Benjamin Franklin, American statesman, guy on the money, and general weirdo did use an odometer for measuring the distance between postal routes. But he was hardly the inventor of a device.

Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin Gene Barretta, . . Holt, $16.95 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-8050-7917-3 ...

Ever prescient, John Adams rightly predicted that Benjamin Franklin would forever occupy an elevated position in the American imagination. He was, after all, the man who risked life and limb to ...