A History of Inventing in New Jersey: From Thomas Edison to the Ice Cream Cone

by Linda J. Barth

Many Americans are familiar with Thomas Edison's "invention factory" in Menlo Park, where he patented the phonograph, the light bulb and more than one thousand other items. Yet many other ideas have grown in the Garden State, too.
New Jerseyans brought sound and music to movies and built the very first drive-in theater. In addition to the first cultivated blueberry, tasty treats like ice cream cones and M&Ms are also Jersey natives. Iconic aspects of American life, like the batting cage, catcher's mask and even professional baseball itself, started in New Jersey. Life would be a lot harder without the vacuum cleaner, plastic and Band-Aids, and many important advances in medicine and surgery were also developed here. Join author Linda Barth as she explores groundbreaking, useful, fun and even silly inventions and their New Jersey roots.

Genres: History

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 2013

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was interesting to learn about the history of things invested in New Jersey but the author has taken some liberty to expand their definition of “in New Jersey” to include if the inventor was original from or just happened to live in New Jersey at one point in their life. Also there are a handful of inventions (e.g., solid-body electric guitar) which makes no mention of its connection to New Jersey.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very straightforward and somewhat dry overview of inventions and innovations developed by NJ residents. Many technological and medical, of course, but the most fun ones to read about were the oddball ones: drive-ins, Play Doh, bubble wrap, TV dinners, etc.

[Carol Kaiser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book about many inventions that I never knew were invented here in New Jersey. I learned quite a bit from this book, including the fact that New Jersey now has an Inventor's Hall of Fame.