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Mother of Invention:
New Haven Firsts
A sampling of the mind-boggling number of inventions
to originate in a hotbed of innovation
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Business New Haven
9/7/1998
By: Priscilla Searles
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Submarine:
David Bushnell
1776
The Turtle was a one-man wooden barrel-like craft, the first submersible used for military purposes. Employed during the American Revolution against British warships, the vessel was powered by hand-turned propellers. It was able to approach ships partially submerged and attach an explosive charge to the target's hull with an external screw-like device. The craft itself worked but the armament device was unsuccessful. Bushnell also came up with the idea of floating mines, which he called a “squadron of kegs.”
Steamboat:
John Fitch
1787
Seventeen years before Fulton's Clermont, John Fitch built a 45-foot boat equipped with a steam engine and sailed it from New Haven for 40 miles at the speed of four miles per hour.
Cotton Gin:
Eli Whitney
1794
Whitney's cotton gin made cotton crops economically profitable, eliminating the thousands of hours required to pick the seeds from the cotton by hand. Although it changed the American South into a cotton empire, making many rich, so many manufacturers ignored Whitney's patent that he never made any money on this invention.
Elevator:
Frank J. Sprague
19th Century
Born in New Haven, Sprague devised the first electric elevator. It was hydraulic and operated by a means of a vertical plunger traveling up and down a cylinder, pushing and lowering the car above it. The plunger was moved by liquid under pressure. His inventions made possible the electric street railway, and his Sprague control system is still used in the New York subway.
Steel Fishhooks:
Eb Jenks
1813
The invention of steel fishhooks by Colebrook resident Jenks contributed greatly to developing the American fishing industry and remain in use today - a signal improvement over the bone hooks previously used.
Truss Bridge:
Ithiel Town
1820
Characterized as the bridge that could be built by the mile and cut off by the yard, Town's truss bridge was simple, practical and possible to construct by those who lacked his engineering ability. A brilliant architect, Town received a $1-per-foot royalty for all truss bridges built in the United States.
Sulfur Matches:
Thomas Sanford and
Edward Beecher
1835
The tinder box became outdated when New Haven's Sanford and Beecher devised the first sulfur matches in this country, also developing a match-making machine. Once a luxury, matches became affordable to everyone.
Mortised Locks:
Blake Brothers
1835
Pioneers in the manufacture of hardware for homes and factories, the Blake Brothers of Westville made the first mortised locks for doors and chests, replacing the old box lock.
Casters:
Blake Brothers
1838
We can thank the Blake Brothers for the ability to roll our beds away. The Blake patent described the new product as a “mode of constructing casters and applying them to bedsteads.”
Vulcanized Rubber:
Charles Goodyear
1839
The invention of the process of vulcanizing rubber, though discovered accidentally, was the culmination of a long series of experiments in which Goodyear sought a means to prevent India rubber from melting and decomposing. His invention breathed new life into the American rubber market.
Rubber Overshoes:
L. Candee & Co. 1843
Taking full advantage of Goodyear's vulcanized rubber, L. Candee & Co. was the first to manufacture rubber overshoes and boots.
Artificial Ice:
Alexander Catlin Twining
1848
If you wanted to keep food cold prior to 1848, you had to hope that you still had ice cut from nearby lakes during the previous winter. Shipping perishable foods to other countries during the warm months was extremely difficult, if not impossible. Twining's artificial ice-making machine made ice available year-round.
Blotting Paper: Joseph Parker 1856
Sand was the popular way to dry ink until Parker produced blotting paper at his West Rock Paper Mill. Small quantities of a similar paper was available from England. The same year he came up with a formula for blotting paper, he also manufactured the first tissue paper made in America. The company is also credited with perfecting tissue paper for making newspaper mats.
Stone Crusher:
Eli Whitney Blake
1858
Placed in a New Haven town commission charged with laying two miles of macadam pavement on Whalley Avenue, Blake observed the waste of labor in producing the crushed stone for the road. His answer was the stone crusher, which took the largest of the stones and crushed them to the required size, using two upright steel jaws which closed with a force of 27,000 pounds per square inch. The development of the stone crusher led to an increase in American industrial productivity, an improved highway system and gave birth to what has been called “The Age of Concrete.”
Cork Screw:
Philos P. Blake
1860
A pretty simple idea, but Blake's cork screw was difficult to use on wooden stoppers. When cork became popular the cork screw received wide acceptance.
Painless Dentistry:
Joseph H. Smith
1863
Trips to the dentist would be a real nightmare if Joseph Smith hadn't advertised painless dentistry. The first use of anesthesia at the dentist's office was so popular that in one month Smith pulled more than 1,000 molars.
Spring Tape Measure:
Alvin J. Fellows
1868
A tape measure enclosed in a circular case with a spring lock holding the tape at any desired point...Every household owns at least one, but it took New Havener Fellows to perfect the idea.
Sprinkler:
Henry Palmelee
1874
Palmelle's fire sprinkler, developed to help deal with the real danger of fire in commercial buildings, consisted of a perforated head with a value held closed by a heavy spring made of a low fusing material.
Agricultural Station:
Connecticut
1875
The first agricultural station in America was established in New Haven by the state of Connecticut for the purpose of developing sprays to protect crops against insects.
Telephone Switchboard:
George C. Coy
1878
The manager of a New Haven telegraph office, Coy was inspired by Alexander Graham Bell's demonstration of the telephone in New Haven to organize his own telephone business. Designing his own machines, he founded the Southern New England Telephone Co. on January 15, 1878 with crude and often inefficient equipment. The wooden switchboard required six separate connections and disconnections to complete a single call.
Steel Spectacles:
J.E. Spencer & Co.
1886
The invention of steel spectacles gave Americans a cheaper version of a product already available in Europe.
Automobile Self-Starter: James Petries
1900
Prior to Petries' invention, automobiles carried 72 pounds of batteries to get the motor started. The self-starter had a magneto attached to the fly wheel to create a spark.
Mechanical Brain:
Fred Carroll
1905
Figures were added and subtracted by hand until Carroll came up with a computing machine that could add and subtract, printing out the tabulations on a roll of paper - the great-great-grandaddy of your Pentium PC.
Vitamin A: Thomas Osborne
1913
Osborn discovered vitamin A, which was a chemical produced at the Connecticut Agricultural Station in New Haven.
Artificial Heart:
William H Swell Jr.
and William Glen
1949
A major breakthrough in modern medicine, this bypass equipment allowed physicians to perform delicate operations directly on the heart while blood flow continued normally.
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