Benjamin Franklin—A Great Inventor
偉大的發明家——本傑明·富蘭克林
Benjamin Franklin was not only one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a leading writer， publisher， inventor， diplomat， scientist， and philosopher. He is well known for his experiments with electricity and lightning. As a scientist he was a major figure in the history of physics for his great discoveries and some relating theories regarding electricity. As a writer and activist he invented the idea of an American nation， and as a diplomat during the American Revolution， he secured the French alliance that helped to make independence possible.
But here we want to tell you the great work as an inventor that Benjamin Franklin did in his whole life. A list of Franklin's great inventions reveals a man of many talents and interests. It was the curiosity as a scientist in Franklin that brought out the inventor. His natural curiosity about things and the way they work made him try to find ways to make things work better.
Franklin had poor vision and needed glasses to read. He got tired of constantly taking them off and putting them back on， so he decided to figure out a better way to make his glasses let him see both near and far. He had two pairs of spectacles cut in half and put half of each lens in a single frame. Today， we call them bifocals.
During Franklin's lifetime， he made eight voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. These long journeys gave him a lot of time to learn about ships and how they worked. As early as 1784， Franklin suggested following the Chinese model of dividing ships' holds into watertight compartments so that if a leak occurred in one compartment， the water would not spread throughout the hold and sink the ship.
Everyone knows the story of Franklin's famous kite flight. Although he made important discoveries and advancements， Franklin did not “invent” electricity. Because it exists before man knows. He did， however， invent the lightning rod that protected buildings and ships from lightning damage according to the principle of electricity.
In colonial America， most people warmed their homes by building a fire in a fireplace even though it was kind of dangerous and used a lot of wood. Most fireplaces of the day were very inefficient. They produced a lot of smoke and most of the heat that was generated went right out the chimney. Sparks in the home were of great concern because they could cause a fire that would quickly destroy the homes， which were constructed mainly with wood. Franklin figured that there had to be a better way. He developed a new style of stove that used one quarter as much wood and generated twice as much heat. Therefore， his invention of an iron furnace stove allowed people to warm their homes less dangerously and with less wood. The furnace stove that he invented is called a Franklin stove. When offered a patent for the fireplace's design， Franklin turned it down. He did not want to make a profit. He wanted all people to benefit from his invention. Interestingly enough， Franklin also established the first fire company and the first fire insurance company in order to help people live more safely.