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INNOVATIONS

Transportation Innovations

  • First commercial ship-to-shore telephone call (Atlantic City, Atlantic Co., Dec., 1929).
  • First flight in the United States (a green and yellow silk balloon landed in Gloucester Co., Jan., 1793).
  • First steam locomotive (designed, built and tested in Hudson Co., 1826).
  • First manned landing on the moon (1969) by NJ resident and astronaut “Buzz” Aldrin (from Montclair, Essex Co.).
  • First railroad charter (Hoboken, Hudson Co., 1815)and the first commercial railroad in the U.S. (Camden & Amboy RR, 1830).
  • Nation's preeminent producer of steam locomotives (1837-1881, Paterson, Passaic Co.).
  • First use of the word “airport” (Atlantic City, Atlantic Co., 1919).
  • First man to circumnavigate the world in a sailboat without aid of modern navigational equipment (1984-1986).
  • First traffic circle (Pennsauken, Camden Co., 1925).
  • First state in the nation to acknowledge a state's responsibility for road improvements and to provide funding for them (1891).
  • First cloverleaf intersection (Woodbridge, Middlesex Co., 1929).

Healthcare Innovations
  • Development of the New Jersey Low Contact Stress Total Knee Replacement (South Orange and Newark, Essex Co., 1974)-also developed total replacement systems for the ankle, hip and shoulder.
  • First self-adhesive bandage-the Band-aid® (New Brunswick, Middlesex Co., 1921).
  • Innovations in anesthetic (ether-New Brunswick, 1858), antibiotics (mass production of penicillin-New Bruswick, 1941), rheumatoid arthritis medication also used for skin diseases, allergies and asthma (cortisone-Rahway, 1944), key nutrients (vitamin B-1,vitamin E, vitamin B-12 -Roselle, Union Co., 1910-1947), antibacterials (streptomycin-New Brunswick, 1943), and antihypertensive drugs (Serpasil and Ritalin-Summit, Union Co., 1953, and Valium-Nutley, Essex Co., 1959).

Sports Firsts
  • First baseball game (Hoboken, 1846).
  • First college football game (New Brunswick, Middlesex Co., 1869).
  • Creation of the golf tee (Maplewood, Essex Co., c.1920) and the location of the U.S. Golf Museum (Far Hills, Somerset Co.).
  • First baseball radio broadcast (WJZ, Newark, Essex Co., 1921).
  • First National League of Professional Basketball (Trenton, Mercer Co; Millville, Cumberland Co.; Camden, Camden Co.,1989-1900).
  • First horse race for 3-year olds, the Jersey Derby (Paterson, Passaic Co., 1864).
  • Home to National Marbles Tournament (since 1923) and National Marbles Hall of Fame (Wildwood, Cape May Co.).
  • First indoor college football bowl game (Atlantic City, 1964).

Scientific Innovations
  • Invention of the transistor (Murray Hill, Union Co., 1947).
  • Invention of Teflon (Deepwater, Salem Co., 1938).
  • Invention of sound motion pictures (1926), first live television transmission (1927), first artificial larynx (1929), stereo sound (1933), first speech synthesis machine (1936), the transistor (1947), direct long-distance dialing (1951), the solar battery (1954), the laser (1958), the first orbiting international communications satellite-Telstar (1962), touch-tone dialing (1964), the UNIX software system (1969), the first transatlantic fiber-optic cable (1988), high-definition digital television -HDTV (1989), breakthrough software technology that delivers telephone-quality voice and CD-quality music to customers using the Internet (1996) (Murray Hill, Union Co.).
  • Invention of the stock market ticker (1870), phonograph (1877), electric light (1879), the world's first electric light power station (1882), the electron tube (1883) (Newark, Menlo Park and West Orange, Essex Co.).
  • First successful naval submarine (Paterson, Passaic Co., 1898).
  • Invention of the bar code (Atlantic City, 1952).
  • Invention of first commercial use of the telegraph using the Morse code (Morristown, Morris Co., 1838).

Lifestyle Innovations
  • The U.S.'s first school for dog guides for the blind (Morristown, Morris Co., 1929).
  • First area code and direct-dial long distance call (Englewood, Bergen Co., 1951).
  • Invention of the 3 basic electronic circuits underlying all modern radio, TV and radar, including the first FM radio station (Alpine, Bergen Co., 1930-1940s).
  • Invention and production of the first safe, practical air conditioners of large spaces ( Newark, Essex Co., 1922).
  • First city with incandescent street lighting (Roselle, Union Co., 1883).
  • The U.S. popularization of Santa Claus (Morristown, Morris Co., 1890).
  • First successful glass company in the U.S. ( Alloway, Salem Co., 1739) and Museum of American Glass (Millville, Cumberland Co.).
  • First U.S.-made repeating firearm, the Colt revolver (Paterson, Passaic Co., 1836).
  • Production of the first patent leather (Newark, Essex Co., 1818) and the first production in the U.S. of malleable cast iron (Boonton, Morris Co.,1826).

Food Processing Innovations
  • First canned, condensed soups-Tomato, Consomme, Vegetable, Chicken and Oxtail (Camden, 1897).
  • First mass produced, quick-frozen fruits and vegetables (Upper Deerfield, Cumberland Co., 1913).
  • First cultivated blueberries (Whitesbog, Burlington Co., 1912-1928).
  • Invention of the Mason jar (Vineland, Cumberland Co., 1858).
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