The Pressurized Flight Suit - Early 1930s Wiley Post, Oklahoma’s famed one-eyed aviator, was known for his daring flights. In 1933, Post set an around-the-world speed record of 7 days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes. He then set his sights on high-altitude flying. To survive the thin air of high-altitude flights, he developed a pressurized flight suit in the early 1930s — a pioneering piece of technology that became the predecessor to the suits worn by test pilots and astronauts in the 1950s and ‘60s.
down and give way — a small but universal piece of Oklahoma ingenuity. Ditch Witch - Perry, 1949
What started as a blacksmith shop in Perry became a global leader in underground construction equipment. Carl Frederick Malzahn opened the shop with his sons, and it was son Ed Malzahn — armed with a mechanical engineering degree — who transformed it. In 1949, Ed designed a compact trencher to replace the slow, labor-intensive work of digging utility lines by hand, calling it the Ditch Witch Power trencher. The machine revolutionized how residential utility lines were installed across the country. Today, the company is still based in Perry and is led by Ed’s granddaughter — the fifth generation of the Malzahn family.
Carl Magee with the Parking Meter.
Photo Credit: Oklahoma Historical Society
Dick Tracy - Pawnee, 1931 Chester Gould was a commercial artist from Pawnee with an eye for what was dominating the headlines — gangsters, bootleggers, and a Chicago police force that seemed one step behind. His answer was a tough, trench-coated detective who could do what real cops couldn’t. He submitted his comic strip under the title Plain Clothes Tracy to the Chicago Tribune–New York News Syndicate; an editor renamed it Dick Tracy, and it debuted on October 12, 1931. The strip ran for decades and made Gould one of the most recognized cartoonists in America. NEXRAD Doppler Radar - Norman, 1990 Oklahoma’s volatile weather didn’t just inspire meteorologists — it helped produce one of the most important advances in weather forecasting. The NEXRAD (Next Generation Weather Radar) Doppler system was developed and tested in Norman, Oklahoma, led by the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory. The lab had been pioneering Doppler radar for tornado and severe weather detection since the 1970s, and an operational prototype went live in Norman in the fall of 1990. That technology now forms the backbone of weather tracking across the United States. From the parking meter to the pressurized flight suit, Oklahoma’s fingerprints are all over American life. As the country marks 250 years, it’s worth remembering: A lot of what makes daily life work was dreamed up right here.
Photo Credit: Oklahoma Historical Society
The Parking Meter - Oklahoma City, 1935 Before parking meters, downtown Oklahoma City was gridlocked. Workers claimed every available spot each morning, leaving retail customers nowhere to park and local businesses struggling. Carl C. Magee, appointed chair of the Oklahoma City Chamber’s Traffic Committee, was determined to fix it — drafting the first concept of a parking meter. He teamed up with the Oklahoma State University Engineering Department to develop a prototype, and on July 16, 1935, 175 meters were installed and tested in downtown Oklahoma City. Deemed a success, parking meters soon spread to cities across the nation and became a permanent fixture of urban life. The Yield Sign - Tulsa, 1939 While attending Chicago’s Northwestern Traffic Institute in 1939, Tulsa police officer, Chief Clinton Riggs, developed the idea of the yield sign. After further development, he placed the first yield sign at a dangerous intersection in Tulsa in 1950. Within a year, the impact was evident as accidents declined. The triangular sign, now recognized in traffic codes around the world, has guided billions of drivers to slow
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