Perhaps no city in America has a richer history of invention or unquenchable spirit of innovation than New Haven, Connecticut. The average schmoe in East Porkchop, Iowa may not know about Louis Lassen’s claim to creating the hamburger, or the Frisbee’s pie-plate roots on the greenswards of Yale — but he probably knows about Eli […]
Perhaps no city in America has a richer history of invention or unquenchable spirit of innovation than New Haven, Connecticut.
The average schmoe in East Porkchop, Iowa may not know about Louis Lassen’s claim to creating the hamburger, or the Frisbee’s pie-plate roots on the greenswards of Yale — but he probably knows about Eli Whitney and his cotton gin, which revolutionized agriculture and transformed the economy of the southern United States.
Readers of a certain age will fondly recall tinkering with one of A.C. Gilbert’s Erector Sets as a child (and know why they call a particular Fair Haven commercial complex Erector Square). American history buffs know Oliver Winchester’s Model 1873 rifle as the Gun that Won the West. Those who know their New Haven commercial history may recall that the first telephone exchange started operation here in 1878, though fewer may know the name of the innovator most closely associated with it (George Coy).
But did you know that New Haven is the birthplace, too, of the lollipop (or, as it was known a century ago, “Lolly Pop”)? So, so true — and you can read all about it here.
What has made the City of Elms such a fertile ecosystem for invention almost since its founding in 1638? Is it geography, as a port town whose lifeblood was its link to the outside world? Was it our foundational role in Amercan higher education — especially after the Collegiate School relocated here from Old Saybrook in 1716? Is it even (as more than a few have suggested) the water?
Whatever — it’s real. And in 2019 there are ample institutions and initiatives that reflect that mission and heritage. Recently District New Haven (itself an “innovation” incubator) started the nonprofit District Innovation Venture Center to link workforce development programs with the needs of the technology center. The Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale marked its second anniversary.
Also two years ago, the city was designated an official “Innovation Place” by CTNext, which recognizes particular communities as centers of entrepreneurship and innovation, and awards some seed money to help them become magnets for talent and launching pads for growth-stage companies. The list goes on.
Whatever qualities and characteristics one credits for New Haven’s legacy of innovation, the irreducible element, always, is its people — skeptical, striving, dissatisfied, a little insecure — and never, ever smug or self-satisfied. That’s not such a bad set of personal traits to hang our collective hats on.
As always, I invite you to write to me at mbingham@newhavenbiz.com
Michael C. Bingham
Editor
New Haven BIZ
