Best New England Inventions
From tools and games to new ways to write, keep warm, and remain whisker-free — we can’t imagine life without these New England inventions.
By Yankee Magazine|Feb 24 2020|
Best New England Inventions | The Wooden Golf Tee
Photo Credit: HIP/Art Resource, NYImagine life without these Yankee innovations… From tools and games to creative new ways to write, keep warm and stay whisker-free, we think these are some of the best New England inventions. Don’t see your favorite New England-born invention? Add any we missed to the comments!
Photo Credit : HIP/Art Resource, NY
Best New England Inventions
Tupperware
Earl Silas Tupper, born in 1907 to a poor, hardworking New Hampshire farm family, became a self-taught inventor and eventually found work as a plastics chemist. His invention of an airtight, watertight lid that famously emitted a “burp” helped launch a national retailing phenomenon.
The Friction Match
In 1834 Daniel Chapin sold his first matches door to door in Chicopee, Massachusetts.
The Monkey Wrench
With Loring Coes’s 1841 invention in Worcester, Massachusetts, a workman had only one tool to misplace.
The Stone Crusher
The father of America’s highways is Eli Whitney Blake of New Haven, Connecticut, who had his brainstorm in 1851.
[text_ad]The Board Game
Milton Bradley introduced The Checkered Game of Life in 1866 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
The Paper Bag
Patented by Luther C. Crowell from West Dennis, Massachusetts, in 1872.
The Auto Age
The auto industry was born not in Detroit, but in New England. The two-stroke internal-combustion engine was patented in 1872 by George Brayton of Boston, and the first commercially produced automobile came from the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1895.
The Earmuff
Chester Greenwood, the pride of Farmington, Maine, invented the earmuff in 1873, at the age of 15. Farmington’s annual Chester Greenwood Day parade is held on the first Saturday in December.
The Snow Shovel
Charles A. Way, from North Charlestown, New Hampshire, added the metal clasp that holds the handle to the snow shovel in 1877.
The Ballpoint Pen
Patented by John J. Loud of Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1888.
The Disposable Razor
The idea came to King Gillette one morning in 1895 while shaving. It wasn’t until 1906 that the invention took the country by storm.
The Wooden Golf Tee
George F. Grant was Harvard’s first African American professor; prior to his 1899 invention, Boston golfers teed off from piles of sand pushed into a pyramid.
The Snowmobile
In West Ossipee, New Hampshire, V. D. White added caterpillar treads and ski runners to a Ford body in 1913.
The Microwave Oven
Percy L. Spencer, born in Howland, Maine, left school in the fifth grade but became known as one of the most innovative minds of his day; he’s credited with inventing the microwave oven while working for Raytheon. In 1947 Raytheon produced the first Radar Range.
— Excerpt from “Fifty Amazing Things That Made a Difference,” by Bob Trebilcock, Yankee Magazine, September 1985
This post was first published in 2015 and has been updated.MORE LIKE THIS: 75 Classic New England Foods An Examination of New England Phrases
What about the telephone?
Earl Tupper was born in Berlin, NH, where I was also born and lived until I went away to college. The first property my husband and I bought after we were married was a condo in E. Weymouth, MA, on Pleasant St….not far from us in Columbian Square in S. Weymouth, MA was Loud Hardware store, owned, of course!!!!!!, by the Loud family, which my husband and I just loved shopping in. We subscribed to the Quincy, MA PATRIOT LEDGER newspaper for many years, which always had interesting obituaries, including Ruth M. Loud, who passed at 92 years of age, in Weymouth, MA, wife of “mr. inventor”!!!!!!!!!!! She was born in W. Milan, NH, 6 miles from where I was born and grew up. I also went to summer camp in W. Ossippee, NH, so I got a kick out of the snowmobile invention there, also! One of my uncles lived in Farmington, ME for many years and his children used to participate in Chester Greenwood parades and were photographed for their local newspaper! And, I really prefer paper bags when available. W. Dennis, MA isn’t far from where I live and I have done a lot of business in that town to date. My husband, also, has refused to use any razors other than Gillette his entire “shaving life”!!!!!!! Interesting locations, all of them!
Those pink flamingos that adorn so many front yards (mostly in Florida) were invented & manufactured in Leominster, MA.
How about basketball and volleyball, both from Western Massachusetts? Basketball was invented in 1891 by physical education instructor James Naismith in Springfield. It grew quickly throughout the world and became an Olympic sport at the 1936 games in Berlin. As for Volleyball, the first game was played at the Holyoke YMCA in 1895, and was developed by sports director/physical education director William Morgan. It too spread around the world, receiving a big boost during WWII. It became an Olympic sport in 1964.