NYS Manufacturing
Statewide
Manufacturing Data
New York has the talent, resources and economy to help any dynamic manufacturing business grow and thrive. NYS is investing in infrastructure, and committed to low-cost clean energy to power business and protect the environment.
Fun Facts on Manufacturing in the Empire State
The Empire State has a rich manufacturing history and made significant contributions to the industrial revolution.
Large-scale manufacturing operations shaped many Upstate New York communities—Kodak in Rochester, General Motors and the auto industry in Buffalo, General Electric in Schenectady. More recently, the state’s industrial sector is under transformation from traditional “smokestack” production to a leading center of high-tech manufacturing. New York State today is known for its leadership in cutting-edge manufacturing industries related to microelectronics, photonics, cleantech and renewable energy, industrial machinery, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and advanced materials.
Corning, Incorporated, located in Corning since 1868, has a long history of prominent glass materials innovations that range from Pyrex (1914) to Gorilla Glass (used on the first iPhone) to the fiber optic cable it invented in the 1970s that powers today’s high-speed internet.
The Albany Billiard Ball Company, founded in 1868, made billiard balls for over 100 years, using founder Jon Wesley Hyatt’s nitrocellulose innovation. (Prior to that, most high-quality balls were made from ivory.)
Albany Academy professor John Henry’s experiments with electromagnetism included the first successful experiment with the electromagnetic telegraph, which laid the groundwork for the telegraph, telephone, radio, electric motor, and even television and computers.
“America’s Most Famous Dessert” was invented in LeRoy in 1897.
The first factory producing residential roto-tillers, which were invented by Troy-Bilt in 1937.
First commercial production occurred about 1857 in Manhattan.
First modern AC technology invented by Buffalo-born Willis Carrier in 1902. His company Carrier Corporation was later the world’s largest.
George Eastman patented the first practicable film in roll form in 1884, followed by the first camera to use roll film, and incorporated Eastman Kodak in 1892.
Troy resident Hannah Lord Montague patented detachable collars and cuffs in 1825, and Troy became a major manufacturing hub for shirts, shirtwaists, collars, and cuffs. Today, Troy is known as “the Collar City.”
Troy once hosted an impressive iron works industry, and manhole covers stamped with “Troy, NY” can still be seen in communities across the U.S.
Dansville-based James Caleb Jackson invented the first dry, whole grain breakfast cereal, calling it “granula.”
The synthetic version of penicillin was developed in the East Syracuse labs of Bristol-Myers-Squibb in 1948.
The first commercially successful typewriter was produced by E. Remington and Sons in Ilion.
Still hanging on rear-view mirrors around the world, these tree-shaped air fresheners were invented in Watertown in 1952.
The famous pink nausea-relief medicine was created by a pharmaceutical company in Norwich, and got its current name in 1919.
The world’s first large grape juice plant was built in 1897 in Westfield by Charles Welch.