Georgia has a long record of firsts. Count down five tech milestones from the Peach State — from Crawford Long’s first ether surgery and the Hayes Smartmodem to Eli Whitney’s cotton gin — plus two bonus picks, including the Atlanta TV station that went nationwide by satellite.
#5: Scientific Atlanta (Atlanta, 1951)
Six Georgia Tech researchers started a company in 1951. They called it Scientific Atlanta. In the 1970s its dishes helped beam cable TV by satellite. Later its cable boxes sat on top of millions of TVs.
#4: Hayes Smartmodem (Norcross, 1981)
A modem let computers talk over regular phone lines. Dennis Hayes’ Georgia company launched the Smartmodem in 1981. Software could dial, answer and hang up — no switches. It all started on a borrowed kitchen table in 1977.
#3: 24-hour TV news (CNN) (Atlanta, 1980)
CNN brought TV news around the clock, every day. Ted Turner launched it from Atlanta on June 1, 1980. It was the first TV channel with 24-hour news. A husband-and-wife team anchored the very first newscast.
#2: Ether anesthesia (Jefferson, 1842)
Anesthesia puts patients under so surgery doesn’t hurt. Dr. Crawford Long used ether in Jefferson on March 30, 1842. The patient breathed ether from a towel during surgery. National Doctors’ Day falls on March 30 to honor him.
#1: Cotton gin (Savannah, 1793)
A cotton gin pulls the sticky seeds out of raw cotton. Eli Whitney built it on a plantation near Savannah in 1793. Cotton boomed — and sadly, so did slavery in the South. Copycat gins were everywhere; lawsuits ate his profits.
Bonus Picks From Georgia
Newsprint from pine (Savannah, 1933). Chemist Charles Herty set up a paper lab in Savannah. By 1933 he’d found a way to make newsprint from Southern pine. The first newspaper on it: the Soperton News, in 1933.
Satellite superstation (Atlanta, 1976). Ted Turner bought a small Atlanta TV station in 1970. In 1976 he beamed it by satellite to cable systems nationwide. It became the first national superstation — later TBS.
Tech From Every State
This is part of my Tech From Every State series: the top tech inventions and firsts from each of the 50 states, told with simple animations. Watch the whole series on YouTube and subscribe to The Tech Ranch so you don’t miss your state.
Did we miss something invented in Georgia? Tell me in the YouTube comments — and give the video a thumbs up if you learned something.
