How Michigan Changed the World with These Unexpected Inventions

When it comes to inventions Michigan is home to many that you might not even be aware of.

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I'm going to highlight some of the more unknown inventions, but before we do a deep dive let's go over some that you most likely have heard of before.

The first thing invented in Michigan that most people have probably heard of is the assembly line.

Henry Ford and his team at the Ford Motor Company revolutionized manufacturing with the first moving assembly line for cars, which drastically reduced production time and cost.

Instead of a single team of men building an entire car from start to finish, a car chassis was placed on a moving conveyor belt.

It then moved at a set speed past a series of workstations.

At each station, a different worker performed a single, repetitive task, such as adding a specific bolt, installing a wheel, or attaching a steering column.

Read More: 25 Things Michigan Is Known And Famous For

Another invention from Michigan that you've probably heard of is cereal.

Breakfast cereal was invented in Battle Creek by the Kellogg brothers.

The invention came from their work at the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

John Harvey Kellogg was a physician and ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

He promoted a strict vegetarian diet as a way to improve the health of his patients.

The goal was to find a breakfast food that was easy to digest and replace the traditional, heavy American breakfast of meat and potatoes.

In 1894, while experimenting with boiled grains, John Harvey Kellogg and his younger brother, Will Keith Kellogg, accidentally left a batch of cooked wheat to sit out.

When they later ran the stale dough through rollers, they were surprised to find that it flattened into thin flakes.

They toasted these flakes and served them to the sanitarium's patients, who found them surprisingly appealing.

Now that we've scratched the surface of Michigan inventions, let's take a deeper look at some you might not be aware of.