When plans were required for a new house of government, Ben Franklin was given a crack at the architect’s job, but his design was rejected. It was just too offbeat. He had planned to hook all the seats in the meeting room to the fireplace chimney. The bottoms of the seats would have many small holes. The draft from the chimney would create a slight suction at these holes in the seats, carrying away what he called “personal odors.”

But, one has to try things, right? Look how well his other ideas worked out!

Lightning Rod
Designed in the 1750s after his famous kite experiment, this pointed iron rod attached to the tops of buildings grounded electrical charges from storm clouds, preventing disastrous structure fires.

Franklin Stove
Invented in 1741, this metal-lined fireplace featured a hollow baffle and a rear flue system designed to radiate more heat into the room while using significantly less wood than traditional open fireplaces.

Bifocal Eyeglasses
Tired of constantly swapping between distance and reading glasses, Franklin cut lenses from both types of preview spectacles in half and combined them into a single frame in 1784.

Flexible Urinary Catheter
In 1752, Franklin created a modified, flexible catheter made of hinged segments of silver tubing to help ease the medical discomfort experienced by his brother John, who suffered from kidney stones.

Glass Armonica
Inspired by wine glass music, Franklin invented a mechanical instrument in 1761 consisting of nested, color-coded glass bowls mounted on a rotating spindle operated by a foot pedal.

Odometer
While serving as Postmaster General, Franklin built a hub-attached gear mechanism for carriage wheels in the 1760s to accurately measure distances along postal routes and calculate efficient delivery rates.

Long Arm (Reach Extender)
To reach books on high shelves without a ladder, Franklin created a wood pole with two wooden fingers at the end operated by a cord, serving as an early mechanical grabber.

Three-Wheel Clock
Designed in 1757, this simplified mechanical clock used only three gears and two hands to keep accurate time, making it far cheaper and easier to manufacture than standard timepieces of the era.

Swim Fins
As an avid young swimmer in Boston around 1717, an 11-year-old Franklin crafted hand-held wooden fins shaped like painter’s palettes to increase propulsion in the water.

The Library Chair and Stepstool-Ladder
A master of practical furniture design, Franklin created a conversion library chair whose seat flipped over to turn into a short ladder, as well as a rocking chair fitted with a foot-powered fan to keep insects away.