HISTORY

NORTH CAROLINA INVENTIONS

FROM CHEERWINE TO

AVIATION, THE TAR HEEL

STATE HAS SERVED UP

SWEET TREATS AND

INNOVATIVE INVENTIONS

OVER THE YEARS

BY MARILYN JONES

Curiosity, determination and creativity all add up to the inventions we use every day, thanks to North Carolinians. Here are a few of the many innovations that originated in our state.

When there was a sugar shortage in 1917, L.D. Peeler found a salesman from St. Louis who sold him a wild cherry flavor that blended well with other flavor As a result, Peeler created a burgundyred-colored beverage in his Salisbury basement, and Cheerwine was born.

A New Bern pharmacist took a different beverage approach by adding pepsin to cola. Caleb Bradham first sold th concoction to remedy an upset stomach and called it Brad’s Drink. The drink took on a new name, Pepsi, in 1898. Today Pepsi stands as Coca-Cola’s biggest soft drink rival.

Vernon Rudolph arrived in Old Salem with a secret yeast-raised doughnut recipe he purchased from a New Orleans French chef. He rented a building in historic Old Salem in Winston-Salem and began selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts in 1937 to local grocery stores. The aroma of cooking doughnuts caused passersby to ask if they could buy them, so he started selling them directly to customers.

Pepsi-Cola was originally called Brad’s Drink after the pharmacist who invented it. Logo courtesy of Pepsi

In 1926, Shickrey Baddour, founder of Mt. Olive pickles, saw an opportunity to sell the small cucumbers going to waste at local farms.

Photo by GH01/E+ via Getty Images

Another North Carolina food innovation is Mt. Olive Pickles. In 1926, Shickrey Baddour, a Lebanese immigrant, saw an opportunity to sell the small cucumbers going to waste at local commercial farms. Baddour enlisted George Moore, a sailor from Wilmington, to help. The original idea was to sell to other pickle plants, but they decided to pack and sell their pickles when the first plan failed

Texas Pete Hot Sauce was invented in Winston-Salem by Sam Garner in 1937. As the Dixie Pig Barbeque stand operator, he created Texas Pete to satisfy his customers’ need for something spicier. Today, it is the third best-selling hot sauce in the nation. When names were being tossed around, Garner went with Texas Pete. Today the product line includes a seafood cocktail sauce, salsa, and a variety of different wing and barbecue sauces, along with a spicier version of its original, dubbed “Hotter Hot Sauce.”

Founded in 1954 in Fayetteville by Don Clayton, Putt-Putt became a global phenomenon. It is the world’s first and only copyrighted and branded miniature golf game. Each family-friendly course is built to exact standards.

Vicks VapoRub was formulated in the 1880s when Selma pharmacist Lunsford Richardson started to work on cold and pneumonia remedies that included a mysterious ingredient from Japan called menthol. His son thought they should concentrate on one of the products, the newly named Vicks VapoRub, and created a common household remedy. The name

Texas Pete Hot Sauce was invented in Winston-Salem by Sam Garner in 1937.

Photo courtesy of Texas Pete

Bib overalls have been popular for more than 150 years. Photo by Shana Novak/ DigitalVision via Getty Images

The barcode was invented in 1969 in the Research Triangle Park by George Laurer. Image by Empty clouds/ E+ via Getty Images

Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the first successful airplane flight on December 17 1903. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

NECESSITY is THE MOTHER of INVENTION. –PLATO

Vicks was to honor his brother-in-law, Dr. Joshua Vick, a Selma physician.

Commodore Council invented B.C. Powder in 1906 while working at Germain Bernard’s Durham drugstore. The headache-relieving powder consists of a combination of caffeine and aspirin. The powder dissolves faster than painrelief tablets and works more quickly. Bernard and Council chose the name by combining the first letters of thei surnames. They hired their first salesma in 1917, just in time for World War I soldiers to carry B.C. Powder out of North Carolina and into the world.

In 1859, Abigail Carter of Clinton invented a pair of bib overalls designed for her railroad engineer husband. These sturdy overalls wore so well that other railroad men began asking for them. So, Carter opened a business and became the first manufactuer of overalls in the U.S.

A Durham sit-in in 1957 was the firs protest of its kind. Rev. Douglas Moore led seven young, well-dressed AfricanAmerican students into the segregated Royal Ice Cream Parlor. The group proceeded to the white section, where they sat down and ordered ice cream. The staff refused to serve them, and when they were told to leave by the manager, they responded by asking for another round of ice cream. The sit-in tested the legality of segregation, cementing its place in history.

It’s hard to remember when there wasn’t a barcode. It was invented in 1969 at Research Triangle Park in Raleigh by George Laurer, a designer tasked with coming up with a universal grocery store scanning label and scanner. The barcode, or UPC (Universal Product Code), is now globally used and known.

The most famous invention linked with North Carolina is, of course, aviation. On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright, self-taught engineers from Ohio, achieved the first successful airplane flight. ilbur wrote to the U.S. Weather Bureau and was told about Kitty Hawk. He then wrote the Kitty Hawk weather station and received a friendly reply from the local postmaster, Bill Tate, and was told about the strong winds; the location also had soft sand for landing. After years of experimentation and failures, with Orville at the controls, the first flight lasted abou 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.

North Carolina residents have a lot to be proud of, as well they should. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the next great North Carolina inventor.

Sources include onlyinyourstate.com and the companies mentioned in this article.