Wednesday, May 22 – Essex County
Join the Cedar Grove Historical Society at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 22, at the Cedar Grove Public Library, 1 Municipal Court, Cedar Grove, when Linda Barth will explore groundbreaking, useful, fun and even silly inventions and their New Jersey roots.
Many people are familiar with Edison’s “invention factory” in Menlo Park, where he patented the phonograph, the light bulb and many more inventions. Yet many other ideas have grown in the Garden State, too. New Jerseyans brought sound and music to movies and built the first drive-in theater. In addition to the first cultivated blueberry, tasty treats like ice cream cones and M&M’s® are also New Jersey natives. Iconic aspects of American life like Bubble Wrap® , the boardwalk, the Band-Aid® and even professional baseball itself started in New Jersey. Life would be harder without the vacuum cleaner, plastic and air-conditioning, and many other important advances in medicine and surgery that were developed here.
A lifelong New Jersey resident, Linda Barth has written two books on the D&R Canal and three children’s picture books. She has written several other books and is now the executive director of the League of Historical Societies of New Jersey.
