Harry Cole was a native of Jackson and was responsible for giving the world Pine-Sol, one of the largest-selling household cleaners. Cole was a chemist who was inspired to create a detergent smelling of pine due of the abundance of pine trees growing around his house. Soon after inventing Pine-Sol, Cole sold it to what is known presently as the Clorox Company. He went on to invent other pine oil cleaners like Fyne Pine and Pine Plus. He set up H.A. Cole Products Co. with his sons to manufacture and sell his own inventions.
Jim Barksdale is listed under Mississippi inventors for having founded Netscape, the pioneering company in the field of Internet browsers. He was the president and CEO of the company until 1999 when it merged with America Online. Netscape offered companies who were their clients the opportunity to integrate their technology into business to support strategic goals, forge profit-building links and receive advice and recommendations on what works, what doesn't and how to make things work for a specific company.
Henry Sampson, from Jackson, was employed with the U.S. Naval Weapons Center in California where he worked as a research chemical engineer. In 1971 he received a patent for a gamma-electrical cell together with George H. Miley. Sampson's other patents included a binder system for propellants and a case bonding system. His gamma-electric cell device produces high voltage using radiation sources. Part of the cell's function is to serve as a detector with cost advantages over previous detectors.
Earl W. Bascomb has gone down in inventing history as the inventor of rodeo equipment. He invented the rodeo's first one-hand bareback rigging and the first hornless bronc saddle, which is still in use around the world at rodeos. He invented these items in 1924 and 1922, respectively. In 1926, he designed and manufactured the first high-cut riding chaps that are still standard rodeo gear today.