Volume One available now!

“Read through a few of these fascinating invention stories, and you realize that you could travel the world over and probably never be more than a few feet away from something invented and/or made in Minnesota!”
—Dave Kapell, inventor of Magnetic Poetry

Check out our posters of Minnesota creations below. Buy a copy of the book to see them all!

2013 - Non-Invasive BCIA research team at the University of Minnesota developed a non-invasive Brain Computer Interface which reads thoughts and allows someone to fly a remote-controlled helicopter by simply imagining its movements.

1969, Parker Brothers, MinneapolisThe famous Nerf® Wonderball was invented by Minnesota based inventor Reyn Guyer as an indoor volleyball. It was originally marketed as a toy that was safe for use near both babies and the elderly.

1922 - Ralph Samuelson , Lake City, MNIt happened on June 28, 1922 that an 18-year-old young gentleman by the name of Ralph Samuelson designed the first water skis from two pine boards and successfully skied on Lake Pepin in Lake City, MN. Ralph us…

1912 - Walter Deubener, St. Paul Concerned about his customers’ ability to safely carry heavy loads of groceries, St. Paul shop owner Walter Deubener devised a structurally stable method of securing a string handle onto an ordinary shopping bag…

1919 - Pop-Up Toaster, StillwaterCharles Strite invented the first pop-up toaster while working in a Minnesota factory. He invented it as a solution to the burnt toast problem in the cafeteria.

1957 - Medtronic, MinneapolisInspired by the circuit for an electonic, transistorized metronome, engineer and Medtronic co-founder Earl Bakken created the first battery-operated external pacemaker. These small devices replaced the much larger cart-b…

1953 - ERA 1103/UNIVAC 1103The ﬁrst commercial computer to use random access memory was created by Engineering Research Associates in Saint Paul. The UNIVAC 1102 was 38 feet long and 28 feet wide, and had 4.5 kB of RAM.

1931 - World’s First Modern SkywayThe First Modern Skyway in downtown St. Paul connects the 17th floor of the First National Bank Building to the neighboring Merchants Bank Building. At the time it was difficult  for the builders to obtain the …

1966 - Charles Foley and Neil Rabens.The collaborators developed the human pretzel party game for a St. Paul manufacturing firm in the mid-1960s. The game was wildly popularized when Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor played it on "The Tonight Show" in 196…

1964 - ALVIN, General Mills, MinneapolisOwned by the US Navy and still in active service after almost 50 years, ALVIN, a manned deep-ocean submarine, has made over 4,400 deep sea dives, including the exploration of the Titanic wreckage.

1947 - Mound Metalcraft Company, MNIn 1947, a garden tool company began making metal toys. In the 1950’s, they changed their name to Tonka Toys Inc. (after Lake Minnetonka) and began making the now famous “Tonka Trucks”.

19179 - Scott and Brennan OlsenIn 1979, the Olson brothers picked up another inventors take on in-line skates at a local sporting goods store and began working on improving the somewhat clunky design. Working from their parent’s basement, they purch…

1937 - Hormel, Austin, MNThe famous spiced luncheon meat in a can was created by Jay C. Hormel, son of Austin-based Hormel founder George C. Hormel as a way to make use of underutilized pork shoulder.

1942 - Electronic Autopilot, HoneywellFounded as a Heating Company, Minneapolis based Honeywell Inc. became a defense contractor during World War II. The C1 Autopilot was first installed in the B-29 Bomber and was later produced for civilian aircraf…

1963 - Retractable Seat BeltAlthough the seat belt had been around before 1963, James “Crash” Ryan invented the seat belt you see in cars today. Ryan’s belt was designed to lock up in the event of an accident, making it much safer. Often Ryan used h…

1956 - First Indoor Shopping CenterSouthdale is the oldest fully climate-controlled indoor shopping center. The Austrian born architect Simon Gruen modelled the shopping center on the arcades of European cities.