Connecticut gets teased a lot. The rest of New England calls it "the state you drive through to get to New York," and plenty of folks up here aren't sure if it counts as New England or the start of the Tri-State Area. But pull up a list of things invented in Connecticut and the jokes stop pretty quick. The Nutmeg State gave the world your lunch, your candy, your backyard toys, and your phone book. Here are 12 Connecticut inventions and firsts you've definitely used, and probably never thanked the state for.
1. The Hamburger (New Haven, 1900)
According to the Lassen family, in 1900 a customer ran into Louis' Lunch in New Haven and told Louis Lassen he was in a rush. Louis slapped his own blend of ground steak trimmings between two slices of toast, and the hamburger sandwich was born. In 2000 the Library of Congress recognized Louis' Lunch as the birthplace of the hamburger sandwich. Texas, Wisconsin, and Hamburg, New York all have their own claims, but only one of them still grills burgers on cast-iron grills dated 1898. One warning: they're served on white toast, and asking for ketchup there is a bad idea. Only cheese, tomato, and onion are allowed.
2. The Lollipop (New Haven, 1908)
George Smith of the Bradley Smith Company in New Haven started putting hard candy on a stick in 1908 and called it the "Lolly Pop." The name reportedly came from a racehorse. It took until 1931 for the company to trademark the name. In 2024 Connecticut made it official: the lollipop is now the state candy. Every kid who ever got one at the bank owes New Haven a thank-you note.
3. The Frisbee (Bridgeport, sort of)
The Frisbie Pie Company opened in Bridgeport in 1871, and college kids, most famously Yale students, supposedly figured out that the empty tins flew great across the quad. Fred Morrison later came up with the plastic flying disc, and when Wham-O started selling it in the late '50s they borrowed the college slang and called it the "Frisbee." Pies from Bridgeport, disc golf for the rest of the planet.
4. The Wiffle Ball (Fairfield, 1953)
In 1953 David N. Mullany of Fairfield wanted his son to be able to throw curveballs without wrecking his arm or the neighbor's windows. He cut holes in a plastic ball, it curved like crazy, and he named it after what happens when you strike out: a "whiff." Every New England driveway game since then with a skinny yellow bat and a ghost runner on second traces back to a Connecticut backyard.
5. The Erector Set (New Haven, 1913)
A.C. Gilbert reportedly got the idea after watching steel towers for power lines go up from a train window. His Erector Set came out in 1913, made in New Haven, and turned generations of kids into future engineers (and turned generations of parents into people stepping on tiny metal bolts in the dark).
6. The Telephone Exchange and the Phone Book (New Haven, 1878)
On January 28, 1878, the world's first commercial telephone exchange opened in New Haven's Boardman Building. George Coy built the switchboard partly out of carriage bolts and teapot lid handles. Wicked resourceful. A month later, on February 21, 1878, the company printed the world's first telephone directory, a single page with 50 names on it and no phone numbers, because an operator connected every call by hand. Basically, Connecticut invented "Hello, Operator?"
7. The First Practical Helicopter (Stratford, 1939)
Igor Sikorsky, an immigrant from Kyiv, piloted the VS-300 on its first tethered flight in Stratford on September 14, 1939. It's widely called the first practical helicopter, and Sikorsky helicopters are still built in Stratford today. Next time a medevac chopper flies over Route 8, give it a little salute.
8. Pain-Free Dentistry (Hartford, 1844)
Hartford dentist Horace Wells saw a nitrous oxide demonstration in December 1844. The next day he had one of his own teeth pulled while under the gas and said he felt nothing. He was one of the first people ever to use anesthesia for pain relief. Laughing gas at the dentist? Thank Hartford.
9. The American Dictionary (West Hartford, 1828)
Noah Webster, born in West Hartford, published An American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828. He's the reason Americans write "color" instead of "colour" and "center" instead of "centre." So technically, every argument about spelling in your family group chat is Connecticut's fault.
10. The Can Opener (Waterbury, 1858)
Before 1858 people opened cans with hammers and chisels. Seriously. Then Ezra Warner of Waterbury got the first U.S. patent for a can opener, a bayonet-and-sickle gadget that grocers and soldiers used during the Civil War. Not pretty, but a big upgrade over the chisel.
11. The Hot Lobster Roll (Milford, around 1929)
Maine folks, sit down for this one. The hot buttered lobster roll is widely credited to Perry's restaurant in Milford, where Harry Perry reportedly made it around 1929 for a regular. Yes, the "Connecticut-style" roll, warm lobster drowning in butter on a toasted bun, actually started in Connecticut. The cold mayo-versus-hot butter fight is a New England civil war that'll never end, but credit where credit's due.
12. Subway (Bridgeport, 1965)
In 1965, 17-year-old Fred DeLuca needed money for college. Family friend Dr. Peter Buck, a nuclear physicist, lent him $1,000, and they opened a sandwich shop in Bridgeport called Pete's Super Submarines. The name changed to Subway a few years later, and it grew into one of the biggest restaurant chains on Earth. So Connecticut invented the hamburger AND gave the world the footlong. That's a lot of lunch for a state this size.
Honorable Mentions
- The nuclear submarine: the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered sub, was built by Electric Boat and launched in Groton in 1954.
- The Colt revolver: Hartford's Samuel Colt patented his revolver in 1836 and turned his Hartford armory into one of the most famous factories in America.
- PEZ: invented in Austria, not here, but the U.S. factory has been in Orange since the 1970s, and it's got a visitor center full of dispensers. We'll allow it.
So, Is Connecticut the Smartest State in New England?
Let's not get crazy. We'll let Massachusetts and Connecticut argue about that. But you can't argue with a state that gave the world the hamburger, the lollipop, the Wiffle ball, and the phone book. If you're from the Nutmeg State, you've earned a little bragging, and there's no better way to do it than the Wicked Smaaht University Connecticut T-Shirt. And if you'd rather rep every town from Greenwich to Putnam, the Connecticut Cities & Towns T-Shirt has all 169 of them.
Want more Nutmeg State weirdness? Check out 10 of the strangest laws on the books in Connecticut. Some of them are almost as surprising as the lobster roll thing.
Born in New England. Fueled by iced coffee. Wicked proud of it since 2004.