[This coming
weekend will mark the 250th
birthday of Robert Fulton, about whose influential invention I’ll write in
Friday’s post. All week I’ll AmericanStudy some of our most complex and
significant inventors—and I’d love for you to share your thoughts on them and
other inventors (and inventions) for an innovative crowd-sourced weekend post!]
On a telling
invention linked to each of the founding innovators, and what differentiates
the two.
I written
before, both in
this space and in
others, about some of my issues with Ben Franklin, or at least with the
troubling national narratives to which he contributed in their early stages.
But at the same time, it’s important to be clear that Franklin was in his own
era and remains down to ours one of the most impressive as well as influential
Americans, and a significant element to that impressiveness would have to be
his scientific
curiosity and innovativeness. On the long list of Franklin inventions at
their hyperlinked article, of course the lightning rod stands out (my boys are
already fascinated by Franklin’s
bold and quite successful kite experiment, as was I at their age), but I
might have to highlight the Franklin
stove instead; invented by Franklin when he was only in his 30s, this home
innovation significantly improved the ability of Franklin’s fellow Americans to
heat their homes efficiently, simply, and with much less smoke or disturbance.
Thomas Jefferson
(with whom my
issues are also well-documented) wasn’t nearly the scientific mind that
Franklin was; but he was certainly another of the most intelligent, well-read,
and well-rounded Americans of theirs or any era, and he likewise developed and
supported more than his fair share of inventions and
innovations. Anyone who has visited Jefferson’s home of Monticello can
attest to the unique and impressive seven-day
clock calendar located in the house’s main hall, and it certainly reflects
both the artistry and the outside-the-box thinking of Jefferson’s inventions. But
given the voluminous quantity (and impressive quality) of Jefferson’s writings,
I would have to highlight instead his
polygraph; not the contemporary device made famous by Meet the Parents, but a very innovative machine for instant copying
of any document written within the device. Yet while Jefferson was one of the
first Americans (or figures anywhere) to own a polygraph, and did a great deal
to help with its development (leading it to be closely associated with him to
this day), it was not his own invention: the machine was first invented by an
Englishman, John
Isaac Hawkins, and then further developed and marketed by American artist Charles Willson
Peale.
Franklin and
Jefferson’s respective roles in the invention of these particular devices
represents one way I would more generally differentiate the two men. While this
is certainly an oversimplification, I believe it’s possible to say that Franklin
was in many ways more a groundbreaking influence on his peers and period, while
Jefferson was often particularly adept at distilling trends and ideas into new
and influential forms. Both types are important to any era (and a founding one
in particular), and indeed I would argue that, appropriately enough, Jefferson’s
might be more suited for a politician and Franklin’s for a scientist and
philosopher. Yet there’s another way to differentiate the two inventions and,
perhaps, the two men linked to them: Franklin’s was far more democratic,
intended for widespread use in many homes; while Jefferson’s was more designed
for elite use, by those figures who would be writing a good deal and would want
those writings shared and saved for posterity. Both men were among their era’s
elites in every sense, to be sure; but despite Jefferson’s agrarian ideology, I
would argue that it was Franklin and his inventions (as well as many
of his other efforts) that most thoroughly benefited the American people as
a whole.
Next inventive
post tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other inventors or inventions you’d highlight?
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