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Every State Has A Famous Invention — Find Out Yours

Quiz: Every State Has A Famous Invention — What’s Yours?

Every State Has A Famous Invention — What’s Yours?

Choose your state:

Miller Reese Hutchinson from Montrose, Alabama, invented electric hearing aids in 1895.

Hearing Aids

Steve Henson perfected the recipe for Hidden Valley ranch dressing in Alaska in 1949.

Ranch Dressing

Freeman Owens added sound to film in 1923 and held 200 patents during his lifetime.

Movies with Sound

Tasers were invented in 1974 by scientists from NASA.

Tasers

Steve Jobs and Apple employees invented the first iPhone in 2007.

iPhones

Although there were previous iterations of tampons, the modern tampon as we know it today was invented by Dr. Earle Haas, a Denver-based general practitioner, who invented tampons and applicators from telescoping paper tubes in 1929.

Tampons

People used to open canned food with hammers and chisels when it hit grocery store shelves in 1810. Ezra Warner invented a better way with his can opener in 1858.

Can Openers

Kevlar, a bulletproof material often used for body armor and bulletproof vehicles, was invented in 1964 by Stephanie Kwolek.

Kevlar

Researchers from the University of Florida invented Gatorade to replenish the school’s football team.

Gatorade sports bottle on top of gray surface

Gatorade

John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1892.

Coca-Cola

Surfboards were invented in 1769 by English aristocrat, Joseph Banks.

assorted-color surfboards leaning on metal rail

Surfboards

Tractors were invented by John Froelich in 1892.

Tractors

Philo Taylor Farnsworth is known as the "Father of Electronic Television" for his 1927 invention.

Television

Whitcomb L. Judson invented what he called a "clasp locker" in 1893.

Zippers

The first gasoline pump was invented by Sylvanus Bowser in 1885.

Gas Pump

In 1958, Omar Knedlik invented a new kind of soda machine, a cross between an automobile air conditioning unit and an ice cream machine, and called the slushy sodas "ICEEs."

ICEEs

Sisters Mildred Jane Hill and Patty Smith Hill composed the "Happy Birthday" song and published it in a book of songs for young children in 1893.

The “Happy Birthday” Song

The binocular microscope was invented by John Leonard Riddell in 1852.

Binocular Microscopes

Leonard Norcross patented the first rubber diving suit in 1834.

Diving Suits

William Painter invented bottle caps in 1891.

Bottle Caps

Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1990. While he started outlining the idea as a software engineer in Switzerland, he moved to Massachusetts in 1994 and the World Wide Web Consortium was born.

The World Wide Web

Edward N. Hines came up with the idea for road lines in 1911 after seeing a leaky milk wagon leave a trail down the street.

gray concrete road between trees near mountain

Road Lines

Brothers Scott and Brennan Olsen invented Rollerblades in 1980.

person wearing pair of green inline skates

Rollerblades

John S. Thurman invented a gasoline-powered "pneumatic carpet renovator" in 1898 and patented it a year later.

Vacuum

While living in a forest of pine trees near Jackson, Mississippi, chemist Harry A. Cole used pine oil's natural disinfecting and deodorizing qualities to create Pine-Sol cleaning solution in 1929.

Pine-Sol

The Holter heart monitor, a portable device that continuously monitors heart activity, was invented by Norman Jeff Holter and Bruce Del Mar in 1962.

Holter Heart Monitors

James Michael Curran invented ski lifts in 1936.

Ski Lifts

Jacob Davis began making riveted overalls for miners in Reno, Nevada, in 1871 — the predecessor to what became blue jeans as we know it today.

woman sitting on black leather surface close-up photographyt

Blue Jeans

Levi Hutchins invented the first alarm clock in 1787, though French inventor Antoine Redier patented it 60 years later.

person holding red and beige twin bell analog alarm clock

Alarm Clocks

A 1902 discovery by Willis Carrier led to the invention of air conditioning in 1921.

Air Conditioner

Scientists for the Manhattan Project detonated the first atomic bomb in 1945 at the Trinity Site.

black smoke burst in brown open field at daytime

The Atomic Bomb

Joseph Gayetty is credited with developing commercial toilet paper in Albany in 1857, though Seth Wheeler patented "improvement wrapping paper" wrapped around a tube and perforated for "easy use" in 1871.

white tissue paper roll on brown wooden table

Toilet Paper

The Wright Brothers achieved the first successful airplane flight in 1903.

Airplanes

Peter Houston of Wisconsin invented the first roll film camera. His brother David Houston, who was living in North Dakota, invented flexible film rolls and patented both of their designs in 1881.

Rolls of Film

In 1933, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman in Glenville, a neighborhood in Cleveland.

Superman

Sylvan Goldman invented shopping carts in 1937.

stainless steel shopping cart on gray concrete floor

Shopping Carts

Maraschino cherries originated in Europe in the 19th century in Dalmatia (now part of Croatia), but Oregon State University professor Ernest H. Wiegand perfected a brine that would preserve cherries without turning them to mush.

Maraschino Cherries

Though "pleasure wheels" date back as far as 17th-century, George Ferris from Pittsburgh invented what we have come to know as the Ferris Wheel in 1892.

photo of red and white Ferris wheel during daytime

Ferris Wheel

The first diner, founded by Walter Scott in 1872, sold food out of a horse-drawn carriage.

red padded sofa and tables inside building

Diners

Horace Hunley invented military submarines in 1864.

Submarines

Ernest Lawrence invented the Cyclotron particle accelerator in 1932.

Cyclotron

Cotton candy was invented in Nashville in 1897 — ironically, by a dentist named William Morrison and candy maker John C. Wharton.

woman eating pink cotton candy beside carousel

Cotton Candy

James Field Smathers invented the first electric typewriter in 1912.

Electric typewriters

Lester Farnsworth Wire invented the first electric traffic light with red and green lights in 1912.

Traffic Lights

Dr. Charles Browne Fleet created lip balm in the early 1880s and sold the rights in 1912 to John Morton, who pioneered tubes and sticks of balm.

Lip Balm

Vermont became the first American local government to establish a mint and produce copper coins in 1785.

Pennies

Lloyd Nelson invented the hiking backpack in 1922.

photography of several hiking backpacks in truck bed

Hiking backpacks

Stephen Poplawski invented the blender in 1922.

Blenders

Steamboats were invented by James Rumsey in 1787.

Steamboats

Christmas Stockings have been around since 1823, but Joan Sheridan patented ornamental Christmas stockings in 1995.

Christmas Stockings

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Every State Has A Famous Invention — Find Out Yours

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