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Benjamin Franklin Essay

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Susanna Dey
19 November 2011

Benjamin Franklin

Say the name Benjamin Franklin and you may picture a chubby man with spectacles holding a kite during a lightening storm. Perhaps you picture him a older man with spectacles propped up on his nose standing in a great room full of distinguished gentlemen signing the Declaration of Independence. Both of these facts about Benjamin Franklin's life would be true. However, there was so much more to Mr. Franklin. He was a diplomat, a statesman, a scientist, and a writer. His contributions to our society were more than just to America but to the world. For the purpose of this paper we will just discuss the inventions he produced which had a world impact. (Fish 2).

Ben Franklin was …show more content…

This ingenious invention helped avert a natural disaster from occurring. Many people's lives changed once lightening rods appeared on church steeples and tall buildings. It gave them a large sense of security. Prior to the installation of these lightening rods the homes, towns and cities were at high risk for burning due to lighting strikes. It was unfortunately a common event. One fire could bring down half a town and cost many lives. Thanks to Mr. Franklin, fires caused by lightning strikes were averted. The lightening rod was placed on buildings, homes and even boats (Morgan 13). His invention actually saved lives of people and saved an unmeasurable amount of money. Franklin's design of the lightening rod remains the basis of modern lightening codes up to today.

Sometime in 1784 Benjamin Franklin was traveling from one location to another. He loved to read while he was traveling. One day he noticed that he was quite inconvenienced every time he had to switch from his reading glasses to his other glasses and every time he wanted looked up at the scenery outside the window (Isaacson 426). He then decided to see his optician. He told his optician to cut out a half section of glass from his eyeglasses he used to see in the distance and then to cut a half section from his eyeglasses to see close up. He then combined the two half lenses together in one eyeglass. He wanted the farsighted section to be on top

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