The American and French revolutions began about 16 years apart. The results differed. Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin invented you know what.
Franklin also invented a free standing cast iron stove that started as a fireplace insert that threw more heat into the room. Also bifocals, lightening rod, swim fins, odometer, a flexible catheter (to help his brother who had kidney stones, the glass harmonica and a “long arm” (a pole with a claw at the end to reach books on a high shelf.)
I’m thinking he may not have invented the glass harmonica but improved an existing design. I saw quite a few in museums in Germany.
He was apparently quite randy and in demand in the French court.
2 Comments on “Happy Bastille Day!”
Chop, chop!
And it looks like the Spanish armada bested the French revolutionaries, at least for today.
Franklin also invented a free standing cast iron stove that started as a fireplace insert that threw more heat into the room. Also bifocals, lightening rod, swim fins, odometer, a flexible catheter (to help his brother who had kidney stones, the glass harmonica and a “long arm” (a pole with a claw at the end to reach books on a high shelf.)
I’m thinking he may not have invented the glass harmonica but improved an existing design. I saw quite a few in museums in Germany.
He was apparently quite randy and in demand in the French court.