North Carolina is home to many inventions that a lot of people are unaware of. North Carolina was one of the earliest settled states in America, and inventions were bound to happen along the line. For example, notable inventions date back as early as 1859, with the creation of overalls in Clinton. Within the next hundred or so years, many more significant inventions occurred.

 Following soon after the invention of overalls, a military innovation was made with the Gatling Gun by Richard Gatling in 1861. Although he technically invented it while he was living in Indianapolis, he lived most of his life in North Carolina. North Carolina was also the state in which the ideas for it were made. Almost 30 years later in 1890, Vicks VapoRub was invented in a town known as Selma. Lunsford Richardson was working on treatments he called Vicks, and he had created 21 ‘Vicks family remedies,’ which included a strange ingredient from Japan called menthol. He sold his drugstore to form Lunsford Richardson Wholesale Drug Company. When selling the drugs, his son had the idea of focusing on the one drug, VapoRub, which became their most successful product.

 In 1893, the top competitor of Coca Cola today, Pepsi-cola was born. It was originally known as “Brad’s Drink” from the inventor, Caleb Bradham, but was later changed in 1898 to Pepsi-cola because of its two ingredients: pepsin and cola. Junior Nick Latteier said, “Pepsi is my favorite soft drink, and I had no idea it was invented in North Carolina.” Not too long after that, in 1917, Cheerwine was made into a drink from L.D Peeler’s basement in Salisbury. He used very unique ingredients from a traveling salesman from St. Louis when experimenting with the creation of Cheerwine. Texas Pete hot sauce was later invented in 1929, originating in Winston-Salem. Texas Pete got its name from Sam Garner, owner of the T. W. Garner Food Company, wished to give the product an American name, and one named after his sons: Thad, Ralph, or Harold. Fortunately the latter’s nickname was “Pete.” The Texas part of the name was adopted because of the reputation for spicy things Texas had. Later, in 1937, the beloved Krispy Kreme Doughnuts was also born in Winston-Salem. Vernon Rudolph bought a secret yeast-raised doughnut recipe from a New Orleans French chef then rented a building in what is now historic Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC. Afterwards, he began selling Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to local grocery stores.

 North Carolina has a long history of inventions that many of us cannot imagine living without. Other unmentioned inventions include Putt Putt Miniature Golf, made in Fayetteville in 1954, and the Barcode, invented in 1969 in the Research Triangle Park. These inventions make North Carolina an innovative and a state actively committed to development.