So far as I can figure out, that would be Sam DiVita of the US Army Signal Corps Labs in Fort Monmouth New Jersey or Elias Snitzer of American Optical. I thank them, but I don't think either one of them was a Southerner.
A lot of industry and r&d has moved South in recent decades, because we're one country and costs are cheaper down there, but that's hardly a reflection on the Confederacy or the Old South.
I never said Southerners invented the technology, I said next time you use it, thank a Southerner, because this is the center of where it is made — rather than in the North, West or New England. Or better yet, rather than in China or Mexico.