America is responsible for some of the world's most important and game-changing inventions. But which are the most significant to come out of each state?

Using information collated by MidAmerica Nazarene University in Kansas, discover the most impactful inventions that have emerged from each state and the District of Columbia. 

In 1895, Alabama engineer Miller Reese Hutchison created an electric hearing aid for one of his friends which he called the "Akouphone." The bulky tabletop device served as a prototype for the "Acousticon," a smaller, portable device that was released to the public seven years later.

Described as “a miracle” by the American press, the device would go on to transform the lives of hearing-impaired people the world over.

Thousands of years before Alaska was admitted into the union, the Aleut, Inuit, and Yupik peoples of the Arctic developed the kayak. They used it for hunting and transporting goods or passengers. The compact narrow boat remains the region's most enduring invention.

Scottsdale-based brothers Patrick and Thomas Smith created the first commercial taser in 1993, working with NASA engineer Jack Cover, who devised a prototype in 1969. The non-lethal weapon is estimated to have saved more than 75,000 lives.

Arkansas-born cinematography pioneer Freeman Owens is credited with inventing the method of adding synchronized sound to film, filing a patent for his Phonofilm process in 1923. His innovation heralded the first talkie, The Jazz Singer, in 1927 and changed cinema forever

Plenty of important things have been invented in California, but Apple's iPhone has been deemed the state's most impactful innovation.

The game-changing smartphone was developed in Cupertino under the watchful eye of the late Steve Jobs from 2005 to 2007.

Women have been using improvised tampons for thousands of years – soft papyrus was the material of choice in ancient Egypt for instance – but the first modern tampon featuring a tube within a tube applicator was invented by Earle Hass in Denver in 1929.

In 1845, Charles Goodyear perfected the vulcanization process in his factory in Naugatuck, Connecticut, inventing a type of rubber that could withstand heat and cold without cracking. This crucial innovation made the durable car tire possible in the latter half of the century.

This extra-robust material was created by chemist Stephanie Kwolek in 1965 at the DuPont Experimental Station research and development facility in Wilmington. Today it's used in everything from body armor to sails.

Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed American Morse code in Washington DC during the 1840s as a means of sending messages efficiently via their long-distance telegraph line, the world's first, which connected the US capital with Baltimore. 

The first modern personal computer was engineered at IBM's Entry Systems Division in Boca Raton and launched to the buying public on August 12, 1981. A best-seller from the get-go, IBM's innovative device dominated the home computing market for the rest of the decade.

A simple invention from Georgia that had a profound impact on the Antebellum South, the cotton gin was patented in 1794 by Eli Whitney.  The mechanical device, which separates cotton fibers from seeds, triggered a major cotton boom and contributed to the growth of enslaved labor as a result.

The Ancient Hawaiians revered the art of surfing and crafted intricately carved boards to ride the waves. These skills were passed down through generations. Hawaiian George Freeth (pictured on the left) is credited with popularising surfing in the rest of the USA during the 1910s.

Although Scotsman John Logie Baird demonstrated the first mechanical television in 1926, Idaho innovator Philo Taylor Farnsworth invented the first fully electronic television the following year, ushering in the era of TV.

Engineer Martin Cooper developed the first handheld mobile phone in 1973 while working at Motorola in Schaumburg. Dubbed "the brick," the bulky device measured 10 inches and weighed a hefty 2.5 pounds.

In 1885, the fabulously-named Sylvanus Freelove Bowser patented the first kerosene pump in Fort Wayne and launched the precursor to the modern petrol pump in 1905. His name still lives on Down Under, where fuel pumps are also known as "bowsers."

A colossal 90% of Iowa's land is dedicated to farming, so it's only fitting that the petrol-powered tractor was invented in the state. John Froelich built the very first one in Clayton County back in 1892.

In 1913, aviation pioneers William Purvis and Charles Wilson were awarded a patent for the world's first helicopter, which they developed at an airfield in Goodland in north-west Kansas, and called the "rotary wing aircraft."

One of the most prominent African-American inventors in US history, Claysville-born innovator Garrett Morgan (pictured) created his safety hood in 1912, which is widely regarded as the first modern gas mask. By 1917, a tweaked version of Morgan's mask was standard equipment for US soldiers.

An inventor, botanist, geologist, politician, and science fiction author, the multitalented John Leonard Riddell developed the first binocular microscope at the Medical College of Louisiana in the middle of the 19th century.

Millwright and mechanic Leonard Norcross is known for several inventions but the rubber dive suit is his most enduring. The prolific inventor tested his creation in Maine's Webb River in 1834 and was issued with a patent later that year.

A stickler for hygiene, acclaimed surgeon William Stewart Halsted was the first doctor in the world to use surgical gloves. The groundbreaking physician worked with Goodyear to create the gloves back in 1894.

British inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the basis of the World Wide Web in 1989 while contracting for CERN in Switzerland but the technology was refined and standardised at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the early 1990s.

In 1901, automotive pioneer Ransom E. Olds created the modern assembly line and used it to build the first mass-produced car, the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, increasing the efficiency of the manufacturing process no end.

Heart patients the world over have engineer Earl Bakken to thank for developing the implantable pacemaker. The battery-powered device was invented by Bakken in 1957 at the Medtronic workout in Fridley, following a blackout that killed one of his patients, who was dependent on a large, mains-operated pacemaker.

One of the world's most effective anti-fungal medications, Nystatin was discovered in 1950 by chemists Rachel Fuller Brown and Elizabeth Lee Hazen, who based the drug on a micro-organism Hazen discovered on a farm in Mississippi.

St. Louis native John S. Thurman devised the world's first powered vacuum cleaner in 1898 and named it the 'pneumatic carpet renovator'. The enormous gadget had an internal combustion engine and travelled from house to house on a horse-drawn cart as part of a mobile cleaning service.

Like pacemaker inventor Earl Bakken, biophysicist Norman Holter transformed the treatment of heart disease when he invented the first portable heart monitor at his research lab in Helena. Holter developed the device in the 1950s and launched it in 1962.

In 1936, Omaha's James Michael Curran invented the first ski lift, without which the modern ski industry couldn't function. Before Curran's invention, skiers had to use tows powered by horses or engines to get up the mountain.

On May 20 1873, San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno-based tailor Jacob Davis were awarded a patent for their riveted work trousers, and a fashion icon was born. Miners in Nevada started sporting the jeans in the mid-1870s. Before long, the whole world was rocking denim.

America's oldest continually-published periodical, this venerable publication was founded in 1792 by Robert B. Thomas in Cheshire County. Packed with useful info, from long-range weather forecasts to planting charts, the almanac has been essential reading for farmers since its creation.

Engineer Willis Carrier invented the modern air conditioning unit in 1902 and patented the first centrifugal refrigeration machine in 1921. Developed at Carrier's factory in Newark, the technology has had a profound impact on the US, allowing the growth of cities in warmer regions such as Phoenix and Houston.

The atom bomb was developed during World War II by scientists working on the top-secret Manhattan Project and first tested in New Mexico on July 16 1945. A month later, atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, effectively ending the war.

The idea for the first credit card came into being in 1949 when businessman Frank McNamara was dining with clients in New York and realised he'd left his cash at home. Unable to pay the bill, McNamara vowed to create a to charge card to stop it ever having again. His Diner's Club card was launched the following year and the rest is history.

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, invented the first working aeroplane and pulled off the first controlled, sustained flight on December 17 1903, near Kitty Hawk in North Carolina's Outer Banks.

This classic breakfast cereal was first manufactured in 1893 by wheat millers in Grand Forks, and the semolina-based porridge fast became America's most popular breakfast staple, enjoyed in homes up and down the country.

Automotive pioneer John William Lambert was awarded 600 patents during his lifetime but the petrol-powered car is his most notable invention. Lambert completed the vehicle in 1891 in his Ohio City workshop.

Not the most popular of 20th-century inventions, the first working parking meter was invented in 1935 by Holger George Thuesen and Gerald A. Hale, two engineering professors at Oklahoma State University.

Oregon's Douglas Engelbart unveiled the first computer mouse way back in 1967 during 'the Mother of All Demos'. But by the time the technology had gained serious commercial viability in the late 1980s, Engelbart's patent had expired and he made no money from his innovation.

One of the greatest single advances in firefighting, the hydrant was invented in 1801 by Frederick Graff, the Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia water works department, who spent years installing water connection points on the streets of Philly.

The tiniest US state, Rhode Island has made a big impact on American culture by giving us the diner. The first casual eatery was opened in Providence in 1872 by Walter Scott, who sold food out of a horse-drawn wagon.

The first military submarine was engineered by Horace Lawson Hunley and used by the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Hunley died on the vessel in 1863, when it lost power and sank during a military exercise.

South Dakota-born nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize in physics for the cyclotron, the particle accelerator he patented in 1935, and the precursor to CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

The first self-service grocery store was created by entrepreneur Clarence Saunders, who opened the Piggly Wiggly on Jefferson Avenue in Memphis on September 6 1916 and patented the concept a year later.

Texan James Field Smathers came up with idea for a power-operated typewriter when he was working as a typist and accountant during the 1900s and early 1910s, and was issued with a patent for his gadget in 1913.

A detective for the Salt Lake City police force, Lester Wire was heading the fledgling traffic squad when he invented the first electric traffic light in 1912. Unluckily, Wire never patented his innovation and made very little money from it.

In 1826, Samuel Morey of Fairlee, Vermont patented his vapour-powered internal combustion engine, the first of its kind in the USA. This revolutionary technology made the paddle wheel steamers of the 19th century feasible.

Die-hard Virginia hunter Jim Crumley created the ultimate camo pattern during the late 1970s and his distinctive grey, brown and black TreBark pattern was soon adopted by hunters and the military alike.

The computer operating system that changed the world, Microsoft Windows was developed in the mid-1970s by a team led by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Microsoft's Redmond HQ, and is the first operating system with a click interface and pull-down menus and icons.

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Mechanical engineer James Rumsey successfully demonstrated America's first steam-powered boat in 1787 on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown, which is located in present-day West Virginia.

Known as the 'Space Suit Father', innovator Siegfried Hanson developed the early Mark I space suit during the 1950s, playing an important role in the Space Race, which began in August 1955 and continued up until the early 1990s.

A humble but key invention that makes all the difference to farmers and gardeners, the modern-day shovel handle was created by George C. Choate of Wyoming Station, Albany County in the late 1870s and patented in the state in 1879.