Those inventions are just so New York City.
Did you know eggs Benedict were invented in NYC? How about Manhattan Clam Chowder? The Reuben? Yeah, we're food experts, so a ton of foods were invented in NYC.
Want to know what else was invented in NYC? Yeah, that's right: a lot of inventions. Like, for instance, toilet paper was invented in NYC.
Where would we be without toilet paper? Well, we'd be totally lost, we think, so we're pretty grateful for NYC, and all its mind-blowing innovations.
Want to know what else was invented in NYC? That's so great, because we have them listed below.
Read on to find out which inventions came about in NYC, and then enjoy the thrill of living in what's clearly objectively the world's greatest city.
1. The Teddy Bear
In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt was on a hunt with some guides in Mississippi, who'd tied a bear to a tree and invited Roosevelt to shoot it.
Roosevelt refused, saying it'd be unsportsmanlike to kill a defenseless animal. His refusal generated national attention, and was depicted in a popular cartoon by Clifford Berryman.
[anad]
Brooklyn shopkeeper Morris Michtom and his wife Rose got wind of the cartoon, and marketed a stuffed fabric bear in honor of Roosevelt. They named it "Teddy's Bear."
The Michtoms wrote to Roosevelt and got permission to use his name, and went on to start a successful company that manufactured teddy bears.
2. Hip hop
The evolution of hip hop was shaped by many types of art and different artists, but in 1973 at a birthday party in the Bronx was the day hip hop was born.
The birthday girl's brother, Clive Campbell, is widely known as DJ Kool Herc, the founding father of hip hop.
DJ Kool Herc started spinning records at parties and between sets of his father's band while he was a teenager in the Bronx in the 1970s.
Herc often emulated the style of Jamaican "selectors" (DJs) by taking over the records he spun, but his really monumental invention was the concept of observing how the crowds would react to the records he was playing.
He noticed people danced the most during the drum breaks, so for the first time, Herc used two turntables not to make a transition between two records, but as a way to switch back and forth between two copies of the same record.
This way, he extended the drum beat the crowd most wanted to hear. Herc called it the Merry Go-Round, but today this technique is known as the "break beat."
3. Roller coasters
In 1884, LaMarcus Adna Thompson created perhaps the first-ever gravity roller coaster made solely for the purpose of thrill.
Thee coaster was built in Coney Island, and a ride on its stretches of track cost a nickle. The cars never went faster than six miles an hour.
[anad2]
They also required riders to leave the car in the middle of the trip so the car could be switched to another track. Still, it was the first roller coaster so, pretty thrilling.
<!--nextpage-->
4. Credit cards
There was once a man named Frank McNamara, who was dining in an NYC restaurant in 1949.
Sadly for Frank, when it was time to pay he discovered that he'd forgotten his wallet. Some say McNamara then negotiated his way out of washing dishes by signing for his dinner, and promising to pay the restaurant back.
[anad]
Afterward, McNamara went on to found the first American consumer-facing credit card company called the Diner's Club with Ralph Sneider.
The idea behind the Diner's Club was sign now, pay later. McNamara started the club with 27 participating restaurants and sold 200 $3 memberships to his friends and acquaintances.
Alfred Bloomingdale had invented a similar business in Los Angeles called Dine and Sign, and when the two businesses found out about each other, they joined forces.
5. Sweet'N Low
The year was 1957, and Benjamin Eisenstadt is seeking to make a waist-friendly alternative to sugar after his idea of serving single-size packets of sugar was stolen once he'd pitched it to sugar producers but didn't patent the idea.
Benjamin worked with his son, Marvin, founded the Cumberland packing Corporation, which still controls the dispersion of Sweet'N Low today.
6. The remote control
Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla invented one of the world's first wireless remote controls, and unveiled it at Madison Square Garden in 1898.
At the time, Tesla referred to his invention as a "teleautomaton," and used a miniature boat controlled by radio waves to demonstrate its function during his presentation.
[anad2]
The boat had a small metal antenna that could receive exactly one radio frequency. Financially, the remote-controlled boats didn't work out. The U.S. Navy thought the technology was too unreliable for use in war.
Still, the concept of a remote control caught on, and quickly spread to other types of equipment. Like, you know, our televisions.
Check out 11 Famous Foods That Were Invented in NYC.