Science, Technology & Innovations

by LeCount, Charles. One hundred fifty years ago, nearly all North Carolinians made their living by farming. And even the majority of those who did not actually farm were still tied to the state’s agricultural economy: [...] (from Tar Heel Junior Historian, NC Museum of History.)

by Hill, Michael. Air-conditioning greatly changed the nature of life in North Carolina and the rest of the South. Willis H. Carrier, who had created an experimental cooling system in New York in 1902, installed the [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Parramore, Thomas C. At 10:35 a.m. on 17 Dec. 1903, the first powered flight of an airplane was made from the base of Kill Devil Hill, a sand dune four miles south of the village of Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks. The [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Freeman, Joan E., Davis, R. P. Stephen, Jr., Lawrence, Richard W. Archaeology by Joan E. Freeman and R. P. Stephen Davis Jr., 2006. Additional research provided by Richard W. Lawrence. See also: American Indians; Archaeology of Early NC; Cherokee [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Freeman, Joan E., Davis, R. P. Stephen, Jr., Lawrence, Richard W. Archaeology by Joan E. Freeman and R. P. Stephen Davis Jr., 2006. Additional research provided by Richard W. Lawrence. Part 1: Archaeological Research in the Coastal Plain; Part 2: [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Freeman, Joan E., Davis, R. P. Stephen, Jr., Lawrence, Richard W. Archaeology by Joan E. Freeman and R. P. Stephen Davis Jr., 2006. Additional research provided by Richard W. Lawrence. Part 1: Archaeological Research in the Coastal Plain; Part 2: [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Ireland, Robert E. Automobiles by Robert E. Ireland, 2006 See also: Highways; Roads; Trucks and Trucking, Thomas Built Buses, Inc., Automobiles for K-8 Students Automobiles revolutionized the American [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Fick, Virginia Gunn. Beauty shops, or beauty parlors, have had a notable impact on the lives of North Carolina women since the early twentieth century. Cosmetologists delivered more than better looks; they became [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Vocci, Robert Blair. North Carolina is home to one of the most dynamic biotechnology industries in the United States. In the early 2000s, 10 percent of all biotechnology firms were based in the state, and North Carolina [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by . The North Carolina Award, the state's highest civilian honor, was established by the General Assembly in 1961 and the first award-winners were honored in 1964. Artist Romare Bearden was the first [...] (from NC Office of Archives and History.)

by Shore, Dee. Dr. Mike Boyette remembers the kinds of problems that kept his tobacco-farming father up at night—worries ranging from storms and drought to insects and diseases. What he did not imagine as a child, [...] (from Tar Heel Junior Historian, NC Museum of History.)

by Moore, Cecelia. Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) is an independent private foundation whose mission is to advance the medical sciences by supporting research and other scientific and educational activities. It was [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Carnes-McNaughton, Linda F. Cisterns, large receptacles built for the storage of water, were used in North Carolina for potables or fire protection in all types of urban and rural buildings prior to the advent of modern [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Nash, Jaquelin Drane. On 9 July 1933 the Tarboro Town Council voted to ask Frick and Company of Waynesboro, Pa., to design and install a refrigerating unit for its new municipal swimming pool. After operating for only [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Carpenter, Joanne G. Delco lights, invented in 1912 by C. F. Kettering in Kokomo, Ind., were used by many North Carolinians before the federal government's efforts to electrify the rural South during the Great [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Hill, Michael. Dixie Dynamo, the nickname given North Carolina in a 1962 article in National Geographic magazine, was widely adopted by the state's political leaders, businesspeople, and journalists as a way of [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Jones, Lu Ann. Electricity's Impact on Rural Life "The Day the Lights Came on" by Lu Ann Jones Reprinted with permission from the Tar Heel Junior Historian. Spring 1985. Tar Heel Junior Historian [...] (from Tar Heel Junior Historian, NC Museum of History.)

by Hall, Lisa Coston. Gertrude Elion and Dr. George Hitchings By Lisa Coston Hall Reprinted with permission from The Tar Heel Junior Historian, Fall 2006. Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of [...] (from Tar Heel Junior Historian, NC Museum of History.)

by Midgette, Nancy Smith. The Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, founded in Chapel Hill in 1883 by Francis Preston Venable and other University of North Carolina scientists, served as a forerunner of the modern North [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Williams, Wiley J. "Experimental Railroad" usually refers to the mile-and-a-quarter road built by the Experimental Railroad Company of Raleigh in 1832-33 (at a cost of $2,700) to allow horse-drawn cars to transport [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Anderson, Jean B. By Elizabeth A. Fenn, Peter H. Wood, Harry L. Watson, Thomas H. Clayton, Sydney Nathans, Thomas C. Parramore, and Jean B. Anderson; Maps by Mark Anderson Moore. Edited by Joe A. Mobley. [...] (from The Way We Lived in North Carolina, NC Office of Archives and History and UNC Press.)

by Mitchell, Thornton W. Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, physicist and inventor, was born in East Bolton, Quebec, Canada, the son of the Reverend Elisha Joseph and Clementina Trenholme Fessenden. When Fessenden was nine, the [...] (from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Foard, John Hanby, Jr. John Hanby Foard, textile executive, manufacturer, museum director, and Civil War historian, was born in Wilmington, the fourth child of Charles Deems (1863–1951) and Florence Hanby (1875–1932) [...] (from Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Parramore, Thomas C. Inventor Richard Jordan Gatling was born in Hertford County in September 1818. Issued his first patent in 1844 for a rice-seed planter, he soon moved to St. Louis, Mo., and successfully marketed the [...] (from Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press.)

by Mewborn, Suzanne. When was aspirin invented? The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, working between 460 and 377 BC, left records of pain-relief treatments that included the use of powder made from the bark and [...] (from Tar Heel Junior Historian, NC Museum of History.)