Ask around about things invented in New Hampshire and most people come up empty. Maple syrup? Vermont would like a word. Lobstah rolls? Wrong state. But the Granite State has quietly given the world an alarm clock, a programming language, the first home video game console, the world's first wind farm and a whole lot more. Turns out "Live Free or Die" also means "Live Free and Tinker in the Basement."
Here are 12 things invented (or done first) in New Hampshire, plus one honorable mention we're claiming whether Massachusetts likes it or not. Fair warning: a weird number of them happened at 4 a.m.
1. America's First Alarm Clock (Concord, 1787)
Concord clockmaker Levi Hutchins wanted to start work at 4 a.m., before the sun and before even the rooster. So in 1787 he built what's credited as America's first mechanical alarm clock: one of his brass clocks in a wooden cabinet, with an extra gear that rang a bell. The catch? It only rang at 4 a.m. You couldn't change it. Hutchins never patented it, which is fair, because nobody else wanted to get up at 4 a.m. either. If you're living that early-riser life, you'll want a big hot coffee in the New Hampshire Tourist 11oz Coffee Mug. Levi would've.
2. The BASIC Programming Language (Hanover, 1964)
Dartmouth professors John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz wanted every student, not just math geniuses, to be able to use a computer. Their answer was BASIC and the Dartmouth Time-Sharing System. According to Dartmouth, at 4 a.m. on May 1, 1964, in the basement of College Hall, Kemeny and a student programmer typed RUN on side-by-side terminals and both got the right answers back. BASIC went on to teach millions of people to code. And yes, that's two New Hampshire inventions born at 4 a.m. Something's in the water up there.
3. The Words "Artificial Intelligence" (Hanover, 1955)
Every time somebody at a cookout tells you about AI, you can thank Hanover. John McCarthy, then a young math professor at Dartmouth, coined the term "artificial intelligence" in the 1955 proposal for a summer research workshop held at Dartmouth in 1956. That workshop is widely considered the birth of AI as a field. Not bad for a small town on the Connecticut River.
4. The First Home Video Game Console (Nashua, 1966–1968)
Ralph Baer, an engineer at Sanders Associates in Nashua (now part of BAE Systems), started sketching ideas in 1966 for playing games on a regular TV set. By 1968 his small team had built the "Brown Box," a prototype that moved dots around on a television screen. Magnavox licensed it and released it in 1972 as the Odyssey, the first home video game console. Baer, who lived in Manchester for decades, is known as the "Father of Video Games," and there's a bronze statue of him on a bench in Manchester's Arms Park holding his Brown Box. Go sit with him. He doesn't mind.
5. Simon, the Memory Game (1978)
Ralph Baer wasn't done. In 1978 he and fellow designer Howard Morrison created Simon, the round, beeping, four-color memory game that launched a thousand family arguments. Milton Bradley sold it, and if you grew up in the '80s, you can probably still hear the sad buzzer when you blew the pattern.
6. The Segway (Manchester, 2001)
Dean Kamen runs his invention company, DEKA, out of the old mill buildings in Manchester's Millyard. In December 2001 he unveiled the Segway, the self-balancing two-wheeler that was supposed to change cities forever. It mostly changed mall security and walking tours, and the original model went out of production in 2020, but it's still one of the most famous gadgets of the century. Kamen also founded FIRST, the youth robotics program, which is based in Manchester too.
7. The World's First Mountain-Climbing Cog Railway (Mount Washington, 1869)
Sylvester Marsh got the idea after a rough hike up Mount Washington, and the story goes that when he pitched a railway to the top, lawmakers told him he might as well build one to the moon. He built it anyway. The Mount Washington Cog Railway opened in 1869 as the world's first mountain-climbing cog railway, and it's still chugging up the steepest ridges in the Northeast today. Make a day of it with a Live Free NH Granite State T-Shirt under a few layers, because the summit doesn't care that it's sunny in Concord.
8. North America's First Aerial Passenger Tramway (Franconia, 1938)
Cannon Mountain opened the first aerial passenger tramway in North America in 1938, carrying skiers and sightseers up through Franconia Notch. The original was replaced by a bigger tram in 1980, and you can still ride it today for some of the best foliage views in New England.
9. America's First Ski School (Sugar Hill, 1929)
In 1928, Katharine Peckett went skiing in Switzerland and came home with an idea. Her family's inn, Peckett's-on-Sugar Hill, cleared a slope, brought in European instructors, and in 1929 started the first organized ski school in the United States, with Austrian skier Sig Buchmayr teaching the Arlberg method. There's a roadside marker in Sugar Hill if you want proof for the group chat.
10. The World's First Wind Farm (Crotched Mountain, 1980)
Before there were wind turbines all over the place, there were 20 of them on the shoulder of Crotched Mountain in southern New Hampshire. U.S. Windpower put them up in December 1980, each rated at 30 kilowatts, and the project is widely called the world's first wind farm. It was a small test run by today's standards and came down a few years later, but it led to the big California wind farms that kicked off the modern wind industry.
11. The First Tax-Supported Free Public Library (Peterborough, 1833)
In 1833, the town of Peterborough voted to use public money to start a free library for everybody. It's widely credited as the first free public library supported by taxes in the country, and the idea caught on pretty much everywhere. So next time you renew a book online at 4 a.m. (it's a New Hampshire tradition now), tip your cap to Peterborough.
12. The First-in-the-Nation Presidential Primary (1920)
Okay, nobody invented this in a workshop, but New Hampshire basically built the modern presidential campaign circus. The state has held the country's first presidential primary since 1920, and a state law says it has to stay first. Candidates show up at diners, shake hands at town halls, and get grilled by people who've met more presidential hopefuls than most cable news anchors. Only in the 603.
Honorable Mention: Tupperware's Inventor
Earl Tupper, the guy behind Tupperware, was born in Berlin, New Hampshire, in 1907. The company itself got going in Massachusetts, so we'll share. But every container of leftover chowdah in your fridge has a little Granite State in it.
Why New Hampshire Keeps Inventing Stuff
Long winters, stubborn people and a lot of basements. When it's dark at 4 p.m. and the roads are glare ice, you either take up a hobby or you invent the video game. New Hampshire did both. Rep the state that keeps quietly building the future with the Live Free NH Granite State Tee, and if you want more of this, check out our lists of things invented in Connecticut, inventions from Maine, and 10 things New Hampshire did before any other state.
Know another invention from New Hampshire we missed? Tell us. We'll be up at 4 a.m. anyway.