Researchers browsing through a profile of Benjamin Franklin on Wikipedia made a startling discovery of a diagram drawn by the American that proves that he – and not the computer company Apple – invented the popular portable music player, the iPod.

Despite the fact there is clear historical evidence that this is a diagram of a water spout - researchers have stated its appearance is far too similar to an iPod to simply be put down to chance.

Whilst Apple has not yet responded to this revelation, it is believed that the Franklin estate will be able to claim hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties – as well as inherit financial control of the iPod brand.

Whilst there are many questions raised by the discovery – such as how Franklin could have invented a digital music player 200 years before digital music was invented, or how exactly Franklin could know such a device could function – the likeness of the diagram to an iPod is strikingly clear:

“When you look at the picture it quite clearly shows an 18th century representation of what an iPod looks like,” leading Franklin researcher Chuck Hankman commented, “And its no good people asking how Franklin could know this device could work – remember Leonardo Da Vinchi invented a helicopter and he had no idea how to power it. Franklin pioneered a lot of work in electricity – no doubt he foresaw that one day it could used to power a portable music player for millions of people to pass a few dull hours of their mundane daily lives.

“I just think it's amazing that Franklin could make such an important and profound prediction on the nature of the social development of mankind.”

Researchers who had previously examined the image had long believed it was a representation of a water-spout – an extreme freak weather condition – although Hankman believes it is far more likely that Franklin just drew this to show people the relative scale of the device:

“Whilst Franklin was certainly a genius – there is no getting past the fact he had no basis of comprehension of how such a device would work. That's probably why he showed it being several hundred metres tall. He probably had no idea that we'd be able to make them the thickness of 5 credit cards only 200 years in the future – to an 18th century guy the notion of that.”