Getting Ready
Life in colonial America presented lots of challenges. It was a time before factories and mass production. If you needed something, you often had to make it yourself. This led to many inventions. Thomas Jefferson designed and built a special folding music stand for a string quartet (two violins, viola, cello), an apple picker, and a copy machine. David Bushnell invented a small submarine and torpedo.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was an active inventor, before, during, and after the war. He is responsible for bifocals (eyeglasses), the library chair, and street curbs and gutters. He also made his own musical instrument, the armonica, after watching someone make music from a number of glasses of different sizes filled with various amounts of water. If you've ever run a slightly damp finger around the edge of a crystal glass and heard it hum, you can appreciate the sounds that are possible. Franklin's invention started with the idea that glasses filled with different levels of water make different sounds. Read more about Franklin's armonica, named for the Italian word for harmony, to find out the many changes that he made.
Activity
- Try to make a crystal glass "hum" or "ping." What can you do to make the sound higher or lower?
- Make your own musical instrument. Anything that can be plucked, struck, blown, vibrated, or strummed can become an instrument. Try bringing together a group of friends and asking each person to make an instrument. Then, form a band and try to play rhythms or songs together.
- Think about the challenges you face or things you'd like to do better or more easily. Bring together a group of friends and brainstorm solutions. If needed, make your own invention to solve the problem. Check out the possibility of creating an invention for a school science or technology fair.
Think More About It
What do you think people mean when they say "necessity is the mother of invention"? How does this phrase apply to the Revolutionary War and early years of the nation?
Words to know: invention, brainstorm
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