25 of the Most Unforgettable Things That Were Invented in a Garage

Ford automobiles can be found in millions of garages in America today. So, it’s only fitting that the first Ford car—and one of the earliest automobiles anywhere—was built by Henry Ford in the garage of his childhood home in Detroit. Unveiled in 1896, the “Quadricycle” was made up of commonly available materials that included bicycle wheels and a doorbell, and featured a gasoline-powered engine and—hold your horses—a top speed of 20 miles per hour.

Thanks to French electrical technician André Cassagnes, kids everywhere now know that when they make a mistake, they can literally shake it off and try again. Cassagnes invented the iconic Etch A Sketch drawing toy in the 1950s, working in his garage. Made of glass and fine aluminum powder, the toy could be operated via its joystick (later replaced by two knobs) and shaken to clear the screen like magic—no pen or paper required. The handheld device premiered at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1959, and was first sold in the United States in 1960.

In his long quest to build a vacuum that, as his company says, will “never lose suction,” James Dyson never lost hope. The first Dyson vacuum, launched in 1993, was preceded by 5,127 iterations created over a period of—get this—five years of tinkering in his garage.

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Carriage houses, essentially the garages of the 19th century, have seen their fair share of creative activity. Back in the 1870s, Alexander Graham Bell burned the midnight oil in the carriage house on his parents' property in Ontario, Canada, as he worked out the fundamentals of the first telephone. In 1876 he would make the world’s first long-distance call from that very spot.

Contrary to popular myth, the original Apple Computer, built in 1976, was neither built in a garage nor the first personal computer invented. According to the Computer History Museum, that honor belongs to the Kenbak-1, which was built in 1971 in the garage of John Blankenbaker. The computer, which sold for $750, was marketed to schools in the hopes that it would introduce students to programming. Only about 40 computers were produced, and production stopped in 1973.

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At the time of his death in 1996, Walter L. Shaw likely had more patents than pennies to his name, and one of those patents was for the technology behind the speakerphone. In 1948, Shaw, a telecommunications engineer, presented a prototype of a speakerphone he had developed in his garage to AT&T, his employer. They loved it, but Shaw refused to sign over the rights to his inventions and left the company. Without the capital to commercialize his patents, Shaw peddled his telecom expertise to the Mafia and ended up in prison. 

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Electrical engineer Earl Bakken was truly ahead of the pulse of technology when he invented the first wearable and battery-operated pacemaker in his garage in Minneapolis in the late 1950s. The company he founded, Medtronic, made $8 in its first month of operation; today, the firm is worth more than $30 billion.

The next time you redo your walls using an airless paint sprayer, score a surface with a pneumatic chisel, or fill your tires at a gas station, spare a thought for the inventor behind the free-piston engine in the air compressors that drive these tools as well as in gas generators, hydraulic engines, and electric generators. Harold Kosoff received a patent for the linear, crankless internal combustion engine in 1964, after developing the idea in his garage.

While fitness buffs can now burn fat on a NordicTrack exercise machine in the comfort of an air-conditioned home, Edward Pauls expended calories the old-fashioned way as he strove to create the classic ski machine in 1975. In an effort to train for an upcoming cross-country ski race, Pauls, a mechanical engineer, toiled away in his garage in Chaska, Minnesota, to build the first NordicTrack ski machine.

Hordes of pet parents who own the Chuckit! ball launcher have Mark Oblack and Mariel Head to thank for the fact that they can throw long for Fido without ever having to touch a ball covered in dog drool. Oblack and Head developed the mess-free dog toy—essentially a plastic ball scoop attached to a long handle—in a garage in 1998. 

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While many aviation enthusiasts would love to travel at rocket speed, a lack of appropriate attire and fear of falling keep most from realizing their flying dreams. This was not so for Swiss pilot Yves Rossy, who in the mid-1990s began developing the “Jetman,” a winged personal jetpack that flies at 100 to 200 miles per hour, in his garage. Donning the jet-powered wings, Rossy successfully completed a six-minute flight and went on to cross the English Channel (2008) and to fly over the Alps (2008) and the Grand Canyon (2011).

After four years of tinkering in the garage of his Wasilla, Alaska, home, Army mechanic Carlos Owens was able to construct a giant robot, or more accurately, "Mecha." The 18-foot-tall Mecha features 27 hydraulic cylinders that allow it to mimic the motions of its pilot. Owens has big plans for the big bots, starting with using them in robot-to-robot combat, “Transformers” style.

On the heels of two product failures, Rick Smith shocked the world in 1999 when he launched his Taser gun and sales soon skyrocketed. Surprisingly, the advanced stun gun was not invented in a high-tech lab, but rather in a garage that belonged to retired NASA Apollo scientist Jack Cover, who had invented an earlier Taser that relied on gunpowder as a propellant.