page_title: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
section_title: Inventions
hierarchical_section_title: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania / History / Inventions
caption_attribution_description: English: A Pennsylvania German fraktur Taufschein. From 1788.
context_page_description: Lancaster County locally, sometimes nicknamed the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a county located in the south central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 519,445. Its county seat is Lancaster.
  Lancaster County comprises the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area.
  The County of Lancaster is a popular tourist destination, with its Amish community a major attraction. Contrary to popular belief, the word "Dutch" in "Pennsylvania Dutch" is not a mistranslation, but rather a corruption of the Pennsylvania German endonym Deitsch, which means "Pennsylvania Dutch / German" or "German". Ultimately, the terms Deitsch, Dutch, Diets and Deutsch are all cognates of the Proto-Germanic word *þiudiskaz meaning "popular" or "of the people". The continued use of "Dutch" instead of "German" was strengthened by the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th century as a way of distinguishing themselves from later waves of German immigrants to the United States, with the Pennsylvania Dutch referring to themselves as Deitsche and to Germans as Deitschlenner whom they saw as a related but distinct group.
context_section_description: Fraktur, the artistic and elaborate 18th- century and 19th-century hand-illuminated folk art inspired by German blackface type, originated at Johann Conrad Beissel's cloister of German Seventh Day Baptists in Ephrata.
  The first battery-powered watch, the Hamilton Electric 500, was released in 1957 by the Hamilton Watch Company.
  The Pennsylvania Long Rifle, otherwise known as the "Kentucky" (Long) Rifle.
  The Conestoga wagon, which started the US practice of opposing vehicles passing each other to the right.
  The Stogie cigar "Stogie" is shortened from "Conestoga".
  The Amish quilt, a highly utilitarian art form, dates from 1849 in Lancaster County.
caption: A Pennsylvania Dutch Fraktur baptismal certificate from 1788
exif: {}