When you think of famous people from Maine, you think of Stephen King, Patrick Dempsey, or Bob Marley (you know, the guy that Willem Dafoe was hilariously awful to in Boondock Saints.)
In addition to faces you've seen, there are a great number of devices or products you're likely familiar with that have origins here. Mainers are great at working smarter, and not harder:
Hiram Maxim,
Sangerville native, invented a machine that let you
poke holes in a lot of people from far away.The Maxim Machine Gun was invented in 1884 and used a gallon bladder full of water around the barrel for cooling, and was used by the English, the Germans (Maschinengewehr) and the Russians (Pulemyot Maxim.)
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| Wikimedia Commons |
Perry Spencer, a Howland native, invented the
microwave oven. Spencer was a guy who was orphaned by twelve and supported himself by working in a nearby spool mill (either in Howland or South Lincoln) until he was sixteen. He was a self taught electrical whiz who managed to teach himself trigonometry, calculus, chemistry, physics, and metallurgy, among other subjects. He was a pioneer in radar design at a time when the technology was fledgling, and ended up winning the Distinguished Public Service award for his work on development of combat radar. He invented the microwave more or less by accident, after noticing the effect some of his radar equipment had on a bar of chocolate in his pocket. The clincher? He was paid a one time $2 by Raytheon for his invention and his home town now prides itself on being the home of Matt Mulligan...
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| Also, he also shoulders a small about of blame for Hot Pockets. |
Chester Greenwood of
Farmington strapped bits of dead beavers to his head to keep his ears warm back in 1873 at the age of fifteen. We now call these earmuffs, and they save us from having to cut a Partridge open like a Tauntaun and then wearing it on our heads to keep warm. Farmington still has a Chester Greenwood day every December.
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| Vermont native Daphne Zuniga modeling a version of Greenwood's invention. Kind of. |
Alvin Lombard Waterville invented tracks while designing his
Lombard Log Hauler. ...sort of. I can't claim that he was the sole inventor, but he
was the very first to use tracks in a commercial application successfully. Holt Tractor, the company credited with giving Renault its track design for
the very first 'modern' tank, incorporated tracks in their designs a full sixteen years (1917) after Lombard successfully used them on the Log Hauler. Alvin Lombard gave birth to an idea that helped northern woodsmen haul unfathomable amounts of product for the time that eventually ended up in the battlefields of Europe (the tracks...not the wood.) It's really a fascinating machine, with a short, paradoxical existence deserving of its own entry.
Paradoxical in that the technology later made its way into bulldozers, which could construct passable roads, rendering the log hauler obsolete. Below are Lombard's log haulers in various states of repair.
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| http://www.panoramio.com/photo/64006457 |
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| MaineEncyclopedia |
A note on the guy up front on the steam powered unit - he was one of a crew
of four. One in the back (a brakeman), an engineer and fireman to stoke/fuel the fire, and the guy who got stuck with the job of steering a 19 ton steam powered behemoth (with no brakes) that was hauling 300 tons of wood downhill (as all logging roads of the era due to previous animal constraints.)
Helen Augusta Blanchard invented the
zig-zag sewing machine. She's been described by some as a
"Lady Edison" Blanchard was from a wealthy family and 22 of her 28 patents were sewing related.
Milton Bradley (yes, the board game guy) was born in
Vienna, Maine. He didn't start his business in Maine, but without him we'd not have memories of arguing about Battleship, now would we?
The inventors of the first
green car were from Kingfield. However, the first
Stanley Steemer was built in New York. The Stanley museum in Kingfield still operates, however.
Blazing fast country guitarist
Johnny Hiland grew up in Woodland, went to USM until he dropped out and moved to Nashville. He's backed "country" acts like Randy Travis and Toby Keith, and has backed
country acts like Hank 3. He's got endorsements from Fender, Ernie Ball and Elixir, which is impressive considering he did it without riding the coattails of a conventionally attractive vocalist and skill purchased from the likes of Berkelee (sorry
Karmin.)
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