Issue. February 2006 TODAY\'S SCIENCE A TODAY\'s SCIENCE SPECIALFEATURE by Elisheva Coleman BEN FRANKLIN-AMERICAN SCIENTIST Ben Franklin is remembered mostly as a statesman and diplomat, the only man to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris (which ended the Revolutionary War), and the Constitution. While his accomplishments as a public servant were undoubtedly great, Franklin was inclined to think of himself first and foremost a scientist. A product of the Enlightenment, Franklin was driven by a need to explain and understand the world around him. He believed firmly in progress and the ability of humans to improve their lives through innovation. This combination of curiosity and faith in scientific inquiry made him a prolific inventor and a profound theorist, with an astonishing range of interests. In honor of his 300th birthday, which fell on January 17 2006, Today\'s Science presents a review of Franklin\'s impressive contributions to science Inventions They say that \"necessity is the mother of invention,\" and Franklin\'s genius as an keen sense for spotting necessity-while others were content inventor came from his with the status quo, Franklin constantly sought improvement Franklin Stove: One of his most famous inventions, the Franklin stove, was a solution to the shortcomings of fireplaces as heating devices. In his day, people kept their homes warm by burning wood in open hearths set back in an outer wall. Smoke escaped through chimneys, but not very efficiently, so that homes were generally smoky. In addition, because the fireplace was against a wall, and hot air was drawn up and out of the chimney, the fire only warmed the area right around the hearth, leaving the rest of the room cold. Finally, to produce even that minimal heating, a fireplace consumed massive amounts of wood. Franklin was puzzled that other people were willing to put up ith these annoyances, because it was clear to him that there must be a better way. In 1742 Franklin built his own home heating stove, which he unveiled later that year and called the \"Pennsylvania Fireplace.\" It was a free-standing iron container with a wood burning chamber in the middle, which could be placed in the middle of the room rather air entered the stove through a duct at the than against the wall. Currents of cool bottom, were heated by the fire, and released out a vent at the top. A long metal pipe at the top of the stove carried smoke up to the roof. Warm air radiated from both the stov and the pipe through a room in all directions. Franklin boasted that his stove cut the mount of wood a family needed to warm its home by at least half. Some older home in the rural United States are still heated by a wood burning Franklin stove Bitocals: Sometimes Franklin\'s drive to invent came from his own specific needs. As an man, his vision was poor, and he needed glasses to see both far away and close up Lenses designed to improve close-up vision are shaped differently than those that
1. a. Direction that storm moves:
Old hypothesis was that the direction of the storm was was in the same directio as the prevailing wind.
Benjamin\'s hypothesis was that violent storms always moved in the opposite direction at the ground level.
b. Nature of electricity :
Old hypothesis: Electricity was thought as a forced created due to friction.Benjamins hypothesis:
Electricity is created not by friction but merely transferred from one substance to another.
2. Franklin\'s invention of bifocals is a boon for older generation . Earlier one had to carry two distinct glasses to view near objects and far objects ,Benjamin Franklin had poor vision and he also had to do the same . He was also carrying two glasses and he was fed up so much that he cut half of near vision and distant vision glasses and blended them so perfectly thyat one could use a single glass for both the purposes.
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