Evolution of Innovation inNew Jersey

Inventor of the Colt 45. The weapon of choice for a century by the U.S. Marshals, the Colt 45 is widely considered the most iconic handgun in U.S. history.

The “Wizard of Menlo Park,” this influential American inventor owns 1,013 patents including the phonograph, the motion picture camera & the light bulb.

Invented the Harvard MARK I Computer. The computer, controlled by pre-punched paper tape, could carry out addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and reference to previous results. It’s referred to as “The real dawn of the computer age.”

Inventor of the barcode. After overhearing a supermarket exec trying to optimize product into at checkout. Woodland was inspired by pulling the dots and dashes of Morse code downward with his fingers, thus creating a 2 dimensional Morse code.

Dr. West had a long and distinguished career at the very iconical Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ. Nearly 90% of the 2 billion microphones produced annually (included in everyday items such as, telephones, camcorders, and audio recording devices) are based on his developed principles. Dr. West has been an influential advocate for greater racial diversity in the fields of science and technology.

Along with an awesome though syllable-challenged name, inventor and musician Les Paul developed the first solid-body electric guitar “which made the sounds of Rock’ N Roll possible.” He was a pioneer in elements of delay effects, tape delay, phasing and multi-track thus allowing for the wicked-cool sound effects of Darth Vader’s voice.

Another Bell Labs alumnus, James Flanagan helped the cause of acoustics when he developed the handheld synthesizer for throat cancer victims. His groundbreaking work has given a voice to many who would have otherwise remained silent.

Influential developer for early prototypes of internet protocols, file servers, gateways, NIC’s and most prominently the co-inventor of the most popular network: Ethernet.

We can thank Mr. Gerszberg (aka” Mr. DSL”) who led the way in Digital Subscriber Line for our ability to have clear and interference free cell phone calls and webpages that no longer take twenty minutes to paint.

While at NJ based Telecordia, Paul Warren led a team that helped invent rechargeable lithium ion batteries used to power cell phones and laptops. Million of teen-agers world-wide raise their voices in appreciation (parents not so much).

Invented first cost efficient flash based solid state SAN appliance that revolutionized the way the IT world looks at storage. Offering tremendous speed and throughput at a fraction of the previous costs, James’ invention spelled doom for the rectangular pop-up Windows’ Outlook offers us users when email is frozen.