Every two weeks, people can vote in a new poll celebrating the state’s various contributions to the world. It's part of the state's bicentennial celebration. This week’s poll asks voters to choose the state’s greatest innovation or invention. Entries include Twinkies, pinball, skyscrapers, and the TV remote. That’s not all, according to Chris Wills, a spokesman for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.
“Barbed wire, invented in DeKalb, was something that people had been working on for a long time," Wills explained. "Joseph Glidden was the first one to come up with a practical version of barbed wire and it changed farming and ranching forever.”
Will says, for now, the winner earns bragging rights.
“Everybody knows what a Twinkie is," Wills said. "It is just a part of our life. Also—the TV remote control. It’s not a world-shaking invention, but it is something we all use every day and Illinois is behind that. We think it’s fun to just recognize the ingenuity that came out of Illinois.”
Voting for the inventions category is open until Friday. Each choice contains a brief history of the item.
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