a pair of scissors, cut the lenses of both pairs directly in half, and combined them into a single frame.

In 1784, the world’s first bifocals were born, permanently changing vision care forever.

Long before he was a respected diplomat and founding father, an eleven-year-old Ben Franklin living in Boston was completely obsessed with swimming. He wanted to find a way to propel himself through the water with maximum speed and minimum effort.

To solve this, he crafted two oval-shaped wooden palettes with holes in the center for his thumbs, creating the world’s very first swim fins. The twist? He wore them on his hands rather than his feet. While he noted in his journals that they successfully made him swim much faster, they fatigued his wrists. His relentless drive to constantly upgrade human performance started as a child

Of all the scientific and mechanical inventions Benjamin Franklin created in his long life, his absolute favorite was purely musical.

While attending a concert in London, he saw a musician playing music by running wet fingers across the rims of water glasses. Franklin loved the beautiful sound but hated how tedious it was to set up. So, he invented a machine called the Glass Armonica in 1761.

It featured thirty-seven glass bowls nested horizontally on an iron spindle, which spun via a foot pedal. The musician simply touched the spinning, damp glass to create hauntingly beautiful chords. It became an instant sensation across Europe, and legendary composers like Mozart actually wrote music specifically for Franklin’s instrument

To wrap up our look at Benjamin Franklin, here is perhaps the most noble fact about his legendary career as an innovator: he never took out a single patent on any of his inventions.

From the life-saving lightning rod that stopped cities from burning down, to the energy-efficient Franklin Stove, he refused to make a profit off his creations. He famously wrote in his autobiography 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.” 

That open-source, community-first philosophy helped define the early American character 250 years ago. Tomorrow, we break down the myths of the Liberty Bell.