Colonial Inventions

Colonial America provided the stage for a series of rather interesting inventions. And as a matter of fact, there are some interesting colonial inventions that came out of that time which are still being used today. Not only that, some of the inventors were so ingenious and ahead of their time than it would be interesting to see what they would be able to come up with, had they lived in a more modern age. As it is, some of the colonial inventions that they came up with not only helped individuals that lived during that time, they are still helping us today.

Benjamin Franklin came up with several colonial inventions that are rather interesting. As a matter of fact, he is probably one of the most noteworthy figures out of history that is known by almost every school-age child as an inventor. Who doesn't know about his famous kite experiments? Although almost anybody can tell you that Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a lightning storm, did you realize what he was actually doing? He was trying to prove that there was electricity in the clouds and as a result of his experiment, he came up with the first lightning rod.

Another of the colonial inventions that Benjamin Franklin came up with was the bifocal. This was really an invention of necessity because he was getting up in years and was having a difficult time seeing. He also invented the Franklin stove but refused to patent it because he wanted the technology to be available to everyone. This stove was able to put off more heat while using half of the wood of a traditional stove. There are several other colonial inventions that Benjamin Franklin came up with, including the odometer.

There are also some colonial inventions that came about as a result of warfare. For example, a man by the name of David Bushnell invented the world's first submarine that was to be used in combat. He also came up with some other interesting ideas, such as creating the first time bomb in existence. Another thing that this man did was to prove that gunpowder could explode under water. Although these are not necessarily colonial inventions that we use in our everyday life, they are nonetheless an interesting page out of history.