The Instrument Benjamin Franklin Invented, the Glass Armonica, Plays Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” — openculture.com

Must we ever see another portly, bespectacled re-enactor dragging a kite with key to represent the ingenuity of rakish founding father and avatar of cash wealth, Benjamin Franklin? Why, when he invented so many wondrous things—including those bifocal specs—should we only memorialize him for this silly (but very scientific) stunt? Though it may be a true story, unlike Washington and his cherry tree, the familiarity of the image breeds a certain indifference to the man behind it. I’m not suggesting that we remember him for, say, his invention of the catheter, though that’s quite a useful thing. Or for his invention, according to How Stuff Works, of “American Celebrity”—surely no friend to humanity these two hundred-plus years hence.

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