Arizona Inventions and Discoveries

Arizona is home to many inventors and scientist. Here are some things you may not know originated in Arizona!

Dendrochronology is the scientific method of dating tree rings to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmospheric conditions during different periods in history from the wood of old trees.

PawSense

When cats walk or climb on your keyboard, they can enter random commands and data, damage your files, and even crash your computer. This can happen whether you are near the computer or have suddenly been called away from it.

PawSense is a software utility that helps protect your computer from cats. It quickly detects and blocks cat typing, and also helps train your cat to stay off the computer keyboard. I wish I’d had this years ago, and my Mom last week!

Chimichanga According to one source, Monica Flin, the founder of the Tucson, Arizona, restaurant El Charro, accidentally dropped a burrito into the deep-fat fryer in 1922. She immediately began to utter a Spanish profanity beginning “chi…” (chingada), but quickly stopped herself and instead exclaimed chimichanga, a Spanish equivalent of “thingamajig”. Knowledge and appreciation of the dish spread slowly outward from the Tucson area, with popularity elsewhere accelerating in recent decades. Though the chimichanga is now found as part of the Tex-Mex cuisine, its roots within the U.S. are mainly in Tucson, Arizona. Who doesn’t love a good chimi?

Pima Cotton It wasn’t until the early 1900s that the U.S. Department of Agricultural got involved, working with the Pima tribe of Arizona to perfect this young crop. It was in honor of these pioneering farmers that the USDA named the American extra-long staple variety “pima cotton.”

Ping Golf Clubs

The name “PING” came from the sound that Solheim heard as the metal struck the ball. Popular musician-golfer Murray Arnold shared in 1960 that the clubhead, on striking the ball, rings out with the 440 pitch used in tuning pianos. By the end of 1960, Solheim had 6 designs, intentionally muffled the “ping”, and had made over 2,000 putters in his garage.

In 1961, the Solheims moved from Redwood City, California to Phoenix, Arizona where the company would find a permanent home. Despite the increasing sales of the PING putter, Solheim continued to create his putters single-handedly in his garage after departing General Electric.

In the same year, he invented his first set of irons which he named “69”, which he considered to be a good round of golf. Solheim continued to experiment with the effects of good heel-toe weighting in his irons and also milled a cavity into the steel back of the irons for added forgiveness.

Keystone Kool Deck From 1962, Kool Deck is the premier heat reducing surface available for barefoot areas. No other polymer cement overlay, paver, or stone comes close. Invented in Tucson in the 1960’s by Mortex

The Miranda warning is part of a preventive criminal procedure rule that law enforcement are required to administer to protect an individual who is in custody and subject to direct questioning or its functional equivalent from a violation of their Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination. In Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court held that the admission of an elicited incriminating statement by a suspect not informed of these rights violates the Fifth Amendment and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, through the incorporation of these rights into state law. Thus, if law enforcement officials decline to offer a Miranda warning to an individual in their custody, they may interrogate that person and act upon the knowledge gained, but may not ordinarily use that person’s statements as evidence against them in a criminal trial.

First, TASER is an acronym for Tom A. Swift’s Electric Rifle, and two, its storied headquarters are located in Scottsdale.

Steve Tuttle, Vice President of Strategic Communications at TASER International, explains how the original TASER was invented in 1974 by former NASA employee Jack Cover, yet it was considered a firearm due to early models using gunpowder. However, the TASER we know today was further developed in the 1990s in Arizona.

Air TASER began in September 1993 with five guys: two brothers, an engineer, a sales guy, and Tuttle. Rick Smith (one of the brothers) was seriously affected by a road rage incident in Scottsdale in which two of his friends were shot. He found Cover in Tucson, and set to work developing a new TASER using compressed air.

Pluto If you grew up in Arizona, this fact was probably hammered home. For everyone else, Planet X was discovered at the famed Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff – making it the “first planet discovered in the 20th century and the first one discovered in the United States,” according to Lowell Observatory historian Kevin Schindler.