The one about Benjamin Franklin's weirdest invention

I was looking up stuff about the history of libraries for my kid's school project and stumbled on a random fact. Did you know Benjamin Franklin invented a device called the 'long arm' just to reach books on high shelves? It was basically this wooden claw on a stick. I found it buried in an old journal archive from the American Philosophical Society. Has anyone else found a totally random invention from a famous person?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarthompson5d ago

Found one about Thomas Edison making a concrete house where you could pour the whole thing in one go like a giant cake pan.

theaw655d ago

That Benjamin Franklin long arm thing is quite the find. It's funny, @oscarthompson, I remember reading somewhere that Edison's concrete house idea was actually tested in New Jersey and one or two were even built.