5-minute read
David M. ZimmerNorthJersey.com
Once firmly the nation's center of innovation, New Jersey has consequently been the home of some famous inventions.
Not all, however, were planned. Some arrived by happenstance and nonetheless left their mark beyond the Garden State.
One invention is so famous that it has had its scent trademarked. Another, which had its name trademarked 80 years ago, has become a common adjective that today is readily applied to public figures who invariably shake charges of impropriety.
Here are some of the accidental inventions that originated in New Jersey:
Teflon
Branded in 1944, Teflon was initially introduced for military and industrial purposes after World War II. However, it was not until the early 1960s that the polymer soared into household prominence, revolutionizing cookware with its combination of heat resistance and slickness.
DuPont patented the polymer in 1941, three years after one of its employees, Roy Plunkett, serendipitously stumbled upon it in the company's research lab in Jackson. According to an oral history given by Plunkett to Philadelphia's Science History Institute, he and an assistant were experimenting with the synthesis of tetrafluoroethylene, a gas commonly used in refrigeration, when one pressurized canister failed to property discharge. As it turned out, the reaction inside the plugged canister turned the gas into a smooth, slippery white powder.
The new polymer exhibited superior lubrication, chemical inertness and remarkable heat resistance, owing to the dense fluorine atoms enveloping its carbon atom chain. Encouraged and intrigued by the possibilities, Ohio-born Plunkett redirected his focus to explore the potential of polytetrafluoroethylene, later dubbed Teflon. He ultimately mastered the accidental process, allowing Teflon to be integrated into metals and fabrics and used to aid the Manhattan Project.
Most commonly linked to cookware, Teflon has also been connected to the presidency. Both Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump have been called "Teflon" presidents for their apparent imperviousness to political scandals.
Saltwater taffy
Another beneficial mistake is said to have created a classic New Jersey treat that has weathered the test of time: saltwater taffy. Originating in Atlantic City, the polarizing confection has a murky history, but legends of its creation always say it was an accident.
Some accounts attribute its creation in the 1880s to a mishap in which seawater was inadvertently added to the recipe for taffy, a stretched and aerated candy popularized in the mid-19th century. Others suggest saltwater taffy was born during an 1883 storm.
After its creation, two men played pivotal roles in popularizing the candy. Joseph Fralinger boxed and sold the taffy, as did Enoch James, who refined the recipe, introduced individual pieces, and mechanized the pulling process. Their stores still line the Atlantic City boardwalk today.
Food historians generally agree that neither created saltwater taffy, however. The story features John Ross Edmiston, owner of a small postcard shop on the boardwalk, and David Bradley, the man he hired to sell taffy at the location.
The partnership eventually led to the candy's accidental exposure to salty sea foam during a storm surge in 1883, the story goes. The seawater imparted it with a unique flavor that failed to deter Bradley from selling the taffy and cementing its place in candy history.
Offset press
Helping to print its history was an invention theorized after an accident at a small paper mill and lithographic shop in Nutley at the turn of the 20th century.
While operating a press paperless, Ira W. Rubel mistakenly transferred the image he wanted to print from the plate to the rubber blanket of the impression cylinder. When paper was inserted, the ink left on the rubber made a clear image. The discovery made in 1901 gave Rubel the idea to "offset" the direct printing process to print longer, more economical runs by reducing wear on the image plate, according to Keeping America Informed, a 2011 report from the U.S. Government Printing Office. He was soon designing and manufacturing his offset rotary machines for sale nationwide.
A graduate of Northwestern Law School, the Chicago native wanted to take his press global, however. He joined Chicago lithographer Alex Sherwood in 1906 to monopolize the distribution of the press, but their syndicate failed within a year, according to records kept by the National Museum of American History, which has an early Rubel-made press.
The Potter Printing Press Company of Plainfield, which had been manufacturing the presses on behalf of Rubel and Sherwood, then decided to front the operation. With the business side sorted, Rubel went to England to promote his press and procure orders. He never made it back stateside. Rubel fell ill in 1908 and died in England at the age of 48.
Play-Doh
Forty-eight years later, a product repurposed and transformed by a nursery school teacher would hit the shelves for the first time. Since then, more than 3 billion cans of Play-Doh have been sold.
Created in 1933 as a wallpaper cleaner by the Kutol soap company of Cincinnati, the pliable putty was given a new lease on life in 1954 by Dover's Kathryn "Kay" Zufall. The sister-in-law of company principal Joseph McVicker, Zufall, who later founded Dover's Zufall Health Center, suggested rebranding and remarketing the product, she told the Daily Record in 2006. It had been suffering from waning sales due to the advent of washable vinyl wallpaper and improvements in residential heating that saw homes abandon coal furnaces for gas and oil.
Zufall, who had read about molding wallpaper cleaner to craft tree-shaped Christmas ornaments, conducted her own tests with her students. Zufall found the soft, nontoxic blend of flour, water, salt, boric acid and mineral oil a perfect toy for imaginative youth and championed the revival of the product as a colorful child's plaything.
Today owned by toy maker Hasbro, Play-Doh became a cultural phenomenon after it was renamed from the original "Rainbow Modeling Compound" and featured on the "Captain Kangaroo" television series. It earned induction into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998. And several times in the last decade, Play-Doh has been the rumored subject of a Hollywood film.
More: North Jersey men were among 1,100 who served in secretive WWII Ghost Army that duped Nazis
In addition to its iconic soft, moldable compound, Play-Doh has a unique scent that for many evokes childhood memories. So distinctive, the scent has been trademarked by Hasbro.
Bubble Wrap
Born and still manufactured in North Jersey, Bubble Wrap was created in 1957 after Swiss chemist Marc Chavannes teamed with Wayne engineer and Hawthorne machine shop owner Alfred Fielding. The two aimed to create 3D wallpaper, Fielding's son Howard Fielding told The Record in 2018.
The pair began their experiments with plastic shower curtains, a heat-sealing machine and a plan to make wall coverings that appealed to the Beat generation. Early on, they produced a film with air bubbles trapped inside. Since the bubbles were vulnerable to popping and deflating, their creation seemed like a failure.
Still, they wanted to make their creation work, going as far as hiring a consultant to compile a list of 400 uses for the film. An early effort to use it as greenhouse insulation failed. One use famously stuck. In 1960, IBM contracted the company, which is still operating today as Sealed Air Corp. IBM needed packing material for its 1400 series computer products.
Bubble Wrap emerged as the answer, marking the beginning of its widespread adoption for packaging.
Later branded as Bubble Wrap, the film became a popular substance for swimming pool covers. However, its use as a fun-to-pop packing material has most prominently endured, turning Sealed Air into a Fortune 500 company that since 2016 has been headquartered in North Carolina but still operates in Saddle Brook.
