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Most Revolutionary Southern Invention


monsoon

What Southern Invention Affected the World the Most?  

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  1. 1. What Southern Invention Affected the World the Most?

    • "The PC"
      21
    • Powered Flight
      20
    • UPC Barcoding
      2
    • Soft Drinks
      7
    • Satellite Cable News
      2
    • Other
      14


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I've listed a few Southern inventions, some obvious, some not so obvious, that greatly changed things. Which one was the most important or was there something else?

  • "The PC" - No, not Seattle, NY or California, the PC was invented in Boca Raton, Fla. when IBM came out with its Personal Computer. They were not known by that name prior to IBM and it is the architecture used today by most people.

  • Powered Flight- Invented by two Ohio bicycle repairmen in Kitty Hawk, NC

  • UPC Barcoding - Invented in Raleigh NC, by IBM. Revolutionized retailing. Most of you probably don't remember checkouts without scanners.

  • Soft Drinks - Not sure if they originated in the South but the two most famous are Southern. Pepsi - Winston Salem, NC, and Coke a Cola - Atlanta, Ga. Coke of course was named as such because it used to be laced with Cocaine. The govt. eventually made them drop that ingredient. :lol:

  • Satellite Cable News - Revolution created by Ted Turner in Atlanta GA with his CNN network. Prior to CNN televised national and global news was limited to just 30 minutes/day on ABC, CBS and NBC.

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The cotton gin.

As for PCs, I'm not sure that the south can lay claim to those. True, IBM coined the term, but the truly personal computer was invented in a garage in Northern California.

The flight thing is iffy to, I mean, sure it was tested here, but the development work was done in Ohio.

Oh, soft drinks are most certainly a southern invention.

My other votes:

Boiled peanuts

Moon Pies

All kidding aside, AC was probably the most important, after the Cotton Gin, which up till that time, was the most important.

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The cotton gin.

As for PCs, I'm not sure that the south can lay claim to those. True, IBM coined the term, but the truly personal computer was invented in a garage in Northern California.

The flight thing is iffy to, I mean, sure it was tested here, but the development work was done in Ohio.

Oh, soft drinks are most certainly a southern invention.

My other votes:

Boiled peanuts

Moon Pies

All kidding aside, AC was probably the most important, after the Cotton Gin, which up till that time, was the most important.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's kind of hard to say, since some of these inventions couldn't have come about (most likely), without another previous southern invention.

I'll say the pc

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Air conditioning. The South wouldn't be today's South without it, and A/C is important worldwide. You wouldn't see quality dense urban development anywhere in the tropics without A/C; you'd see horrid, tightly packed slums. Granted, that's a lot of what you see now in the tropics, but you understand where I was going.

As political implications go, I think the cotton gin remains the most significant invention from or to the South. But Whitney was a dadgum Yankee, and so it's really the Northeast who should be blamed for said invention. (Unless you think Catherine Greene invented the cotton gin; she was a Virginian.) Nonetheless, some historians (often Southern apologists, yes, but dedicated and qualified historians all the same) assert that slavery was a dying institution before that bloody device was invented. Imagine a world where the peculiar institution really did die out after 1808 and I think you'll agree the cotton gin is a significant invention indeed.

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Air conditioning.  The South wouldn't be today's South without it, and A/C is important worldwide.  You wouldn't see quality dense urban development anywhere in the tropics without A/C; you'd see horrid, tightly packed slums.  Granted, that's a lot of what you see now in the tropics, but you understand where I was going.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What he said :thumbsup:

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As political implications go, I think the cotton gin remains the most significant invention from or to the South.  But Whitney was a dadgum Yankee, and so it's really the Northeast who should be blamed for said invention.  (Unless you think Catherine Greene invented the cotton gin; she was a Virginian.) 

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I credit Whitney with being the first to patent. I've read that cotton gin-type machines were being used in Southern Georgia years before Whitney's patent.

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  • 4 months later...

The AC definately gets my "other" vote. But the PC would be my second choise. With out the PC many of those other things would not be as practical as they are today.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I wouldn't be posting here if it weren't for the PC! :silly:

The PC gets my vote

I credit Whitney with being the first to patent.  I've read that cotton gin-type machines were being used in Southern Georgia years before Whitney's patent.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Exactly, one of my ancestors (Baron von Krebs) created a cotton gin-like machine 50 years before Whitney did (it's on a historical marker somewhere), bu he never got a patent on it.

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I wouldn't be posting here if it weren't for the PC! :silly:

The PC gets my vote

Exactly, one of my ancestors (Baron von Krebs) created a cotton gin-like machine 50 years before Whitney did (it's on a historical marker somewhere), bu he never got a patent on it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dr. Pepper was also invented in the South. Somewhere in Texas. Also, wasn't peanut butter invented down here?

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I picked soft drinks. None of other choices have permeated American life quite like soda. You can find a person who's never been on a plane or used a PC. You can buy goods without UPC codes even. But you'd be hard pressed to find a person who has never had a soda. I'm sure there are some out there, but I find them to be very rare.

Here is a list of sodas born in the south:

  • Ale-8-One (Winchester, KY)

  • Barq's Root Beer (Biloxi, MS)

  • Big Red (Waco, TX)

  • Cheerwine (Salisbury, NC)

  • Coca-Cola (Atlanta, GA)

  • Dr Pepper (Waco, TX)

  • Jumbo Orange (Chattanooga, TN)

  • Mountain Dew (East Knoxville, TN)

  • Nehi Grape and Orange (Columbus, GA)

  • Pepsi (New Bern, NC)

  • RC Cola (Columbus, GA)

  • Sprite (Atlanta, GA)

Hmmm... No wonder the fattest cities in the country are always in the south. ;)

ETA: Coca-Cola still uses cocaine as an ingredient. Apparently, they use coca leaves that have the narcotic removed. It's a "decocainized flavor essence of the coca leaf." (Source: Urban Legends Reference Pages) There is one company that is allowed to make the ingredient for Coke. It's done under watch of the DEA. Just a bit of southern trivia.

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I'll have to go with Al Gore(Tennesee) and the Internet.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Haha...

I had a hard time decided between the PC or powered flight. I went with PC for two reasons. First of all I'm using my PC to write this and I use it several times a day...much more than powered flight. Second of all I don't know that I would consider powered flight a southern invention. The Wright Brothers were from Indiana and did most of their inventing in Ohio where they grew up....they just came down to NC to fly the thing.

As far as the soft drink goes the south certianly had everything to do with that and the invention can be found world wide quite easily. That being said I don't think I would consider inventing a drink "revolutionary."

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  • 4 months later...

I picked soft drinks. None of other choices have permeated American life quite like soda. You can find a person who's never been on a plane or used a PC. You can buy goods without UPC codes even. But you'd be hard pressed to find a person who has never had a soda. I'm sure there are some out there, but I find them to be very rare.

Here is a list of sodas born in the south:

  • Ale-8-One (Winchester, KY)

  • Barq's Root Beer (Biloxi, MS)

  • Big Red (Waco, TX)

  • Cheerwine (Salisbury, NC)

  • Coca-Cola (Atlanta, GA)

  • Dr Pepper (Waco, TX)

  • Jumbo Orange (Chattanooga, TN)

  • Mountain Dew (East Knoxville, TN)

  • Nehi Grape and Orange (Columbus, GA)

  • Pepsi (New Bern, NC)

  • RC Cola (Columbus, GA)

  • Sprite (Atlanta, GA)

Hmmm... No wonder the fattest cities in the country are always in the south. ;)

ETA: Coca-Cola still uses cocaine as an ingredient. Apparently, they use coca leaves that have the narcotic removed. It's a "decocainized flavor essence of the coca leaf." (Source: Urban Legends Reference Pages) There is one company that is allowed to make the ingredient for Coke. It's done under watch of the DEA. Just a bit of southern trivia.

Correction...Mountain Dew was created in Marion, VA.

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The parking meter was invented in Oklahoma City-- Perhaps one of the most important urban inventions.

Although it is sometimes disputed, Carl C. Magee, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is generally credited with originating the parking meter. He filed for a patent for a "coin controlled parking meter" May 13, 1935. The patent, #2,118,318, was issued May 24, 1938.

The world's first installed parking meter was in Oklahoma City, on July 16, 1935. Mr. Magee had been appointed to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce traffic committee, and was assigned the task of solving the parking problems in downtown Oklahoma City. Apparently, folks who worked in the area were parking on downtown streets, staying all day, and leaving few spaces for shoppers and others who visited the central business district.

Magee's solution was to install parking meters, charge for the use of the parking spaces, and turn over those spaces that would otherwise have been filled by all day parkers. In addition, the parking meters would generate revenue for a growing city. It must have worked, as the idea of metered parking eventually caught on worldwide. From that early beginning, the use of parking meters by municipalities, colleges and universities, and private parking facilities has increased to the point that today, in the United States alone, there are an estimated five million parking meters in use.

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