Inventors

Benjamin Franklin gave away his stove rather than claim a monopoly. A London ironmonger borrowed its design, patented a modified version, and—Franklin heard—made a fortune.

In Philip Gengembre Hubert’s account of invention, the story begins in eighteenth-century Philadelphia, where Franklin’s restless curiosity ranges from stoves and libraries to the invisible force behind lightning. Even learned observers offer confused theories of thunder, while many see storms as signs of divine anger. Franklin sets out to test what others can only speculate about—and to harness electricity with a metal conductor that could spare buildings its destructive strike. Hubert’s Franklin is more than a maker of devices: he gives his inventions freely, even as others turn them to profit. What did he see in lightning that the rest of the world had missed?

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