Missouri’s Famous Inventions

Marceline‘s Walt Disney has been responsible for many technological advances in moviemaking. But the multiplane camera is one he actually invented. This series of cameras allowed animation to have depth to film through several layers of drawings.

Windsor’s Charles Stark Draper is known as one of the smartest men to ever live. He is responsible for so many inventions that it’s impossible to list. One thing he invented was a Stabilizing Gyroscope. Most don’t know what that is, but it has dozens of military applications including the guidance system for missiles. That became the basis for today’s autopilot systems on planes.

St. Joseph‘s William Goddard was the leading scientist at IBM that developed the magnetic disk storage device. His computer storage device could store 5,000,000 characters of information with the ability to retrieve it within 1 second.

The Eames Lounge Chair was hailed as a revolution for the high-end furniture market. Charles and Ray Eames from St. Louis came up with the design of this and numerous other chairs, along with other architectural designs.

J.P. Leggett of Carthage came up with an idea for a bed spring in 1883. This invention allowed people to sleep better after a hard day of work. He later teamed up with C.B. Platt and formed the mattress company known as Leggett and Platt.

Lloyd Espenschied of Baden is one of the men who invented coaxial cable for AT&T Bell Telephone in 1929. This product advancement made long-distance telephone service possible by making it possible to carry thousands of simultaneous calls on circuits.

The Diving Bell was one of the many inventions by James Eads. This allowed him and his crews to pick up valuables on the bottom of the Mississippi River. He is also the first person to use steel in a bridge when he built the Eads Bridge across the Mississippi River in St. Louis.

It all started with Bigfoot in the 1970s. Bob Chandler was the brainchild behind the jacked-up Ford F-250 4×4 at Midwest Four Wheel Drive in Ferguson. Bigfoot became an American icon and is considered the world’s first monster truck.

There are a few brands that become so synonymous that you simply use the brand name to describe the product. Names like Kleenex, Chapstick, Jacuzzi, or Sharpie come to mind. That is certainly true of private planes known as the Learjets. They were the invention of Bill Lear of Hannibal which debuted in 1963.

Tums was invented in Webster Groves by a pharmacist named Jim Howe as he was trying to help his wife’s stomach distress. The manufacturing company became known as Lewis-Howe, named after he and his uncle, A.H. Lewis, who was a pharmacist in Bolivar, Missouri.

The Dalton Adding Machine is an interesting Missouri story. Hubert Hopkins of St. Louis worked to patent and adding machine, but kept running to issues with manufacturing. So James Dalton bought the rights to manufacture them and eventually moved the company to his hometown of Poplar Bluff.

The invention of the pancake mix dates back to 1889 and is thanks in large part to the St. Joseph Gazette. The editor of the newspaper, Chris Rutt, and a friend, Charles Underwood came up with the ready-made Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix at the Pearl Milling Company in St. Joseph.

Kansas City Fire Chief George Hale came up with an idea that made life better and safer for firefighters everywhere. In 1885, he invented Fire Escape Suspenders. These allowed firefighters to lower themselves to the ground if they are ever trapped while also making sure all of their gear and clothing were supported.

Big Chief Writing Tablets were patented in 1947 at the Western Tablet Company of St. Joseph. They trademarked the notebooks which were made from newsprint paper. They were discontinued in 2001 as spiral notebooks dominated the paper market.

Liquid crystal display technology is one of the more than 100 inventions by Missourian James Fergason. LCD is a flat panel digital display which uses liquid crystals to display images. So basically, types of flat screen TVs are thanks to the Carrollton native.

Mood Rings are another invention from James Fergason. The technology used in LCDs also played a role in the color sensitive material. It may not be a groundbreaking, but this probably ranks as one of his coolest inventions.

Ice Cream cones first appeared in 1896 in Italy. The inventor received a patent for it in 1903 in New York. But a similar creation was devised during the World’s Fair in St. Louis. Ernest Hamwi was selling a waffle-like pastry next to an ice cream vendor. When the ice cream vendor ran out of bowls, they improvised and put the ice cream in one of his waffles. And the rest is history.

It may be impossible to determine which restaurant invented Gooey Butter Cake, but we do know it happened in St. Louis. Historians say it is likely Koppe Bakery, Danzer’s, or St. Louis Pastries.

Much like the Gooey Butter Cake above, there is no way to definitively determine who first invented toasted ravioli. But again, we know it happened in St. Louis, likely in The Hill neighborhood.

This “Missouri invention” may be a bit of a stretch, but it is often mentioned in historical articles. Dr. Jack Kilby was born in Jefferson City and did, in fact, invent the microchip, or integrated circuit. But he only lived in Missouri for a short time and invented the product elsewhere. He also won the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention.

Ellene Bailey may not be well known, but she changed life for many women. She grew up near Wentzville and had several inventions. Her first pattent was a “Pond Fort” boot, which was a knee high boot patented in 1880. She later came up with the Dart needle. But her 1892 patent of a device to even spread face powder on the skin may be her best known invention.

Dr. John Sappington of Arrow Rock invented a pill that was used to treat malaria. He used the controversial agent quinine for the pills, despite the fact that could cause death.

Charles Baker is one of the first black inventors to make his mark on engineering. He was born a slave in Savannah, Missouri but rose to fame by invented a heater that used friction. The Friction Heat and Boiler Company was formed in 1904 in St. Joseph thanks to his invention.